History
Trinity Health — Building on Traditions
of Service
Created by the consolidation of Holy Cross Health System
and Mercy Health Services, Trinity Health blends and carries
on two rich traditions of serving persons in need.
 Holy Cross Health System has its roots
in the Congregation of the Sisters
of the Holy Cross, founded in 1841 by Father Basil Anthony
Moreau.
During the Civil War, Holy Cross Sisters helped staff military
hospitals, caring for the wounded of both the North and the
South. Over the next 100 years, the Sisters opened hospitals
and other healthcare facilities throughout the country, responding
to the needs of the times.
In 1979, Holy Cross Health System was formed to bring unity
as well as economic and professional solidarity to the healthcare
organizations sponsored by the Congregation of the Sisters
of the Holy Cross.
From the mid 19th century to the present, the
Holy Cross tradition has been one of meeting community needs
and accepting inherent risks—of changing and adapting
but always being centered in reading the signs of the times
and responding in faith and hope and with compassion.
 In 1831, Catherine McAuley founded the Sisters
of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland, to follow Christ in his compassion
for suffering people. Over the next 10 years, she and her
Sisters established 14 foundations to serve the poor, the
sick and the uneducated throughout Ireland and England.
After Catherine's death in 1841, the Sisters of Mercy took
their mission to America where they responded to others’
needs and suffering by founding hospitals, schools and orphanages,
and establishing homes for women and girls at risk.
The Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit traces
its roots to convents, schools and hospitals founded as early
as the 1860s and ‘70s in Iowa and Michigan. In 1976,
the Sisters created a health system, eventually called Mercy
Health Services, to link and better support their hospitals.
Through all these changes, the words of Catherine McAuley
remain true and encouraging: "Put your whole trust in
God; he will never see you want for the means to do his work."
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