As our community faces this unprecedented pandemic, we are all deeply grateful for the life-saving efforts of our healthcare workers. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra extends special thanks to Mercy’s 44,000 physicians, nurses, and coworkers for their service.
For several years, Mercy has been the title sponsor for the SLSO’s Holiday concerts, a treasured holiday tradition for many in our community. Every day, Mercy’s health care ministry pursues new ways to offer hope and healing to those in their care, so it is only appropriate that they sponsor these special performances by the SLSO.
Music has the power to nourish the spirit, comfort the heart, and relieve what ails us. There’s nothing quite like sharing the blessing of live music, and we look forward to coming together again as a community this December at the Mercy Holiday Celebration concerts at Powell Hall.
Mercy’s foundress, Catherine McAuley, grew up in Dublin, Ireland, where music was a religious and cultural necessity. The famous composer George Frideric Handel chose Dublin for the world premiere of Messiah,which is still enjoyed around the world during this holy season, and Catherine likely was as moved by his stirring Hallelujah Chorus as we are today.
During one short, six-year period, Catherine and her Sisters of Mercy built and opened 10 new convents. Resources were frequently scarce, as the Sisters shared everything they had with the poor, but she made having a piano in each convent a priority, believing music was a wellspring of both inspiration and comfort. Today, Mercy continues to uphold this tradition with pianos in many of its hospitals where music blesses both patients and caregivers.
As a part of the St. Louis community for over 160 years, Mercy is grateful to care for generations of families in hospitals, physician offices and urgent and convenient care clinics across Eastern Missouri. And it was here in St. Louis that Mercy built the world’s first virtual care hospital, offering multiple levels of remote care to patients around the country. This 365-day-a-year commitment to quality, safety, and innovation has been recognized by IBM Watson Health, having named Mercy one of the nation’s Top 15 health care systems for four consecutive years.
Lynn Britton
President & CEO, Mercy