Sister Ignatia and Alcoholics Anonymous

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

Sister Ignatia Gavin co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous. She worked in Admissions at St. Thomas hospital in Akron, Ohio. She had compassion for the alcoholics who came to the hospital. However, medical practice at the time did not regard alcoholism as a disease to be treated through admission and medical treatment. In 1939 Sister Ignatia and Dr. Bob Smith managed to get the hospital to admit alcoholics for the first time. From that first admission the practices of Alcoholics Anonymous grew into a national — and international — phenomenon. In 1952 she was transferred by her order to St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland, where she established Rosary Hall Solarium. Since her death in 1966 Rosary Hall Solarium and Ignatia Hall at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron have both continued to treat those with substance abuse problems.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic History, brought to you by the support of listeners like you.
0:11.0	If you like this podcast and would like to support our work, please visit American Catholic
0:16.0	History.org slash support. I'm Noelle Heister Crow. And I'm Tom Crow.
0:21.6	Today we're talking about Sister Ignacia Gavin, the angel of Alcoholics Anonymous.
0:27.0	She's not always listed among the founders of AA, but her involvement was indispensable to
0:33.1	its creation.
0:33.9	Truly, without her compassion, her vision, her tireless care for her special cases,
0:38.3	and her willingness to bend the rules, Alcoholics Anonymous would not have begun or grown as it did.
0:44.7	And she's another little spitfire of a woman who would not let her tiny size and her own frail
0:50.2	health get in the way of doing the right thing. Yeah, we've talked about a number of women like her
0:54.0	already, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, sister Blandina Segalay, Mother Mary Bentivolio,
0:59.2	Rose Philippine Duchenne, all women who would not accept no as a final answer, and they were
1:04.2	tiny. We've done episodes on all of them, and given the history of the church in this country,
1:09.3	there are more to talk about. One difference for Sister Ignacia is that she's the only Irish woman in this group. The others
1:16.7	were either Italian or French by heritage or birth. Sister Ignacio was born in Ireland.
1:22.0	Yes. She was born Bridget Della Mary Gavin, a good Irish name, in January of 1889 in County Mayo, Ireland.
1:30.2	I think some of my ancestry comes from County Mayo, which is in the northwest part of the
1:33.6	island of Ireland, so maybe we're distantly related.
1:36.7	Or maybe not.
1:37.3	But maybe.
1:38.2	Anyhow, when she was seven years old, so about 1896, the family left Mayo for America.
1:43.8	They landed initially in Newfoundland,
	...

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