The Most Revd Geoffrey Jarrett, DD, Bishop of Lismore
Welcome to the website of St Vincent’s Lismore.
A long and great tradition lies behind the Christian care of the sick. The word ‘hospital’ itself comes down to us from the earliest Christian centuries as the virtue of hospitality taught by Christ our Lord led to the foundation of hospices which sheltered travellers, gave help to the poor, the sick, orphaned children and the aged.
The large modern hospitals which are a feature of Catholic health care in Australia today trace a fascinating history across twenty centuries and a huge variety of institutions and customs in times and places of long ago when the Church was the expected and only provider of this care.
The common thread is the response to the example of Jesus Christ who “healed all kinds of diseases and sickness” (St. Matthew 10:1) and such of His words as; “I was a stranger and you made me welcome, sick and you visited me . . . as you did this to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me.” (St. Matthew 25:34-30)
St Vincent’s Lismore was established in 1921 by my predecessor Bishop John Carroll, who entrusted its care as a diocesan hospital to the Sisters of Charity.