Belmont
North Carolina
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Holy Angels
About Us
Holy Angels is a private, nonprofit corporation that provides innovative programs and services for its residents – children and adults with varying degrees of mental retardation, some of whom have physical disabilities and are medically fragile.
View our five minute video, Surely The Presence. This is a file format that must be viewed with Windows Media Player. To view the video select one of the links below based on your connection speed. This video is optimal for high speed connection.
History
Doctors did not expect the baby girl to live long beyond her December 20, 1955, birth. She was born medically fragile, with multiple disabilities. If she lived, the doctors said, the baby would have serious medical problems, severe mental retardation and physical disabilities.
Her young mother sought help from the Sisters of Mercy who operated a day care center under the direction of Sister Marie Patrice Manley. In January 1956, the young mother, a worker in one of the textile mills in Belmont, began to bring her fragile child to Sr. Patrice. When the baby became seriously ill, the mother asked the sisters to care for her child.
Each sister took turns caring for the infant who was named, Maria. She began to thrive with their attention and lots of medical care. She grew and developed far better than expected. Soon, other parents of children with multiple disabilities and mental retardation asked the Sisters of Mercy for help. The sisters set up a home, which eventually became Holy Angels. Mother Mary Benignus Hoban, who co-founded Holy Angels, called the children who came to live there, “God’s innocents.” Mother Benignus served as president of Holy Angels until 1997. She died on December 30, 2000. She was 94.
Holy Angels is a private, nonprofit corporation that provides innovative programs and services for its residents – children and adults with varying degrees of mental retardation, some of whom have physical disabilities and are medically fragile.
View our five minute video, Surely The Presence. This is a file format that must be viewed with Windows Media Player. To view the video select one of the links below based on your connection speed. This video is optimal for high speed connection.
History
Doctors did not expect the baby girl to live long beyond her December 20, 1955, birth. She was born medically fragile, with multiple disabilities. If she lived, the doctors said, the baby would have serious medical problems, severe mental retardation and physical disabilities.
Her young mother sought help from the Sisters of Mercy who operated a day care center under the direction of Sister Marie Patrice Manley. In January 1956, the young mother, a worker in one of the textile mills in Belmont, began to bring her fragile child to Sr. Patrice. When the baby became seriously ill, the mother asked the sisters to care for her child.
Each sister took turns caring for the infant who was named, Maria. She began to thrive with their attention and lots of medical care. She grew and developed far better than expected. Soon, other parents of children with multiple disabilities and mental retardation asked the Sisters of Mercy for help. The sisters set up a home, which eventually became Holy Angels. Mother Mary Benignus Hoban, who co-founded Holy Angels, called the children who came to live there, “God’s innocents.” Mother Benignus served as president of Holy Angels until 1997. She died on December 30, 2000. She was 94.