St Joseph’s Children’s Home: SA’s only Catholic Children’s Hospital

by Admin · December 13, 2025

Top: 92-year-old Sr Boscona Schamann SAC reflects on her years at what she calls “a sanctuary of hope”. Bottom left: Sr Elizabeth Hartnick SAC (left) caresses a patient at St Joseph’s as she made an emotional return to the home she had served from 1997-2013. Bottom right: St Joseph carer and residents

In 1935, five Pallottine Sisters opened a small ward for sick children in Cape Town. Ninety years on, St Joseph’s Children’s Home is a top-class care facility providing free and holistic medical care for children from poor backgrounds. This is the story of St Joseph’s.

When five German Pallottine Missionary Sisters arrived in Philippi, Cape Town, in 1935 and opened the doors of an old presbytery to house 11 sick children, they could not have imagined that their humble work of mercy would grow into the beacon of hope and healing that is St Joseph’s Intermediate Paediatric Care today.

That first ward, really just a veranda, housed children with tuberculosis. It was animated by a fundamental belief that every child matters.

The German Pallottine Sisters had arrived in South Africa over a decade before, in 1923. They served in schools and orphanages, offered sewing classes, and staffed nursing stations in Oudtshoorn and the Karoo. Some of them followed Bishop Francis Hennemann, a fellow German Pallottine, when he was transferred from Oudtshoorn to Cape Town in 1933.

Their most famous enterprise would be Vincent Pallotti Hospital in Pinelands, one of the Mother City’s most important medical facilities. The hospital was sold in 2000, but St Joseph’s Intermediate Paediatric Care Home remains in the hands of the Pallottine Sisters.

And what began as a small gesture of care soon flourished into something much bigger. By 1948, a two-storey building and chapel had been built, allowing for 135 children to be cared for — most of them long-term orthopaedic patients who also received primary education, vocational training and, perhaps most importantly, love.

The 1960s brought changes, both ugly and beautiful. The apartheid government’s Group Areas Act forced St Joseph’s to relocate from Philippi. In 1967, the hospital moved to its current site in Montana, on the outskirts of Cape Town. There, its modern circular chapel, crowned by a high pointed cross, remains the spiritual heart of the facility — a visible reminder of the Christian compassion of the Sisters, staff and children alike.

Today, St Joseph’s is a 175-bed intermediate care facility which provides free, holistic, family-centred medical and rehabilitative care to children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions — everything from cerebral palsy and infectious diseases to brain trauma and oncology.

It is the only Catholic children’s hospital in South Africa, and its mission remains unchanged since 1935: to treat every child with dignity, compassion, and the healing love of Christ.

Some people mistake St Joseph’s for an orphanage, but that is far from the truth. It is a fully-fledged, multi-disciplinary paediatric facility. St Joseph’s provides 24-hour nursing care, and a broad range of specialised services — occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, dietetics, social work, and educational support. And the children receive love and care, with staff making sure that the little ones have fun too.

Sisters’ homecoming

On a winter’s day in June this year, four Pallottine Sisters returned to St Joseph’s. Their visit represented a bridge between past and present, between those who built on thefoundation laid by the pioneer Sisters in Philippi and then Montana, and those who now carry the work forward.

Sr Margaret Mcfarlane, who served for two decades overseeing in-kind donations, was visibly moved as she stepped into the storage rooms she once managed.

“I remember receiving boxes of baby clothes, food and medical supplies — each one a gift from someone who cared deeply about the children here. Every blanket, every toy, every little onesie, was a reminder that we were not alone. Giving is an act of faith. And those who donated helped shape lives. That hasn’t changed,” she said.

“It is about faith and healing, restoring dignity, and nurturing hope. Today, as I see the nurses continuing this mission, I know that St Joseph’s remains a place of God’s love in action.”

Sr Elizabeth Hartnick, who served at St Joseph’s from 1997 to 2013, lingered in the hospital wards, recalling long days and tender moments. “Each child had a story. Some were healing from surgery; others recovering from illness. All of them needed more than medicine — they needed patience, love, and faith. That’s what made this place different. That’s what it still does.”

For Sr Sylvia Olifant, it was the milk kitchen that stirred memories. “Many babies arrived underweight and fragile. Preparing their bottles was a sacred act; we were giving them strength. Today, they still receive nourishment — not just food, but care, kindness and faith.”

The chapel, where countless prayers have been offered, was the final stop. Sr Boscona Schamann, 92, sat quietly, taking in the space that had anchored so many through sorrow and joy.

“St Joseph’s was always more than a hospital. It was a sanctuary of hope, a place where dignity was restored, where love met suffering, and where God’s mercy was made visible. That mission still lives.”

The Sisters might have passed the baton to lay staff and medical professionals, but the mission remains intact. The same values that inspired those first five Sisters 90 years ago — faith, service, and the belief that every child matters — still define St Joseph’s today.

Sr Prabha Varghese, the Pallottine Sisters’ provincial superior, is a member of the board, thus representing the continuation of her congregation’s charism in leadership.

Ninety years is no small milestone. It tells a story of God’s providence, the power of community, and a mission carried through war, apartheid, epidemics and a global pandemic.

Thousands of children and families have been touched, healed, and given hope — because nine decades ago, five German missionary Sisters followed their calling.

Today, that legacy is entrusted to all of us. St Joseph’s is inviting the Catholic community to become part of its future. Whether through prayer, donations, legacy gifts, or simply by sharing their story, every act of support sustains this mission of mercy.

To learn more or to support St Joseph’s, see stjosephsipc.org.za

Published in the December 2025 issue of The Southern Cross magazine