Sister Elaine Davia, C.B.S.
Congregation Team, Area Leader, Sisters of Bon Secours-USA
Sr Elaine Davia is on the Congregation Team and serves as Area Leader for the Sisters of Bon Secours in the USA. From 2005 to 2019 she served as the formation director for the Sisters of Bon Secours in the USA and was the Chair of the Bon Secours International Formation Committee. She served as Vocation Director for 9 years in the past and has served on many leadership positions through her years with the Sisters of Bon Secours. Sr. Elaine joined the Sisters of Bon Secours in 1964 and professed final vows in 1975. She received a Registered Nurse diploma in 1970 at Bon Secours School of Nursing (Baltimore, Maryland), a Bachelors of Science from Regents College of the University of the State of New York (Albany, New York) and Masters of Science in Pastoral Counselling from Loyola University (Baltimore, Maryland). She had served on several boards for Bon Secours Health System as well as the Religious Formation Conference. Most of her ministerial life has been working as a Registered Nurse and Family Nurse Practitioner caring for people who do not have health insurance and who are economically poor. After 48 years of practice, she retired from nursing last year. Fun and meaningful activities for her when not in ministry are playing the French Horn with local musical groups and working in her garden when the weather is warm.
Sister Fran Gorsuch, C.B.S.
Member, Area Leadership Team-USA;
Sister Fran Gorsuch is currently the Vocation Director for the Sisters of Bon Secours USA. She grew up in Rochester, NY, the sixth of eight children, so she is used to living in community! Sister Fran’s background is primarily in pastoral work on the diocesan and parish levels as well as hospital ministry, trauma work, formation ministry, and social justice advocacy. Her passions are networking with others to alleviate inequality, promoting the rights of all, especially women and children, and caring for our common home, Mother Earth.
Sister Fran graduated from Loyola University, Baltimore, with a BA in Philosophy, and from Duke University, Durham, NC with a Master of Divinity. She has lived and ministered in SC, NC, KY, WV, AZ, DE, NJ and MD, cherishing each ministry and the memory of each person who touched her life!
Sister Fran feels privileged to serve on the Bon Secours Mercy Health Board of Directors, the Social Concerns Committee of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and the International Vocation Committee of the Sisters of Bon Secours. She was also a member of the International and USA Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committees, and was the Congregational representative to UNANIMA International, a religious NGO at the UN representing twenty-two communities of women religious and 23,000 members worldwide.
She looks forward to meeting with young women who feel God is calling them to live a vowed life in community as Sisters of Bon Secours. Her ministry as vocation director is to then accompany them on the journey into the Bon Secours Family and help provide them with experiences of our charisms of healing, compassion and liberation so that they, and she, might see in every living thing the Face of God.
Sister Mary Shimo C.B.S.
Member, Area Leadership Team-USA
Sr. Mary speaks of the wonderful opportunities she has had as a sister of Bon Secours, both in terms of the education she has gotten and the experiences she has had. “No one could have anticipated all the things I have done from nursing to being a chaplain to running a hospital gift shop for six years. It has been a journey of surprises with so many places and directions I never would have thought to go in.”
Sr. Mary Shimo entered the Congregation of Bon Secours in 1962 and professed her final vows in 1971. She received her bachelor’s in nursing science from the University of Maryland and her Master of Arts in Religion and Medical Care from George Washington University. She has also taken many courses in theology, parish ministry and pastoral care.
She started her nursing career at Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore on the Rehabilitation unit where she ministered for five years. Following her nursing career, Sr. Mary became a chaplain and in 1977 was a pastoral associate at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond. In 1983, she returned to Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore as Director of Pastoral Care. From 1990-2000, she served as Director of Pastoral Care at Carroll County General Hospital in Maryland, returning to Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore in 2000 as Volunteer Coordinator.
An active member of the Congregation, Sr. Mary has chaired the Sisters of Bon Secours Jubilee celebration, been on the vocation team, chaired the Provincial General Assembly committee, and has served previously two terms on the Sisters of Bon Secours USA Area Team. She has been chair, co-chair and a member of many committees and is now a member of the USA Finance Committee. She also served as president of the Washington Village Community Medical Center Board in Baltimore from 1983-1992. Sr. Mary is known as the “keeper of the archives,” and has built and maintained a wonderful history of the Congregation that is housed in Marriottsville. She is currently on the Bon Secours Baltimore Foundation Board and the Audit/Corporate Compliance Committee of BSMH.
In 2009, Sr. Mary Shimo was named Secretary/Archivist to the Congregation of Bon Secours and travelled with the Congregation Leader to meetings in Peru, France and Ireland to take minutes. “This is a wonderful experience getting to meet and know our Sisters in different countries,” says Sr. Mary.
You might find Sr. Mary at an Oriole baseball game or cheering for the Ravens during their seasons.Her annual Super Bowl Parties have become a tradition with her Bon Secours Sisters.
She has a sense of humor that is displayed in her e-mails sometimes and in her happy disposition.
Knitting of Wraps and lap afghans keeps her fingers busy. She is a great reader of novels and is very devoted to her cat, SANDY.