Lebanese Gitaoui Hospital

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In June 1964, Sisters Annette Dion and Lucille Ouellet, two Grey Nuns specialized in hospital administration, were sent to Beirut to help reorganize the Lebanese Gitaoui Hospital, then administered by the Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family. On June 4, 1965, two days before their return to Canada, the Lebanese government honored them with the Lebanese Medal of Merit. Then, in the fall of 1965, two nuns from Lebanon came to study for two years at the Institut Marguerite d’Youville in Montreal. The Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family continued their exchanges with the Grey Nuns of Montreal, through correspondence, in the 1970s.

 

Group photo showing Sr. Dion and Sr. Ouellet accompanied by Sr. Célestine Thomé, Executive Director of the Lebanese Hospital, Sr. Marguerite-Marie, Director of Nursing and the Hospital’s caregivers:

ASGM, L149, F Lebanese Gitaoui Hospital collection, Medical Staff Group, June 4, 1965

Photographs of the award ceremony of the Lebanese merit medal:

ASGM, L149,F, Dr. Yacoub Sarraf awarding the Lebanese Merit Medal to Sr. Annette Dion, s.g.m., June 4, 1965
ASGM, L149,F,Awarding ceremony of the Lebanese merit medal, June 4, 1965

A page from the scrapbook created by Sr. Annette Dion during her stay in Lebanon (see L149,E ):

ASGM, L149, E Gitaoui Hospital collection, scrapbook of Sr. Annette Dion, 1964-1965
Lebanese Merit Medal, Grey Nuns of Montreal Collection, 1993.G.328.1-2