More than 150 people, including local elected officials, administrators, staff, and residents attended a prayer service by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as he paid his first visit Wednesday to ArchCare partner Eger Health Care and Rehabilitation Center, on Staten Island.

“It’s a real credit to the openness and innovation, the constant searching that ArchCare has for new ministries and partnerships for people who are already doing sacred work,” Cardinal Dolan said in greeting the morning’s attendees. “When people talk about Eger on Staten Island, they always talk about their holistic care. Not just the body, not just the heart, we also care for the mind. We care for the soul. That this magnificent chapel is here at the center, that makes people say, ‘this place has got its priorities right.'”

Lorri Senk, president and CEO of Eger Health Care and Rehabilitation Center, said in her welcome remarks that the “providential partnership between Eger and ArchCare” gave Eger “a second chance at life.”

ArchCare partnered with Eger Lutheran Homes and Services in 2022, in order to continue Eger’s history of more than a century, and to extend ArchCare’s presence on Staten Island. The agreement also allows Eger Healthcare to maintain its non-profit status.

Eger was originally founded for “Norwegian persons of respectability and in reduced circumstances, not under 65 years of age” more than 110 years ago, but has since expanded its scope to include far more potential patients.