Sister Patricia Anne Lynch
1928-2009
Sister Patricia Anne Lynch concluded her autobiography with these words: “When I leave this world, all I ask is a thought and a prayer.” Many thoughts and prayers were voiced at both her wake and funeral.
She also wrote: “Some of the things I most enjoy are painting and drawing, visiting friends and family, and sewing. [My time] in the community has inspired me spiritually.”
Patricia, better known as Pat, was the daughter of Frank and Kathleen (O’Callaghan) Lynch. She was born on December 4, 1928, in Detroit, and was the second of five children—James Francis, Patricia Anne, Kathleen Marie, Thomas Edward, and Terrance Daniel. A sixth baby girl was lost at birth. About her home and family, she wrote in her autobiography:
[I] came from a very Irish, lovely, Catholic home. . . . My family had countless dinners with grandparents and other relatives. A perfect day was a Sunday after Mass, when my dad would drive the car to an ice cream parlor for a weekly treat of ice cream for us all.
Frank Lynch was from County Cavan, Ireland. He came to the United States at the age of fourteen and lived with a sister and her family. He earned a degree in drafting and carpentry, and found a position as an inspector for the Hudson Motor Company which enabled him to provide a good life for his wife and children. Kathleen O’Callaghan was from Canada. Sister Pat did not say how her parents met. She did say, however, that she thought she had received her calling to religious life at the age of four.
My mother was called outside to meet my father’s aunt Sister Patricia, who was about sixty years old, from Ireland. She was then stationed in the Dominican Congregation in New York. My mother brought me, my older brother Jim, and my baby sister Kathleen to meet her. My mother wanted her to come in and have a cup of coffee or tea. She said that she could not. My mother explained that my father would not be home for several hours. She spoke to my mother and was introduced to my brother and sister. She asked if I would like to sit on her lap and she asked me what I would like to be when I grew up. I told her that “I would like to be just like you.” And I followed my calling.
Pat attended St. Brigid Elementary School and graduated from St. Francis de Sales High School in June 1947. “We learned well there, and had lots of school activities. All the teachers were friendly and helpful.” After graduation, she attended a business school for two years. From there, she entered the Adrian Dominican postulate on June 26, 1949, at the age of twenty. She had two cousins in the Congregation, Sisters Joan Donovan and Marguerite O’Callaghan, who, she wrote, were her best friends. The death of Sister Marguerite in 2008 was a source of sorrow for her.
Within a short time of her entrance Pat was sent to Resurrection School in Lansing, Michigan, where she taught for a semester.
She returned to Adrian in December 1949. With her group she received the habit and her religious name (Sister Francis Kathleen, for her parents) on December 27, and she professed her first vows on December 28, 1950. Until August 1951, she was a full-time student at Siena Heights College (now University). The next eight years were spent at St. Mary School in Defiance, Ohio, where she taught on the middle grade level. In 1956, as a result of study during the summers, Siena Heights College awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in art and history.
In 1959 she was sent to Florida, where she taught middle grade students at St. Mary School in Fort Walton Beach. Three years later she returned to Michigan, where she spent the next fourteen years. Her assignment for 1962 sent her to Our Lady of Sorrows in Detroit for two years. During her first year there she mourned with her siblings when her father died.
She was then assigned to St. Mary in Saint Clair for two years, then to Sacred Heart in Bad Axe for two years, where she taught on the junior high level in both schools. In 1968 she was shocked when she received an appointment as superior and principal at SS. Peter and Paul in Ruth. Again during the summers she studied at Siena Heights College, and in 1970 the college awarded her a master’s degree in education with a minor in administration and supervision.
She left Ruth in 1973, and became a field representative for the Diocesan Catholic Schools Office in Lansing. Her position was mentioned in a large writeup in The Catholic Weekly.
After a special school-staff session for setting calendars and sharing insights, the staff goes out on the road either to conduct reading workshops in Lansing, Jackson, or Flint, as Sister Patricia has done throughout the fall and winter, or to attend diocesan institutes and lectures offered in the same three sectors to facilitate attendance for the staffs of nearby schools.
Sister Pat Lynch commented: “My whole work is a challenge, but most rewarding is the confidence and reassurance that I see built up within the teachers with whom I am in contact.”
She held this position for two-and-a-half years; then became director of a math and learning laboratory in the Port Huron Adult Education Program for the last six months of 1976.
In August 1976 she accepted the position of Superintendent of Schools for the Catholic Schools Office in Memphis, Tennessee, and her appointment was publicized in the Catholic paper of that area.
Sister Patricia Lynch comes to us highly recommended and certainly well qualified for the position of vital importance which she is to assume on August 1. She brings with her to Memphis a wealth of experience in the education of Catholic boys and girls. We are fortunate that Sister Patricia is able to come here to work with us.
During that year her mother died, and she returned to the Midwest as assistant principal at Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette, Illinois, for the next year. When she left this position in 1978, the balance of her ministry was in Michigan.
Again she took on the responsibility of principal, this time at St. Anne School in Warren, Michigan. During the summers she studied at SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, and in 1983 she received a certificate in pastoral ministry. From that time on, she served in the field of religious education and as a pastoral minister. She, however, was proud of having been in the teaching profession. She wrote, “Besides teaching, I performed as a trouble shooter.”
She left St. Anne in 1983, and became a pastoral assistant in charge of religious education at St. Louise, also in Warren. Two years later she moved to Fraser, where she served as pastoral minister at Our Lady Queen of All Saints. In 1987 she took a sabbatical year and studied at Macomb Community College in Mount Clemens. At the end of that year, she accepted a position as religious education coordinator at St. Isidore, also in Mount Clements.
In 1990 she began serving the Roseville Adult Education Center as a teacher, and taught there for seven years. She retired in 1997, lived at St. Cletus Convent in Saint Clair Shores, and volunteered her services. In November 2000 she moved back to Fraser, where she again volunteered her services.
She returned to Adrian in May 2007, lived in the Dominican life Center/Regina Residence for three months, then found it necessary to move into the Maria Building where she remained until her death on November 19, 2009. She was two weeks short of her eighty-first birthday, and in the fifty-ninth year of her religious profession.
Sister Patricia’s wake-remembrance service was held in St. Catherine Chapel on November 23. Sister Jo Gaugier, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, opened the service and welcomed those who had come to bid Sister Patricia farewell. These included her sister Kathleen Sweeney; her brothers Thomas, Terrence and their wives Mary Ann and Kathie; her cousin Sister Joan Donovan, OP; many other relatives; and her many Dominican friends.
Sister Jo summarized Sister Patricia’s life and ministry, and added:
Sister Pat spoke of her family as her greatest blessing in all the world: her mom and dad, her brothers and sister. . . . [She said] that her nephews and nieces were always special in her life. She was grateful to have had opportunities to travel through the United States and Europe, and most especially for trips to the Emerald Isles of Ireland.
She was drawn in her active life to do artwork. For a number of years before she lived in Adrian she came here to teach water color painting. She has left us with numerous paintings, revealing a calling to speak from her heart.
Sister’s cousin, Sister Joan Donovan, spoke of Sister Patricia’s death as “her final ‘yes’ to God.”
After Marguerite, Pat, and I entered the Adrian Dominicans, we knew that assignments would take us to different locations. However, I was in Defiance, Ohio, when Pat arrived a year later. Those were wonderful years together as we learned more about teaching and sharing life in community. We were all young, and the fun and laughter came easily.
It was in the ‘90s that Sister Pat and I were again living in the Detroit area. We spent more time together and had wonderful visits with the Lynch family. She so loved all of them . . . and they certainly returned that love.
These final years, God placed Sister Pat in a special ministry before calling her home. She had to deal with life in a special way—which she did. Again, how evident was the thoughtfulness of God when Sister Helen Montovani, who also shared daily life with Pat in the Garden Community, became her good friend. They came to Mass together as long as they were able, watched over one another, and cared for each other during the day.
Sister Betty Flaherty said in part:
St. Brigid Parish in Detroit was a kind of “Irish Ghetto” and the source of many, many religious vocations. . . . Pat and I were numbers 37 and 38 on the St. Brigid vocation listing, and that was sixty years ago.
Sixty years ago this past summer, Pat and I set out together with our “convent shopping list” provided by Sister Rose Clement [Downs], the St. Brigid superior. First on the list were black oxford shoes. If you were a Detroiter, you might remember Fyfe’s five-story shoe store on Woodward at Grand Circus Park. In we went, and were immediately greeted by a handsome young salesman who came directly to Pat, a tall, slender, attractive redhead. The dialogue went something like this:
He: “What can I help you with?” Pat: “Black oxfords.” He: “Why would you girls want black oxfords?” Pat: “We’re going to be nurses.” He: “Nurses wear white shoes.” Pat: “We’re going to be home visiting nurses. We need black oxfords.” And with a perfectly straight face she continued an ongoing conversation about the virtues of home nursing, found black oxfords for both of us, and gracefully thanked the salesman as he escorted us to the door. There Pat exploded with her famous laugh. Whenever we would meet, Pat always reenacted the story of our shopping for black oxfords.
Over the years Pat generously shared her time and talents as an artist, providing classes for our sisters during summer sessions in Adrian, and more recently, for senior citizens in the Mount Clemens area. I attended her art shows, and she encouraged me to come for classes. But I never did. When she returned to Adrian these last years, she reminded me that now we were together again, and I should sign up for her classes. I wish that I had.
Sister Patricia’s funeral liturgy took place on November 24. Father Robert Kelly, OP, was the presider and homilist. Some thoughts from Father’s homily:
Sister Patricia brought closeness to God through her art, and she taught others to paint. She is remembered by seniors as enthusiastic, and encouraging them to go on and do more. She was one with God the Creator, who created beauty and saw that it was good. She was a wise woman, and shared her wisdom through her painting and art.
Sister Pat will be missed by the Congregation and by her family. But her memory will live on in the beautiful works of art that she created. As Sister Joan said, she was a gift to all.