Sister Patricia Riley
1920-2008

Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, described Sister Patricia Riley as “a quiet dynamo who was a deeply spiritual, community-minded woman steeped in social concerns and care for the earth.”

In his homily at her funeral, Father Martin Iott, OP, one of her former students, said, “She has written with her life a story.”

The story of the woman described in this way, Lydia Patricia Riley, always called Patricia or Pat, began with her birth on May 15, 1920, in Detroit to Thomas and Helen (Brennan) Riley. A brother, Robert, and a sister, Margaret, had preceded her into the family. When asked about their ancestry, her mother would say, “You are a Yankee, with Irish descent.” Both parents came from an Irish heritage.

Helen Brennan frequently went to visit her cousins who lived on a farm outside Detroit. The Riley family lived on a neighboring farm. It was while visiting her cousins and attending a ball game that she met Thomas Riley. He was playing on one of the teams. After their courtship and marriage they purchased a farm near Flushing, Michigan, but within a few years moved to Detroit. After the elapse of a few more years and at the request of his father, Thomas Riley moved his family back to the farm where he had grown up. The road leading to it was named “Riley Road.”

Patricia loved the outdoors and living on the farm. Inclined to be a “tomboy,” she enjoyed playing in the open, roaming through the woods, wading in the creek. In her St. Catherine letter, she mentioned two incidents that influenced her spiritual life. When she was about seven, her mother took her and her siblings to visit their grandmother, Lydia Brennan, who was very ill. Her grandmother, for whom she was named, gave her a picture of Christ in the Temple, a picture that she took home and hung on the wall of the bedroom that she and Margaret shared. The second incident was attending the funeral of one of her young cousins who had entered the IHM (Immaculate Heart of Mary) Congregation. “I recall a strong inner awareness of God and perhaps a personal call that I would one day give in to and respond.” This is not surprising, since she had several cousins who were religious sisters, and two priest cousins.

She began her education nearby her home at a small one-room school, then transferred to St. Michael in Maple Grove, quite a distance and a bus ride away, for eighth grade. She found adaptation from a one-room school to a school with many grades, rooms, and students a bit difficult at first, but she soon adjusted. In her autobiography she wrote:

My mother went to Lansing to ask why Catholic children could not ride the public school bus and be dropped at the Catholic school. On matters of justice, my mother was much aware of her rights and was not hesitant on following through.

Sunday mornings, besides going to church, we also went to Catechism class. . . . Sunday afternoon, after reading the “funnies,” was time to study Catechism. Both my parents took turns hearing our lessons and then we would review on the Saturday night before the class.

A lover of sports, Patricia often was chosen to play on the boys’ baseball team until she realized that “girls weren’t supposed to be playing ball with the boys.” She finished her high school years with the Adrian Dominican Sisters at St. Paul School in Owosso, which was twelve miles away, driven there by her brother. After he graduated, she drove herself. Upon graduation from high school in June 1938, she took a position with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Frequently she went bowling, golfing, and dancing with friends, entertainments that she enjoyed immensely.

For almost eight years, she fought the call to religious life. Finally, almost twenty-six years of age, she entered the postulate at Adrian on February 2, 1946. On August 13 of that year she received the habit and her religious name, Sister Anne Charlotte. With her group, she professed her first vows on August 14, 1947.

Her first assignment was to St. Mary in New Baltimore, Michigan, as a teacher of junior high students. She then spent a year at Blessed Sacrament in Toledo, Ohio, with fourth grade, a year at St. Kilian in Chicago with sixth grade, and three years at St. Laurence in Chicago with eighth grade. In 1953, as a result of summer study, Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in secretarial science and minors in English and history. In her autobiography she wrote:

Each summer during my first five years I was assigned to live in community with the postulants, recreation, eating, etc., while carrying the usual nine hours. I found myself becoming quite light-hearted during those days. It seemed the situation would be so ridiculous that only the Lord Himself knew how to carry it out, so I would let Him do just that—and they were good summers and years in the community.

That same year, 1953, she was a bit shocked when she opened her assignment envelope and discovered that she was to be principal, superior, and junior high teacher at St. Alphonsus in Deerfield, Michigan.

When her successful six-year term ended in 1959, her ministry to high school students began at Regina High School in Wilmette, Illinois, as a teacher of business courses, religion, and mathematics. After summer study at the University of Detroit, in 1960 she received a master’s degree with a major in business and minor in education. In 1962 she was again assigned to be principal and superior, this time at St. Joseph in Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She wrote:

I had always felt that the first responsibility of a superior was to be a facilitator for growth in love and support within the convent, and when that took place the school would fall into place beautifully and naturally. I had profited from my previous experience. If I did not know for sure what to do, I did know for sure what NOT to do.

During these years, she spent some summers studying at Providence College in Rhode Island, and earned a certificate in theology that she received in 1966. At the end of her six-year term in Sault Ste. Marie, she went back to Regina High School for two years, then was assigned to Mount St. Mary Academy in St. Charles, Illinois, for a year.

She returned to Adrian in 1971 and spent a year at Weber Center as retreat coordinator. She then studied for a summer at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, and in 1972 received a certificate in clinical pastoral education. For the next eight years she served as a pastoral minister in Michigan, two years with the Pontiac Area Vicariate and six years at St. William Parish in Walled Lake where she was recognized by the State of Michigan for her work in social justice.

A siege of sickness had come upon her, and several months of recuperation were necessary at a private residence in Atascadero, California. She spent the next three years in rural pastoral ministry in Kentucky. In 1986, Sister Virginia Mullins took over that ministry. At the wake she said:

Sister Maria Goretti Browne was also there. She and Sister Pat worked hard at establishing outreach to the poor people in the mountains, who were Protestants, as well as working with the people in both Holy Cross Catholic and Emmanuel Churches in two counties. It was either Sister Pat or Sister Maria, or perhaps both of them, who convinced the  pastors that they were also pastors and should have equal time on the radio. They also established pulpit exchange with the Protestant pastors, especially during Lent.

Sister Pat also worked with the wives of the Protestant pastors—helping them to achieve more dignity in their lives. They had just been taking care of their homes and children, and had nothing to do with church work. All of us there, during our ministry, visited the homes, brought books and sat at kitchen tables, on front porches, and in back fields teaching people how to read and write. Sister Pat also organized people for discussion groups about topics she knew they wanted to talk about.

Driving along a road one day, we saw a sign that said “Purgatory.” So we went to see it, and found a little settlement. So Sister Pat has already been through Purgatory.

I loved the challenges of life in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and I’m sure Sister Pat, too, loved teaching and working among these generous, warmhearted people.

In 1984 Sister Patricia again became a student and earned a certificate in spiritual direction from the Detroit Center for Religious Development. Then she spent another year in residence, this time in Chicago.

In 1986 she ministered in adult religious formation at St. Thomas More Parish in Louisville, Kentucky. Two years later she returned to Adrian and served as receptionist at Weber Center. She soon found a ministry in Adrian as coordinator of social concerns at St. Mary Parish that she held for eight years. At the wake, Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter said, “During part of her time there, Father Louis Komorowski was the pastor. This is where she blossomed in making efforts to help form the parish into small Christian communities.”

In 1997 Sister Patricia retired to the Dominican Life Center/ Regina and volunteered her services. In April 2004 the state of her health made it necessary for her to move into the Maria Building, where she died on November 25, 2008.

Sister Patricia’s wake-remembrance service was held on November 30 in St. Catherine Chapel. Sister Joan Sustersic opened the service and welcomed those who had assembled to bid Sister Patricia goodbye: Clarence Coe, her brother-in-law, almost like a brother to her; several nieces, Charlotte Coe and daughter Bridget Bernard, Christine Parks, Mary Riley, and Rita Riley; and her many Dominican friends. Sister summarized Sister Patricia’s life and ministry, and said: 

I recall Sister Pat as being very quiet, but a very personable woman and an active one. In 2006 she suffered a stroke which affected her right side. She noticed it when she woke up. But she had a lot of hurting which she presumed was arthritis. . . . Despite having to learn to eat with the left hand and do other things with the non-dominant side, she did amazingly well. She talked and visited and read and kept up on social concerns issues. She was at Mass almost daily. 

Early in 2008 she had a physical problem and was hospitalized. How she missed the DLC (Dominican Life Center). For years, she had difficulty in swallowing. It wasn’t something new. If she took her time, she eventually got the food down. . . . Her decision was that, should the need arise for more care, she would remain at the DLC and be kept comfortable. We did just that. When her condition began to decline, she was kept comfortable and her family was notified. . . . Pat’s brother-in-law Clarence and niece Charlotte arrived. They were here for a short time when she went peacefully to the Lord. She was eighty-eight years of age and in the sixty-second year of her religious profession.

Sister’s niece, Charlotte Coe, said:

To me, my sister Christine, and all my Riley cousins she was Aunt Patricia. She was always a source of encouragement and wisdom, a voice for justice and peace, with compassion for others and the earth, and a reminder to recycle. She was my mother’s baby sister. She was family and proud of her Irish heritage. I am her namesake.

My family, as I know and cherish it, would not have been the same without her in it. My life is filled with memories of family gatherings at holidays, weddings, birthdays, baptisms, First Communions, reunions, and funerals—and always she was there whenever possible. She loved us all.

I recall stories from my mother that seemed to reveal an adventurous spirit in Aunt Patricia—riding a horse, fixing a car, rowing a boat, traveling with friends and family, learning to golf and bringing that pastime to the Riley family. That love of golf passed down to her great-nephews Ryan and Shane Riley, who have excelled at the sport. She was a teacher and an example of her faith to us all.

I am grateful that I was able to be here when she passed away, to be able to say “Goodbye,” and remind her that we all love her. . . . I want to thank all of you for the loving and gentle care that she was given here. That has been a blessing in itself.

Father Martin Iott, OP, a member of the Ashram Community on the Motherhouse Campus, was the presider and homilist at Sister Patricia’s funeral liturgy on December 1.

As Sister Joan said, God blessed Sister Patricia abundantly, and she returned that goodness by her involvement in various ministries with so many different groups of God’s people. God has now called her into the eternal realm of peace and love, where she is reunited with the loved ones who preceded her, and can gaze for all eternity upon the face of the One she has loved and served for so many years.