(1928-2021)

Whatever the future holds for me, one thing is certain: God will be present and will not let me down. I trust He will allow me to use whatever talents He has placed in me to be of service in His work and to bring happiness to myself.

Sister Ann Patrice Remkus wrote this passage to conclude the 1986 edition of her life story. Both it and a later version are a thoughtful, honest look back at what Sister Mary Sue Kennedy described in her homily for Sister’s Memorial Mass as “a life well lived, with its ups and downs and its joys and pains.”

Lucille Judith Remkus was born on July 2, 1928, in Rockford, Illinois, to Frank and Petronella (Stansel) Remkus. In one of her St. Catherine letters to Sister Marcella Gardner, she mused about the date of her birth: “An early firecracker? Hardly, as this letter will attest to; I’ve not been early for much of anything in my life, unfortunately.”

Frank and Pat, as Sister Ann Patrice’s mother was called (and from which name the second part of Sister’s religious name was derived), both came to the U.S. from Lithuania. Frank left his homeland in 1910 at the age of about 21, fleeing under cover of darkness to avoid being conscripted into the Russian army. He walked to the Netherlands and from there sailed to New York. Pat came to the U.S. in 1909, at about age 22, after having had a difficult childhood. Sister wrote in her life story that Pat’s mother had died when Pat was just 18 months old, and because Pat’s stepmother did not accept her and her sister, she had left home at age nine to work on a farm.

Read more about Sister Ann Patrice (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. 

 

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