Sister Patricia Edminston, MM

Born: April 10, 1945
Entered: August 24, 1972
Died: August 26, 2025

Deep within the mystery of God’s time, after having had some relatively good days, our dear Pat Edmiston surprised us by going home to God at 1:15 PM on August 26, 2025. Our nurse noticed a change and called Pat’s dear friend Ann Hayden and they were there as Pat peacefully drew her last breath. Surely “We do not know the day or the hour.” (Matt 24:26)

Patricia Ann Edmiston was born on April 10, 1945 to Marcus Morton and Josephine Brown Edmiston. She had two bothers and one sister—her brother James has predeceased her and her brother Mark and sister-in-law Winnie are here with us today. Her sister Kathy is unable to attend. She attended St. Denis elementary school in Yonkers, New York and graduated from Yonkers High School in June, 1963. She got her Licensed Practical Nursing certificate from Grasslands School in 1967 and her Registered Nursing Degree in 1972 from Bronx Community College.

Feeling the need for “something more,” Pat applied to the Maryknoll Sisters in 1972. She wrote: “I think that Maryknoll’s mission is the bring the living Christ to the world. My participation is by aiding in the physical as well as spiritual needs of people. “Pat entered Maryknoll in St. Louis on August 24, 1972 and was sent to Cochabamba in 1973 for Spanish language. On Aril 29, 1973 1973, Pat made her first profession in Managua, Nicaragua, and her final vows on August 1, 1981, in Ciudad Sandino, Managua Nicaragua.

This period began her lifelong engagement in Central America. The three regions of Panama, El Salvador and Nicaragua became PANISA. In 1974, Pat began in Pueblo Nuevo outside of Managua doing health promotion. The community changed and things were not easily settled, so Pat did a short placement in Panama with Sr. Ellen McDonald who was training young educated women there for ministry. Pat enjoyed this, and made a real contribution, but realized her true ministry calling was in health so she returned to Nicaragua until she returned to Maryknoll in 1977 for reflection and study before her final vows. Pat went to El Salvador in 1978 to direct a health program for a year and returned to Nicaragua in 1979 in the same ministry. In this time, the civil war in Nicaragua raged and life was complex and dangerous, ending with a Sandinista victory in 1979.

From 1983-1986, Pat did Congregational Service as Director of Nursing Service in Maryknoll Sisters Home Care. As always, Pat was loved by the staff and sisters—humor and kindness and personal attention to those who needed her characterized her time in service. It was, however, not an easy time, and Pat completed her service at the end of her three-year contract in February 1986.

Pat returned to Villa Nuevo, Nicaragua in 1987 for ten years, again developing health programs and offering training for health promotors. Moving to Jinotepe, Nicaragua, she entered a new phase in pastoral work, doing leadership training. As always, her heartfelt encouragement and sense of fun called for local leaders to new levels of service and commitment.

Once more called into service at Maryknoll, in 2001, Pat was named administrator of the Maryknoll Sisters Home Care, a position she filled with distinction for eight years. Her final performance appraisal was outstanding for innovation, care, management skills and relationships with staff and creativity in addressing future needs for care within the Congregation. Pat filled in again as Director of Nursing Service from 2010-2011, when she was appointed to the Office of Audio-Visual Technology, a service which she loved. During this time, she was elected as Co-Coordinator for the Rogers Community.

After three years in this ministry, Pat was assigned in 2016 to the Eastern Region, where she and Sister Ann Hayden offered various kinds of support to the immigrant population in Penitas, (near McAllen) Texas. In 2021, health issues brought Pat and Ann back to the Center. Pat was assigned to the Chi Rho Community in January, 2022, and then as her health declined she was moved to Eden in 2024. There, Sister Ann Hayden and the aides and nurses cared for Pat lovingly until her death August 26, 2025.