Sister Patricia Ring, MM

Born: June 14, 1940
Entered: September 6, 1950
Died: April 11, 2024

At 5:30 in the early morning hours of April 11^th, 2024, before dawn broke, our Sister Pat Ring slipped gently into eternal life. She was 93 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 73 years.

Patricia Catherine Ring was born on June 14, 1930 in Wabasha County, Lake City, Minnesota to John Francis Ring and Phoebe Elizabeth McMillan. Years later, she would proudly state her father’s occupation as Farmer and his photograph remained at her bedside throughout her life. She was baptized in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, St. Joseph’s Theilman, Diocese of Winona. She had 11 brothers and sisters, ten of whom have predeceased her; only her sister Margaret, Mrs. Ron Wagner, still resides in Mazeppa, Minnesota.

She attended two district grade schools in Wabasha Co. and high school at the Mary C. McCahill Institute in Lake City, Minnesota. In 1947, she began her studies at the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota where she remained until her junior year when, at nineteen, she made her decision to apply to Maryknoll, entering on September 6, 1950 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in New York. At Reception of the habit on March 7, 1951, she received the name Sister Rose Kevin and made her First Profession of Vows on 7 March 1953.

After receiving her Bachelor of Education at Rogers College, Pat was assigned to the Chile Region in 1954 and after language study was sent to Temuco in southern Chile. It was here, on March 7, 1959 that she made her Final Profession of Vows. In Temuco Pat worked as a primary school teacher, becoming principal of the school in 1961. Then in 1968, she was assigned further north to Talcahuano at the large Maryknoll parish of La Asuncion. There she became the assistant principal in the elementary school and Religion and English teacher in the high school until 1972 when she took her long overdue renewal, then called decennial.

While on decennial in the States, she studied at St. Louis University from 1973 to 1974, receiving a Master’s Degree in Religious Education. On returning to Chile, she was assigned to Hualpencillo, in Talcahuano where she trained pastoral leaders for youth and Christian Communities for four years.

Pat returned to Maryknoll, New York in 1980 for Congregational Service where she worked in Admissions in California, returning to Chile in 1985 where she was assigned to Puente Alto in the Santiago Archdiocese. Here as a parish minister, she dedicated herself to the pastoral needs of a semi-rural sector of the archdiocese. It was exhausting work, requiring a great deal of daily travel and home visiting which she fulfilled with endless dedication.

In 2003, Pat was asked to take charge of the Center House in Santiago, which she accepted, recognizing her own need for a less stressful ministry and closer attention to some serious health problems. Then, in 2007, she was again asked to return to the Center for yet another assignment. The Congregational Leadership Team had appointed her the Center-Eden Coordinator. In 2009, Pat received the following testament of gratitude for her work with the Eden community:

Dear Sister Pat:

We thank you for your dedication. For giving with a generous heart, open to learning and growing, willing to accept new challenges. In humble and sometimes outstanding ways, you have made God’s love visible to co-workers, to our Sisters and to everyone with whom you come in contact. There can never be enough ways to say “thanks”.

Pat’s dedication to our Sisters in the Eden Community continued until October of 2013 when she returned to active membership in the Rogers Community. Now, painfully aware that her health was seriously deteriorating and needing full time health care and constant oxygen, she requested a move to the Eden Community in February of 2022.

When asked to express her wishes, as she grew closer to death, she very specifically requested that we include these words in the letter of appreciation:

Please tell them how grateful I am to Maryknoll for all the support and love I have received over the years. How lucky I feel that I heard about Maryknoll so many years ago and made the decision to come.

And how lucky we were Pat to have you here.

A missioner to the end, Pat donated her body to science, asking for cremation.

We welcome Fr. Joe LaMar, MM, who will celebrate the liturgy of thanksgiving and remembrance.