Sister Rose Patrick St. Aubin

Born: May 19, 1928
Entered: October 4, 1946
Died: January 3, 2026

Sister Rose Patrick St. Aubin drew her last breath at 8:40 AM in our Maryknoll Sisters Home Care at Maryknoll, New York, on January 3, 2026. She never recovered from her bout with covid and then pneumonia; and God was waiting to take her home. She was 97 years old and this year is her 80th jubilee as a Maryknoll Sister.

Delores May St. Aubin was born in Appleton, Wisconsin on May 19, 1928, to Amos and Mathilda Binon St. Aubin. Her two siblings, Carol Jameson and Patrick St. Aubin, have pre-deceased her. When she was in grammar school, her family moved from Wisconsin to Akron, Ohio, where Delores graduated from St. Mary’s High School—an outstanding student.  From there, she entered the Congregation at Maryknoll, New York, on October 4, 1946. As she wrote: “From the minute I thought of becoming a sister, the foreign missions were my sole ambition and interest.”  She made her first vows at Maryknoll, New York on April 6, 1949, and her final vows in Likiep, Marshall Islands, on the same day in 1952. She studied for eighteen months at Maryknoll Teachers College, later completing her bachelor’s degree in Hawai’i at Chaminade College in 1978.

Rose Patrick’s first mission assignment was to the brand-new Maryknoll Sisters mission in the Marshall Islands (Micronesia) and begun on the atoll of Likiep in 1950 where, on the day after she arrived, she began to teach first grade. This assignment began her six-decades-long commitment to the people, the Church and to the education system in the Marshall Islands. Along with Sister Joan Crevecoure, they initiated the Outer Island Ministries in the remote Atolls of Likiep, Jaluit, Arno, and many others. Aside from the short periods spent in Hawai’i required by the region, and her regular decennial visits home, Rose mostly taught school, usually in the lower grades, in Likiep and then in Majuro and many outer islands and small atolls. There is no way that dates of her movements can encompass the enormous effect that Rose and the other Maryknoll Sisters had on the growth and development of the islands where they ministered.  (cf. appendix).

It was in the early days of the Maryknoll Sisters presence in the Marshalls that nuclear testing took place in and near Bikini Atoll, a reality that created special health concerns for the Marshallese people then and into the present. It was also the time that the small, island nation transitioned from being a United States trust territory to becoming the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Many government leaders and educators in the Islands still proudly claim Sister Rose Patrick as their inspiration and teacher.

The soon-to-be published history of the Central Pacific Region includes many interviews, and we are blessed that Rose Patrick’s is one of them. On learning the Marshallese language, she wrote wryly of her amazing feat: “We got four little notebooks from a Protestant guy; and we ourselves made the first dictionary.” On record keeping in schools, churches and of the island occupants was another story as Marshallese have only a first name. She wrote: “Our pastor’s mother’s name was Agnes so if they didn’t have a name when they came for baptism, they got Agnes—imagine half a class, boys and girls, with a surname of Agnes!” Rose taught sewing and cooking in a cracker tin over a fire to the boarding students. Polio crippled many young people. One quite handicapped boy in her writing class said: “I don’t have to do this.” And I said, “Oh, yes, you do and put a pencil between his toes—when he got his name right, the whole class clapped.” He later became an education official in the government. Basic medical work as well as pastoral work was part of life on Majuro and on the fascinating itinerant ministries in the outer islands. Church work was instinctive for Rose. As she later said: “We had freedom within the Church there; whatever you decided to do, you did it, and it wasn’t always, maybe, quite kosher with the Church, but it felt normal.” Perhaps the most long-lived contribution Rose made to the Islands was her emphasis on teacher training. She saw the immense need for teachers and did whatever she could to meet that need–always responsive and creative. Her intellect, combined with a deep love of people and varied practical skills, made her a missioner who could and did respond to every challenge thrown at her–the incredibly hard realities of island travel, (especially for one who never learned to swim, and always got seasick!), the heat, germs, the complex cultures and limited material goods available. She was a strong woman and one who loved with all her heart the Marshallese people and her Maryknoll community. She was an avid letter writer and, even with the long lapses of delivered letters, she connected her special life and ministry with her family and friends throughout those sixty years.

When the mission in Micronesia ended in 2010, Rose Patrick returned to the Center and joined the Chi Rho community. There she did what she could to help the sisters in many ways, sewing and crocheting being her specialties, but she also helped out in the library. As she needed more help, Rose transferred to the Eden community where she was cared for with love and tenderness by friends and staff for the remainder of her life.

We welcome Fr. Mike Walsh who will preside at our liturgy for the celebration of long and full life of Sister Rose Patrick.