Sr. Patricia Ann O'Leary O.P.

Patricia Ann O'Leary, OP
Dominican Sister of St Catherine of Siena, Saratoga
Sister Patricia Ann O'Leary, OP, formerly known as Sister Mary Cornelius, died on June 3, 2022, in Saratoga, at the age of 90. She served the people of God and lived the gift of her Dominican life for 62 years. In 1960 she left her beloved Louisville, the city where she was born and raised, to travel to Wisconsin to enter the novitiate on the shores of Lake Michigan, the home of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in Kenosha, whose Mission Center is now located in Saratoga, California.
Patricia prepared for a ministry as an elementary school teacher and education administrator at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She served the children and their families at St. Therese Little Flower School, Albuquerque, NM; St. Bernadette's School, Milwaukee, WI; St. Therese School, Louisville, KY; San Miguel School, Socorro, NM; St. Casimir School, Kenosha, WI; and St. Francis School, in Santa Fe, NM.
After retiring from education ministry Patricia settled in Ontario, OR and donned the pink smock of the Volunteers at Holy Rosary Hospital. She greeted all who entered the front door and helped them find their way. She also joined the catechetical program as a teacher at a nearby rural parish.
When her Dominican Sisters reflect on their life at home with Patricia they smile when they remember her love of these things: long drives in the countryside where she would stop at little farmhouse produce stands and bring home lovely gifts of fruit and just picked vegetables, using her tools to hammer in a nail or tighten a loose screw, planting tomatoes, mending on the old sewing machine, washing the cars by herself to save
money, faithfully going to a seniors' water aerobics class, and her tender care of the senior sisters by taking them on road trip "outings". Patricia's life is a witness to the words in the book of the prophet Micah, verses 6-8, "And what does God ask of you? To act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God". Her Sisters observed her preaching the love of God in all the activities of her daily Life.
Sister Patricia is preceded in death by her father, Cornelius John O'Leary; her mother Louise Miller O'Leary; her brothers John and Richard; and her sisters Kathleen and Cecilia. She is survived by her nieces Pat and Dot, nephews "Chick" and Dick and their children.
Sister Patricia's Memorial Mass will be on June 25th at 10AM at St. Anthony's Parish, 316 N. Sherwood Avenue, Clarksville, Indiana. She will be buried with her parents at Calvary Cemetery in Louisville. Ratterman and Sons on Bardstown Road, Louisville, is handling the arrangements and online condolences may be shared at www.ratterman.com.