Sister Carol Patron, CSJ
July 1, 1941 – October 17, 2023
(S. Denise Marie)
Creative, sense of humor, infectious smile.
Raoul and Myrtle (Sullivan) Patron of Atlanta welcomed Carol on July 1, 1941, the second of eight children. She attended the same school her mother had, St. Anthony’s, staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph, and continued at Sacred Heart High, also staffed by the CSJs. Her senior year, a centralized high school was created and CSJs became one of the religious communities that staffed it.
Carol entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Augusta Province in 1959. She received the habit and the name Sister Denise Marie in 1960. (During her novitiate, the Augusta and St. Louis provinces merged.) She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Fontbonne College in 1955 and a master’s degree in theological studies at the Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley, California in 1989.
Sister Carol taught at St. Roch’s in Indianapolis, Indiana (1964). She served at St. Francis de Sales in Denver as a teacher (1966-69) and principal (1969-73). She returned to Atlanta and taught at St. Anthony’s for a year and then was appointed as a full-time teaching principal (1974-79). One year later, she tutored at the Village of St. Joseph, a residential treatment facility for children with various problems. In the fall of 1980, she taught full time until 1987, when she began a sabbatical at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. In 1988, S. Carol enrolled in the Franciscan School of Theology, also in Berkeley.
Next, she became administrator and teacher in the Berkeley Center for Growth and Wholeness, also involved in massage weekends and training others (1989-94) and taught junior high at St. Perpetua School in Lafayette, California (1990-93). A year as a massage therapist followed. In 1995, at Springbank Dominican Retreat Center in Kingstree, South Carolina, she engaged as a massage therapist and staff worker, often doing prayer and rituals for their programs.
Following a sabbatical (1991), S. Carol returned to St. Louis (2002) and provided in-home servied for senior adults with CSJ Care. In 2003, she was executive director of the Cedar Hill Enrichment Center in Gainesville, Georgia. She ministered at the Sullivan Center in Atlanta as assistant administrator (2006) and special projects coordinator (2008).
Retiring in 2014, S. Carol moved to St. Louis and volunteered. From 2016 to 2022, she served part-time in the Archives Department. Archivist Catherine Lucy shares:
When Sister Jane Behlmann, director of the archives, suddenly passed away after I had only been on the job a few months as her assistant, I experienced impostor syndrome and felt like a deer caught in headlights. ... Sister Carol helped me feel at home … and graciously answered the many questions I had about the sisters and community life. Her warm and welcoming spirit enabled me to move past my discomfort and move forward with my duties in the archives.
S. Carol moved to the Village at Nazareth in St. Louis in 2019.
By Sister Helen Oates