A memorial Mass for Sister Patricia Ann “Paddy” Lorenz, CSJ, was celebrated Feb. 20 at Nazareth Living Center Chapel in south St. Louis County. Sister Patricia died Feb. 8 at Mercy South Hospital in south St. Louis County. She was 94 years old and a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet for 74 years.
Sister Patricia Lorenz was born on March 6, 1930, in St. Louis to parents Harold Cecil and Aldora (Buchner) Lorenz. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1950 and was received into the novitiate in 1951 as Sister Mary Saint Paul. She earned a bachelor’s degree in radiologic technology from Saint Louis University in 1957, a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Kansas in 1969 and an associate’s degree in health information technology from Metropolitan Community College in Penn Valley in 1991.
After a year of teaching grade school at St. Thomas of Aquin in St. Louis, Sister Patricia served as a radiologic technologist at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. She was a radiology student at Saint Louis University from 1955-57. Upon completion, she then served at St. Joseph Community Hospital in Hancock, Michigan, as the X-ray supervisor and instructor of basic science. From 1960-64, she was an instructor and supervisor of the radiology department at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City. She also taught part time at Avila College (now University) in Kansas City from 1967-71.
For 38 years, Sister Patricia taught at Metropolitan Community College in Penn Valley, also serving as chair of the biology department (1978-80) and as the chairperson of Life Sciences (1986-2000). She was then a biology adjunct instructor until her retirement in 2009.
Sister Patricia also served her community as a provincial councilor from 1992-96. She served over 35 years on the boards of St. Joseph Medical Center and Carondelet Health in Kansas City.
During retirement, Sister Patricia volunteered and served on the board of Heartland Center for Behavioral Change in Kansas City. Since 2022, she lived out a ministry of prayer and presence at Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis.
Sister Patricia donated her body to science.
