Maryknoll, NY: Sister Patricia Edmiston, M.M., a Maryknoll sister known for her joy and her smile, died on Aug. 26, 2025, with her dear friend, Sr. Ann Hayden, M.M., at her bedside. She was 80 years old.
Sr. Pat spent the majority of her ministry in Central America, having worked alongside the people of Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador from 1974 until 2001, developing health programs and leadership training. Throughout her life as a missionary, she welcomed everyone she met with a joyful, open heart.
“We experienced her as an open and supportive community member to each sister,” said Sr. Teresa Hougnon, M.M., president of Maryknoll Sisters. “She was committed to accompanying the people as they lived through the war in Nicaragua and beyond.”
Patricia Ann Edmiston was born on April 10, 1945, to Marcus Morton and Josephine Brown Edmiston. She grew up with two brothers, James and Mark, and a sister, Kathy. She attended St. Denis elementary school in Yonkers, N.Y., and graduated from Yonkers High School in June 1963. She got her licensed practical nursing certificate from Grasslands School in 1967 and her registered nursing degree in 1972 from Bronx Community College.
Feeling the need for “something more,” Pat applied to the Maryknoll Sisters in 1972. “I think that Maryknoll’s mission is the bring the living Christ to the world,” she wrote. “My participation is by aiding in the physical as well as spiritual needs of people.”
Pat entered Maryknoll in St. Louis on Aug. 24, 1972, and made her first profession in Managua, Nicaragua on April 29, 1973. She professed her final vows on Aug. 1, 1981, in Ciudad Sandino, Managua, Nicaragua.
Her lifelong engagement in Central America began in 1974, doing health promotion in Pueblo Nuevo outside of Managua. After a short placement in Panama training young educated women for ministry, she realized her true calling was in health. And so, she directed health programs in El Salvador, Nicaragua and at the Maryknoll Center in Ossining for the next 20 years. From 1997 until 2001, Sr. Pat conducted
leadership training in Jinotepe, Nicaragua. As always, her heartfelt encouragement and sense of fun called local leaders to new levels of service and commitment.
Between 2001 and 2015, Sr. Pat served as administrator of the Maryknoll Sisters Home Care, director of Nursing Service, and was appointed to the Office of Audio-Visual Technology. Afterward, she was assigned in 2016 to the Eastern Region, where she and Sr. Ann Hayden, M.M., offered support to the immigrant population in Penitas, Texas, until health issues brought them back to the Center in 2021. Sr. Pat’s health steadily declined until her death on Aug. 25, 2025.
She is survived by her brother and sister-in-law Mark and Winnie Edmiston of Madison, Conn., a niece and nephew, and her sister Kathy Edmiston. She was predeceased by her brother James Edmiston.
A wake for Sr. Pat Edmiston was held on Sept. 2 in the Annunciation Chapel on the grounds of Maryknoll Sisters in Ossining, N.Y. A Mass of Resurrection was said on Sept. 3 also in the Annunciation Chapel.