The Australian Women's Register

After a few years’ teaching in Ipswich, Queensland, Mother Patrick was appointed to an administrative role at All Hallows School (the first secondary school for girls in Queensland). In contributing to All Hallows’ agenda, she made a particular contribution to the school’s music program. She was a friend to her students, offering advice and encouragement, promoting higher education and preparing candidates for junior examinations at the Universities of Sydney and Queensland. In 1889 she introduced Latin into a course which already included French, Italian and German.

Following Mother Patrick’s election to the Brisbane Sisters of Mercy, she assisted in establishing convents and schools in areas as remote as Charleville and Goondiwindi. Mother Vincent Whitty’s idea of building a Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Brisbane was enthusiastically adopted by Mother Patrick who brought about the purchase of the South Brisbane land in 1893.She had planned for a children’s wing on the site before she died in 1927. The Mater Children’s Hospital opened in 1931 and was dedicated to her memory.