Sister Patricia Marie Williams, F.H.M.

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Sister Patricia Marie Williams, F.H.M., who served at St. Aloysius School in Harlem, died Nov. 11 at Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home in Manhattan. She was 93.

Sister Patricia Marie was a member of the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for 73 years.

She was a teacher at St. Aloysius, and served as an assistant teacher, teacher and education director at St. Benedict’s Day Nursery, Manhattan. She was a Eucharistic minister to residents at Northern Manhattan Nursing Home and to the homebound in Harlem.

Sister Patricia Marie also was a teacher and principal at schools in North Carolina and South Carolina. A strong pro-life supporter, she participated in the first Pro-Life Black Leadership Conference and was a member of Black Catholics Against Abortion.

Born in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, she entered the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary in 1945 and professed final vows in 1953.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Fordham University, and a master’s degree in early childhood education and administration from Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.

Her sister, Dolorita Massiah, survives her.

A Funeral Mass was celebrated Nov. 19 at St. Aloysius Church, Manhattan. Burial was at St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery, Farmingdale.

Sister Patricia Marie Williams, F.H.M.