Thursday\u2019s tributes to Sister Pat also served as a call to action. Yogi Wess, who did social work in Chicago with her at Little Brothers \u2013 Friends of the Elderly for nearly 50 years, said that if Sister Pat had been in the building that day, she would have likely told people in the audience to stand up for \u201cthe forgotten, the unnoticed, the undocumented and unseen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a modern-day saint. She lived for others,\u201d said Wess, 68, who noted that Sister Pat went to great lengths to help her plan her wedding, for which she remains grateful to this day.<\/p>\n
Sister Pat was born in Chicago, one of five children, to Frank J. and Thelma Murphy. She graduated from high school in 1947 and joined the Sisters of Mercy. She admitted that she\u2019d always wanted to be a nurse, but became a teacher instead. She met Sister JoAnn<\/a> at an elementary school in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n Then, in 1960, the Sisters of Mercy community put out a call for a volunteer to go on a mission in Sicuani, Peru.<\/p>\n \u201cI filled out the form, ran across campus, and put it into the mail slot,\u201d she recounted to the Tribune in January.<\/p>\n She lived there for eight years, in what she called a \u201chouse for the houseless\u201d with no running water. In remembering her life there, she focused on the beautiful aspects \u2014 the lady who owned the house, named Isabel, who would cook soups and traditional Peruvian dishes, and how the smell would drift through the rafters. Pat picked up Spanish and the local dialect of the region.<\/p>\n Photos of her from that time were pinned onto a poster board at Mercy Circle. She is smiling and wearing a habit. James Connelly, 67, said his great-aunt went and visited her while she was in South America and brought him back a llama fur vest.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, I can\u2019t really fit in it,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n Connelly admitted that he was a little afraid of the traditional nun garb as a kid, but said he always admired her compassion and dedication.<\/p>\n \u201cShe set an example as a strong, female leader,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd she passed that on to all the children she taught.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, when she returned from her time abroad, she reunited with Sister JoAnn and the two trailblazers took advantage of a burgeoning movement in American Catholicism, where many nuns moved from traditional roles to activism. Sister Pat did stints at Mercy Hospital, Little Brothers \u2013 Friends of the Elderly and Austin Career Education Center, helping teen dropouts and adults prepare for the GED.<\/p>\n But in her later life, shaped by her experiences in Peru, Sister Pat prioritized helping immigrants.<\/p>\n She and Sister JoAnn in the 1980s and \u201990s opened Su Casa Catholic Worker House, a home for survivors of torture from Central America, on the South Side of Chicago.<\/p>\n Several years later, they started praying outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview. And they collaborated with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to successfully pass a bill allowing religious workers to enter immigrant detention centers. They spent long hours with immigrants in detention.<\/p>\n Sister Pat warmed up the guards with homemade cookies and wrapped candy canes. Because she could speak Spanish, she was able to help detainees connect with family members.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just loved her,\u201d Sister JoAnn said in January. \u201cImagine how much of a help she was to them, speaking Spanish like she did.\u201d<\/p>\n The sisters stopped visiting immigrants in detention during the pandemic. And under the current Donald Trump administration, ICE has been unwilling to let anyone \u2014 even elected officials<\/a> \u2014 inside, said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at ICIRR, who attended the funeral.<\/p>\n \u201cSister Pat always used a particular word to describe the immigration detention system: demonic,\u201d said Tsao.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ctc-l-sister-pat-rememberance008_231910322-e1754001022849.jpg\")
A photo board naming Sister JoAnn Persch and Sister Pat Murphy “Rabble & Rouser” is displayed at Sister Pat’s services and Mass at Mercy Chapel in Evergreen Park on July 31, 2025. Murphy died last week at the age of 95. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)
\n![\"Sister](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ctc-l-sister-pat-rememberance004_231910326.jpg\")
Sister JoAnn Persch, left, is comforted by Marilu Gonzalez at the celebration of life Mass for their friend, Sister Pat Murphy, at Mercy Chapel in Evergreen Park on July 31, 2025. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Sisters](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ctc-189255527.jpg\")
Sister Pat Murphy, left, and Sister JoAnn Persch, right, speak with immigration detainees at the McHenry County Jail on July 21, 2009. They led a group of religious workers in ministering to the detainees’ spiritual needs in a library at the jail. (Alex Garcia\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Sister](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ctc-l-migrants-under-Trump006_216665786.jpg\")
Sister Pat Murphy, 95, center, greets John Owens, left, before the start of a prayer service for immigrants outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Broadview facility early on Dec. 6, 2024, in Broadview. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ctc-l-sister-pat-rememberance006_231910312-e1754001269715.jpg\")
A man clutches his face during the eulogy for Sister Pat Murphy at her celebration of life Mass at Mercy Chapel in Evergreen Park on July 31, 2025. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n