The last Sister of Mercy who served in Knoxville has died in Nashville at age 92.
The funeral for Sister Pat Soete will be held on Wednesday, August 20, at Mercy Convent in Nashville, Tennessee, with the Welcoming of the Cremains at 11 a.m. and the Celebration of Life Liturgy at 1 p.m. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery, Nashville.
Sister Patricia Ann Soete retired in fall 2020; Sister Yvette Gillen, who had served in Clinton and Alcoa, retired in spring 2020.
The first Sisters of Mercy came to Knoxville in 1896 to teach at St. Mary School, next door to Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Knoxville. The Sisters of Mercy founded St. Mary’s Hospital in Knoxville in 1930 and served there during its more than eight and a half decades of operation.
When Sisters Soete and Gillen retired in 2020, Dan McWilliams wrote a comprehensive look at their lives of service. Read that story here.
Sister Soete was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1933. She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings; survivors include nieces, nephews and her Sisters of Mercy community. Full obituary is here.
In Knoxville, 1977-1994, she served as a chaplain at St. Mary’s Hospital, working under Sister Marie Moore, then president of the hospital. “We entered together in the same class,” she told McWilliams.
The obituary reads: “Sister Pat loved the mountains of East Tennessee, and camping was one of her favorite activities.” Following her 2020 move to Mercy Convent in Nashville, she continued to minister to others. “Sister Pat Soete will be greatly missed by all those who knew her.”
