Patricia Shevlin

I grew up on the south side of Chicago in a happy Irish Catholic family filled with music, laughter and fun. I am third in a family of six girls and one boy. In 1963 I left home to become a Catholic nun, and 26 years later I returned to lay life. In my book, My NUNcommon Life, I write about the childhood influences that led to my decision to become a nun, and I share an array of experiences from my years in religious life and afterwards. My stories answer the three questions I am most often asked: Why did you become a nun? Why did you leave religious life? And what did you do next?

My life spans the “Baltimore Catechism” era, the Second Vatican Council, and the recently revealed sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. I was filled with youthful idealism that fueled my life choice, and motivated me in my ongoing search for that ideal in the midst of some of the harsher realities I experienced as my life unfolded.

I had a brief encounter with Mother Teresa, as well as an acquaintance with a KKK murderer. I describe friends and associates who taught me valuable lessons about justice, forgiveness, sexuality, alcoholism, and dying.

After careers as a teacher, parish minister, a fundraiser and an executive director of a charitable foundation, I am now happily retired.