Patrick Ignatius Dickson, BSG
1938-2005

Br. Patrick Ignatius Dickson, BSG, departed this life on July 20, 2005 at Fessenden House in Yonkers after a long and heroic struggle with cancer. He was 67 years old. He died as he had lived, with grace, dignity, courage and great love for God and for his neighbor, particularly those who are most marginalized in our world.

Br. Patrick Ignatius was born Donald Patrick Dickson in Yonkers on March 17, 1938. He received his initial spiritual formation at the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Yonkers, where he was baptized, confirmed and made his first communion. He attended Yonkers public and private schools, graduating from Gorton High School in 1957. Drawn to a life of prayer and ministry, he tried his vocation with the Capuchin Franciscan Friars in Garrison, New York. He left the friars in the mid 1960s, but continued his vocation of prayer and ministry, particularly in his work with youth at the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Westchester. At the same time he began a career with the United States Postal Service, working at offices in Yonkers and Mount Vernon until 1992. In 1979 he was ordained deacon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral by Terence Cardinal Cooke. He served as deacon at the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and as assistant chaplain at the Westchester Medical Center, the Ruth Taylor Nursing Home and the Westchester County Correctional Facility, all in Valhalla. He also fostered two young men, John and Ruben, both of whom came to regard him as their father, and whom he regarded as his sons.

In 1993 he was received into the Episcopal Church at Trinity-St. Paul’s Church in New Rochelle, where he served as senior warden, as a coordinator of the brown bag lunch program for persons in need, and as a pastor to people living on the streets in downtown New Rochelle. In 1996 he was admitted to the Brotherhood of St. Gregory, a religious community in the Episcopal Church, taking the name Patrick Ignatius, and he made his profession of vows on July 23, 1999. In 1998 Br. Patrick Ignatius joined the staff of Fessenden House, a home in Yonkers for men in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, where he lived until his death. He continued his work as an assistant chaplain at the hospital, nursing home and prison in Valhalla and at Fessenden House until he became incapacitated by illness in 2002.

Br. Patrick Ignatius will be remembered by his brothers in community for his holiness of life, his warm and gracious demeanor, his dedication to Mary the mother of our Lord, and his devotion to the Holy Cross. He often said that he was born in the shadow of the cross. He lived and died in the shadow of that same cross.

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