KATE ST. MARTIN, SNJM, 1921-2014.
Known by many as Sister Kate. By many others simply as Kate. Whatever they called her, whatever their experiences with her, they remember her fondly and with deep admiration and respect. Kate was without doubt the most amazing woman I have ever personally known. Over the course of 30 years our relationship grew and matured, and our affection for and appreciation of each another deepened exponentially, particularly in the last few years of her life. I am very fortunate to have discovered and witnessed so many of the staggeringly large number of good deeds Kate did on behalf of others, but also to have witnessed the “pattern” of an entire life well lived.
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Reaching back more than 3,000 years to the Book of Genesis and Cain’s wording of the question when asked to give an accounting after murdering his brother Abel, this question is, I believe firmly, and always has been, the central, day-to-day, practical question confronting the human race regarding its relationships among its members. Whatever my own answer to the question, the long and detailed record of Kate’s activities on Portland Oregon’s Skid Road for 25 years presents a compelling example of what can happen when that answer is a resounding YES!”
After all is said and done, perhaps what matters most is the pattern of a person’s existence. It is the pattern of an individual’s life, I believe — the overall global view of it — that matters most, rather than any particular good or bad deed pinpointed here or there along the way of it. The basic direction in which an individual strives to travel.
Kate returned to the stars on March 18th after complications from congestive heart failure; she would have been 93 in July.