50th profession

Mother Mary Leo Hoffmann

Birth name: Patti Hoffman

Birthplace: St. Louis

Entrance: 1966

First profession: 1968

Final profession: 1971

Education: Attended grade school at my home parish, St. Raphael the Archangel

Notre Dame High School

Service in the archdiocese: I have served God in the Church through a life of prayer and penance these last 50 years.

Abbess, first elected in 1983 for 3 years, then from 1990 until 2011, and from 2017 to present.

About Mother Mary Leo Hoffmann: Teaching appealed to me for many years, and I wanted to join the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who taught at my high school. I had an older sister who entered the Poor Clares. I asked God what He was calling me to, and after much discernment, one day I realized He wanted me to be a Poor Clare Sister. From that day forward, I knew this was God’s will for me. There is a gratitude I’ve come to over the years for my faith, and for coming from a large family of eight, a very caring and loving family. I have so many happy memories of my life at home and know so many do not have that great blessing. As a Poor Clare, this gives me the opportunity to help so many get to heaven, to spend my life in prayer and penance to help others. A bishop in a conference once said “If we gain heaven we gain everything; if we lose heaven, we lose everything.”