Br. Elpidius Patrick

Patrick Dillon was born at Wicklong, Limerick, Ireland, on August 16, 1832, the son of Michael and Ellen O'Brien Dillon. He emigrated to the United States and found himself in the St. Louis, Missouri, area where he became acquainted with the Brothers. In 1871, at the age of thirty-nine he sought permission to enter the Novitiate at Carondelet where on August 14, 1871, he received the habit of the Brothers and the religious name of Brother Elpidius Patrick. His first teaching assignment was at St. Patrick's School in St. Louis, Missouri, where he remained until 1877 when he began a journey of teaching and prefecting in a number of schools in the District for the next twenty five years: St. Joseph in 1877, Carondelet in 1878, Cathedral High School in St. Paul in 1879, St. Bridget's in St. Louis in 1883 and 1888, St. Vincent and St. Mel in St. Louis in 1885-87 and 1888-1899, Feehanville in 1887, 1890-92 and 1896, and Kansas City in 1894. Brother E. Patrick retired to the Community of Ancients in Glencoe, Missouri, in 1897 at age sixty-four. He died there at age seventy-two, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for thirty three years.