Mother Patern College of Health Sciences

Mother Patern College awards degrees in Nursing, Social Work, Laboratory Technology, and Biology, and a Certificate in Health Care Systems Management. It also offers courses in Primary Health Care, and administers programs in Health Education, women’s issues such as gender-based violence and peace-building, Trauma Counseling and HIV/AIDS. Mother Patern College of Health Sciences is named in honor of Annunciata Josephine Owens, Mother Mary Patern, FMM, the first superior of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Liberia. She led the first community of sisters of the Institute of Franciscan Missionaries to Liberia in December of 1936. During her time here, Liberia saw the opening of the very first Girls Day & Boarding School, St. Mother Patern did much for the education of Liberian girls, and died in 1973 in her native land of Scotland.