My name is Fr. Eric Michael Patrick. I was born in Escondido, California but raised from the age of 2 in Witmore, California, a small town 30 miles outside of Redding. I was homeschooled by my mother with my four siblings; we were raised Catholic. The call to the priesthood began to develop in my early teens when I decided to make my faith my own and discern if among the thousands of religions, Catholicism is the faith possessing the fullness of the truth. After several years of studying Catholicism and other religions, I came to the conclusion that Catholicism possessed the fullness of the truth. At the same time, I felt the call to commit myself fully to my faith, to be hot and not lukewarm in the words of Scripture. I did not yet know that that would mean becoming a priest, but this started me down the journey of discerning religious life or the priesthood.
I entered and graduated from Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula with a degree in Liberal Arts, and a love for great authors such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. I graduated in Spring of 2023 with Masters of Divinity and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park.
I was ordained to the Priesthood on June 3rd, 2023, and was assigned as a Parochial Vicar at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in South Sacramento for two years. St. Clare in Roseville will be my second assignment as a priest. I look forward to getting to know the parishioners of St. Clare and being involved in the spiritual and ministerial life of the parish.