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ATTLEBORO - Even a car crash can't bring Sister Patricia Harrington down.

A car with college students had flown through a stop sign and hit her vehicle, she said, recalling the scary event.

"I'm OK," but her car was totalled, said the 68-year-old nun. "They were so cute. They said they would tell the police everything, and they waited with me."

The accident occurred just two weeks before Bishop Feehan's homecoming weekend, which concludes today and includes a Mass and celebration of her 50 years with the Sisters of Mercy teaching order, the last 38 at Feehan.

It was just one more event crammed into her busy life, and she was taking it in stride. Before long, she launched into another story, about how she was in a grocery store this past week, and a former student came "flying down the aisle" with his two young children in tow.

"I'm so glad you're alive!" he said.

The former student had heard a Mass was going to be said for "Sister Pat," as she is affectionately known.

"He thought I had died," she said.

As usual with Sister Pat, hugs had already been exchanged in greetings with the former student.

"Well, give me another hug in case I do die before I see you again," she said, laughing at her response to the astonished man.

Students, past and present, administrators, parents, faculty and others likely would not be surprised by the exchanges, nor Sister Pat's responses to those events.

She has represented love, forgiveness, hugs, frenetic energy, enthusiasm, and more in the almost four decades within the classrooms and hallways of Feehan, and beyond.

Her hallmarks include the creation in 1970 of Echo - a weekend where students learn to break down barriers of class and cliques to better understand each other, along with a better appreciation of their parents.

About the same time, she founded the school's homecoming parades and other events that have survived time, and included thousands of students. North Attleboro High School Principal Bob Gay was among the first to participate in Echo (Encountering Christ in Others), in his senior year at Feehan.

"She was youthful and enthusiastic," said Gay, who has no shortage of praise when it comes to Sister Pat, who was also his math teacher.

That enthusiasm has never waned.

Gay continued as a Feehan representative to Echo through his college years.

"People are just drawn to her for her enthusiasm and sincerity," he said. "In this business of dealing with kids, I think kids know when someone is not being sincere.

"She's not just a woman of great faith and great spirit. She truly loves the young people, and the young people love her back."

Feehan President Christopher Servant, a 1966 graduate of the school who returned to teach three years after Sister Pat's arrival in 1969, agrees.

"She has that quality of accepting everyone with unconditional love. She sees the best in everyone," he said. "She has a natural sense of charisma that she doesn't have to work at. She extends herself to the students.

"She's never lost sight of the fact of her commitment to children, and to God. Over the years, she's been such a big part of the school."

Not that she isn't a tough teacher, Servant said.

"She will call students to task if they're not being the best person they can be," he said.

Sister Pat also has been the student council monitor for 38 years, and for the past eight years has been game administrator for the boys' varsity soccer team.

This past Thursday, she sat in the misty rain and damp, giving a thumbs up to the team, wishing them luck in their run to qualify for the state tournament.

In an interview before the game, she bustled about, joking with other faculty members as she led the way to her classroom. The door was adorned in green paper shamrocks, and soon Sister Pat would pull on her Bishop Feehan hoodie.

Sister Pat is a Feehan institution.

"I feel like I'm 29," she said, laughing. "I've had the best life."

She's reflective and sentimental, recalling students and her involvement at the school, where she is the last remaining nun of the teaching order housed on the grounds from 1961 to 2005.

"I'm the last Mohican," she acknowledged.

But she has never strayed from her mission, and has faith that it will continue through associates and students.

In a family of five siblings, she was one of four who entered a religious vocation. Her two sisters, Kathleen and Sheila Harrington, are nuns, and her brother is the Rev. Brian Harrington.

She entered Mount St. Rita's Novitiate in Cumberland, R.I., in 1957; received the religious name of S. Mary Gilpatrick in 1958; took her first profession of vows in 1960 and her final profession in 1965, then started her teaching career in 1962 at St. Edward's in Pawtucket.

She then moved on to St. Ann's in Providence in 1963 and to St. Joseph's in Pascoag in 1965. She spent two years at Our Lady of Lourdes in Taunton before arriving at Feehan.

Sister Pat said she wasn't always sure she wanted to be a nun.

"Sometimes you have to listen to the questions in your heart," she said.

She worried early on whether she'd be lonely and isolated in the vocation.

With the Sisters of Mercy and family at Feehan, she soon learned nothing could be further from the truth.

"The students became my family," she said.

She said it's "the spirit of family" evident within the Feehan community, especially in times of crisis or need.

"I made a deal with the Lord: You take care of my family, and I'll take care of yours," Sister Pat said. "It's defined my journey."

"The best is in giving, and we've received the gifts of everyone's love," she said.

And those acts, in turn, have yielded other returns.

She tells of how the sisters would attend all of the games. On one occasion, they noticed a student, one of a large family, who had sneakers that were in poor condition.

A new pair was bought. But first, Sister Pat rubbed them in the dirt. Then the sneakers were given to the student on the pretense that they had been around for a while.

"I said, 'Check to make sure they're not too smelly,'," she recalled.

The boy proclaimed that they weren't smelly at all; in fact, with the exception of the dirt, they seemed brand new.

In the intervening years, the boy apparently found out about the feat.

Grown, he called Sister Pat. He wanted to pay the cost of school tuition for someone who otherwise could not afford it.

"Consider it payback for the sneakers," he told her.

"The best of me is we," said Sister Pat, a lesson she strives to instill in her students.

Over her many years of teaching, she said, "there have always been distractions for kids; now there's more roadblocks. But they're the same."

The students, she said, are willing to help those in need with mitten and coat collections for the needy and helping to raise money for children with AIDS in Honduras, among other contributions.

She'll often tell her students: "Saint, I ain't."

Sister Pat said she will tell her students that though she loves them, "sometimes I get cranky if you don't do what you're supposed to do."

She wants them to use their God-given talent.

She concedes to students, "I can make a mistake. And if I do, give me a call. Just make the most of the day. Just be the gift God wants you to be."

"It's nice to see the end, starting with the young face in front of you, and then to see them succeed," she said.

Sister Pat instills in her students that one person can make a difference.

"The beauty in kids is, given the chance for recognition, they will succeed," she said.

She has faith that they all will.

SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.