Monroe County Right to Life Benefit Dinner

Meet a modern-day Joan of Arc. Whether in scrubs, camouflage, or a religious habit, Sr. Dede Byrne, in her threefold calling as a professed religious sister, renowned surgeon, and U.S. Army colonel, is a model of virtue and action.

Sister Deirdre Byrne is an active missionary sister and superior of her community in Washington, DC, Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts. She is double board-certified in family medicine and general surgery. A native of the Washington, D.C. area, Sister Deirdre (known to many as Sister Dede) is one of eight siblings, attended Langley High School, and graduated from Virginia Tech. After college, Sister Dede followed in her thoracic surgeon father’s footsteps and entered medical school at Georgetown University, where she eventually completed a surgical residency. During that time, she also joined the United States Army and has since retired with the rank of Colonel after 29 years of service in the military.

Today, Sr. Byrne runs a pro-bono physical therapy and medical clinic in the lower level of a convent in Washington, D.C., making it part of her vocation to help women reverse the effects of mifepristone, a chemical abortion drug frequently given to women as the first of a series of abortion pills.