PATRICK, SARAH
AUTHOR

Sarah was raised in Toronto, the child of a British war bride and a father who worked as an addiction counsellor. At 16, she attended Grenville Christian College in Brockville, ON, which was recognized for its “tough love” approach to Christian education. Upon graduation, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama and English from Queen’s University. Sarah began her professional journey as a publicist in Toronto in the early 1980s, focusing on theatre, dance, and visual arts. She eventually returned to her high school in Brockville to teach English, drama, and history, holding that role for 16 years. In 2001, she relocated to Toronto to work as an executive assistant in commercial real estate, a role she held for eleven years. In 2007, students from her former school initiated a class action lawsuit alleging damages due to the cult-like abuse they experienced there. This prompted Sarah to pen her memoir, Binding Shame: Life Inside a Cult of Obedience, as a way to understand and process her experience as both a student and staff member in a religious cult. In 2014, she relocated from Toronto to Algonquin Highlands, purchasing a historic farmhouse that had once belonged to well-known local trapper James Sawyer. Sarah and her husband, Steve, converted the house into “Sawyer’s Creek Bed and Breakfast,” which they ran for five years before retiring in December 2024.

Binding Shame Memoir description

Winner of the 2025 International Cultic Studies Association’s Dianne Casoni International Award, Binding Shame: Life Inside a Cult of Obedience is a profoundly moving memoir that delves into the life experiences of children raised in cult-like environments, highlighting victimization and the shift to becoming victimizers in adulthood. Sarah Patrick shares her teenage years at Grenville Christian College in Ontario, connected to the Community of Jesus sect in Cape Cod, where discipline involved humiliation, shame, and physical punishment. She also looks back on returning as a teacher and recognizing her own role in the punitive system, all while dealing with media reports of abuse and a class action lawsuit brought by the former students. What makes this story compelling is its combination of personal narrative, honest self-reflection, and insights into how cult-like systems manipulate belonging, obedience, and identity. Binding Shame serves as a testament to the power of truth and the healing that follows. Readers will be drawn to Patrick’s transformation and inspired by her unwavering determination to find peace.
“Sarah Patrick’s searching and heartfelt memoir throws open the door on one of Canada’s most notorious cults. Through meticulous research and unflinching self-examination, Patrick reveals how Grenville Christian College, and the Community of Jesus preyed on her youthful insecurities and her need to belong, shaping her into a perfect monster of obedience, complicity, and self-hatred. Binding Shame will horrify and enrage you, yes. But it will also ferry you toward the healing that comes with truth, accountability, and forgiveness. A fearless, important book.” - Sarah Henstra, Governor General’s Literary Award for The Red Word, Professor of English at Metropolitan Toronto University