The beatification cause is being opened for Sister Clare Crockett, the young Irish nun who turned her back on a promising acting career for a religious life that ultimately led to her tragic death during an earthquake in South America.
Along with Blessed Carlo Acutis, the Derry-born native, who was only 33 years old when she died in a 2016 earthquake in Ecuador, joins a growing number of millennials on the road to sainthood, <a href="https://aleteia.org/2024/11/04/sr-clare-crockett-to-be-named-servant-of-god-in-2025"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> <em>Aleteia</em>. (Blessed Carlo is due to be canonised some time in 2025.) It means Irish Catholics may soon have another canonised saint among their ranks.
“The people of Derry and beyond are overwhelmed by the possibility that one day, they will have their own saint,” Father Gerard Mongan, the parish priest of Sister Clare’s native parish of St. Columba’s in Derry, has <a href="https://catholicstarherald.org/sainthood-cause-to-open-for-beloved-irish-actress-turned-nun-parish-priest-confirms/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">said</mark></a>.<br><br>“In particular, she has been an inspiration to many young people who have been inspired by her life, especially her infectious joy. She has already brought countless people back to the practice of their faith. We all look forward to the official opening of her cause when she will become [a] servant of God.”
The first stage in the beatification process will occur in Spain – as opposed to Ecuador or Ireland – because the religious order to which she belonged, the <a href="https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/about-us/founder/biography" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother</mark></a>, has its headquarters in Spain, <em>Aleteia</em> notes.
Sister Clare died during a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that claimed the lives of nearly 700 people in Ecuador. She was ushering children down a stairway at the school where she taught music, when the stairs collapsed, resulting in her death.
In 2018, her order chose to commemorate Sister Clare's life and achievements in a <mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0LKZm2BqZo&t=0s">documentary film</a></mark> titled <em>All or Nothing</em><a href="https://aleteia.org/2018/05/01/the-remarkable-story-of-a-33-year-old-irish-nun-killed-in-an-earthquake" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">,</a> which gained renown due to its inspiring impact on viewers.
The documentary recounts how Sister Clare was a rising star in the Irish acting scene, when a visit to church on Good Friday "left her weeping in the pews and with a burning desire to devote herself to Jesus Christ", <em>Aleteia</em> reports.
It notes that <a href="https://www.derryjournal.com/news/people/first-step-on-path-to-sainthood-for-derrys-sister-clare-crockett-to-take-place-in-madrid-4851467"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">according</mark></a> to the <em>Derry Journal</em>, the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother confirmed that they had made the request to take on the investigation for the beatification cause to Bishop Antonio Prieto Lucena of the Spanish Diocese of Alcala de Henares, located in central Spain, outside Madrid.
This follows, <em>Aleteia</em> reports, a request being made of the bishop of Portoviejo in Ecuador to allow the transfer of the investigation, and he agreed; Rome then approved the request.
The ceremony to open the cause will take place on 12 January 2025 at the Catedral Magistral de los Santos Niños Justo y Pastor in Alcalá de Henares. One of the sisters of the order, Sister Kristen Gardner, will lead the investigation.
<em>Photo: Sr. Clare Crockett; screenshot from <a href="https://hmy.homeofthemother.org/index.php/life-soul/legacy/6572-hna-clare"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">hmy.homeofthemother.org</mark></a>.</em>
