At a special event this afternoon in Madrid, a Derry nun who lost her life in a South American earthquake nearly nine years ago has been acknowledged as a candidate for sainthood.
On April 16, 2016, Sister Clare Crockett of Long Tower in Derry passed away following the collapse of the Playa Prieta, Ecuador, school where she was a music teacher.
As the 7.8-magnitude earthquake occurred, the 33-year-old nun from Brandywell, who had experience in pastoral care, hospital chaplaincy, and missionary outreach in Spain, the United States, and Ecuador, was attempting to guide a number of students, reports RTE.
In an attempt to become a nun, she declined a presentation on Nickelodeon, a children’s television network, along with other prominent television and film opportunities.
She claimed that when she announced her intention to become a nun while carrying a “beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other,” her companions were shocked. In the end, she joined the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother order to get her Holy Orders, reports RTE.
“All or nothing” was her life slogan, and she has been linked to reproductive miracles in the past, reports RTE.
The first step towards sainthood was today’s opening ceremony for the cause of Sr. Crockett’s beatification.
The service was presided over by Antonio Prieto Lucena, the bishop of the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares, and will begin at 5.30 p.m. Madrid time (4.30 p.m. Irish time) in the Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares, reports RTE.
This weekend, more than 100 Derry residents travelled to Madrid.
They are “nervous, excited, and very proud” of their sister, according to Sr. Crockett’s sister Shauna Gill.
“It’s great for our town. She’s one of our own. We didn’t even think she would become a nun, now she’s on the way to becoming a saint,” reports RTE.
The ceremony will be streamed by the Brunswick Moviebowl in Derry.
The first showing, which can accommodate 290 people, has sold out, and the second screening, which can accommodate more than 170 people, is almost sold out, they revealed yesterday.
Prior to becoming a member of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother in Spain in 2001 at the age of 18, Sr. Crockett was an actress. In 2010, she made her eternal vows, reports RTE.
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