Servant of God Eileen O’Connor

Dear friends​

We have exciting news to share. Australia has another religious woman (God willing) on the path to sainthood. Fr Frank has handed out holy cards of Eileen O’Connor, so our parish in a small way has helped promote her cause! Thanks be to God.

Below is a copy of a news release from the Archdiocese of Sydney (edited for length): Australia is one step closer to getting its next saint with the Vatican advancing the cause for the beatification of Sydney woman Eileen O'Connor by awarding her the title Servant of God.

"Eileen's was a life of immense suffering and judged by today's standards many would have viewed it as lacking in dignity, value or hope," said Archbishop Fisher. "That she is on her way to possibly being our next saint shows even a short life, marked by incredible suffering, can be an inspiration to all and reminds us of the dignity of every human life."

Former congregational leader and Eileen O'Connor Project Leader, Sr Margaret Mary Birgan oln, described the news as "simply wonderful" and the new Servant of God as a "very human, beautiful soul".

​Fr Robbie (the postulator for her cause in Rome) said the Vatican green light means the task of formally presenting the co-founder of Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor to the world as an outstanding Australian example of holiness and charity can now begin. "With every passing year since her death a century ago, Eileen O'Connor has grown in the love and devotion of the people of Sydney and of all Australia," the youth and for the lay apostolate in particular. "May she inspire many others to devote themselves to the needs of the outcast and forgotten as her own life becomes better known."

Sr Margaret Mary said that Eileen's is "a story waiting to be told and now we have the opportunity to tell it".
"Eileen has always belonged to the people of God, not us, and we pray that she becomes a ray of sunshine to the faithful today as she was in her short life.

"We are extremely grateful to Archbishop Fisher and Bishop Randazzo. "The journey has finally begun!" For Eileen to be beatified, a miracle would have to be rigorously investigated and scientifically approved by Vatican experts. Such miracles are usually medical cures of terminal illnesses which are scientifically inexplicable in the eyes of experts.

God bless
Fr Thomas

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