Sister killed in school collapse in 2016 Ecuadorian earthquake
The Religious Order that a Londonderry nun was part of when she was killed in the 2016 Ecuadorian earthquake will next year begin the process that could see her canonised a saint, Donna Deeney writes in the Belfast Telegraph.
People from across the world have contacted Sister Clare Crockett’s family telling them how, after praying a Novena in which they asked the nun to intercede for them, they have had their prayers answered.
Recently, families living in Derry who have been loaned a statue to the Blessed Virgin Mary dedicated to Sister Clare say loved ones who were fighting for their lives in hospital after contracting Covid-19 have, against all odds, recovered.
A mural of Sister Clare painted by the same group of artists that created the now famous Derry Girls mural is also attracting an ever-increasing number of visitors to the Brandywell.
Sister Clare (33) grew up in this part of Derry dreaming of becoming a famous actor.
But while she was on a prayer retreat in Spain, which she inadvertently signed up for thinking she was going on a fun holiday, her life took on a very different path.
Two years after this retreat she entered religious life as a 19-year-old teenager and took her final vows as a nun in the Home of the Mother Order in 2010.
But just six years later, on April 16, 2016, she was tragically killed when the school she was teaching in in Ecuador collapsed during an earthquake.
Over the past four and a half years since her death, the nuns at the Home of the Mother Order have been preparing for the process that could see her declared a saint.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Sister Clare’s younger sister, Megan Nicell, said she and her other sister Shauna still find it hard to separate the idea of their sister, Clare, with Sister Clare the nun, now beloved of so many.
Megan said: “Shortly after Clare died we started to hear from people from all over the world who told us they were praying to Clare and had had their prayers answered.
“People came to Derry from all over to visit her grave but really since the film All or Nothing, which the Sisters at Clare’s Order made about her life, word about her really spread everywhere.
“Novena groups dedicated to Sister Clare were set up and we have heard a lot of stories of how girls who struggled for years to get pregnant did the Novena and now they have their babies and all.
“A statue of Our Lady has been dedicated to Sister Clare which was loaned out to anyone who wanted it but once the lockdown happened we stopped that.
“That was until one day a family who had someone belonging to them really, really ill with coronavirus and who wasn’t expected to survive asked us for it.
“We gave them the statue to keep for as long as they wanted and their family member survived so when word got out about that, other families’ with people in hospital fighting for their lives after getting Covid asked for the statue too and they have recovered.
“People have great faith in her and we are just beyond proud of her, but both Shauna and I still find it hard at times to get it into our heads that this is our sister Clare they are talking about.
“To us, she is still our Clare — the Clare we grew up with, who wanted to be this famous actor, but ironically the process of canonisation that can’t begin until five years after her death could make her a famous nun.”
Courtesy the Belfast Telegraph
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