Servant of God Eileen O’Connor. IMAGE: Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor website.
Eileen O’Connor’s path to sainthood is now in God’s hands (and the care of the Vatican) after Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP formally concluded the diocesan phase of the canonisation cause on Friday 16 August and officially presented the documents in Rome this week, reports The Catholic Weekly.
The archbishop signed off on the final decree for the acts of the cause at Cathedral House, alongside members of the Eileen O’Connor tribunal and the historical commission, who hope the Servant of God will become Australia’s second saint.
The decree, and the documents compiled by the tribunal and commission over the last four years evidencing Eileen’s case for sainthood, were sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
Diocesan postulator Fr Anthony Robbie has overseen the cause from beginning to end and sealed the necessary documents ready for dispatch to Rome.
Fr Robbie said he has seen the “massive response” of Catholics growing in knowledge of Eileen and turning to her in prayer.
“I’ve seen Eileen at my shoulder many times in the course of all this,” he said.
“She is, I believe, an agent of heaven, and she has helped myself and so many others know this.”
Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP officially signing off on the final decree for the acts of the cause at Cathedral House. PHOTO: Alphonsus Fok/Catholic Weekly.
Fr Robbie travelled to Rome alongside Archbishop Fisher, who is attending the Synod on Synodality, to formally present the documentation to the dicastery.
There they hope a Roman postulator will be appointed to take the investigation into the cause forward.
“Now begins the work of researching for a miracle to show God’s approval of the work that we’ve done. We’re very zealously pursuing that at the moment,” Fr Robbie said.
Episcopal delegate to the tribunal, Fr Julian Wellspring, attended the final signing off, after overseeing the cause which officially began just over four years ago in February 2020.
“I really didn’t know a great deal about Eileen when I was asked to take this on as head of this tribunal,” he told The Catholic Weekly.
“And so I’ve learned all about her life story, from her birthplace, her physical impairments, her sufferings, her faith in seeking to follow the Lord.
“I’ve found her an inspiration to holiness of life. Indeed, all of us are called to be saints, but what I find with someone like Eileen is that bit of extra encouragement.”
Fr Julian Wellspring, Archbishop Fisher and Fr Anthony Robbie at the conclusion of the diocesan phase of canonisation for Eileen O’Connor.
President of the historical commission Dr Jocelyn Hedley, believes after four years working on the cause that Eileen is a “saint for life” in the current culture of abortion and euthanasia.
“More and more we’re seeing vulnerable people pushed to the side. We live in an age where physical health, beauty and strength are the really important things in our society,” Dr Hedley said.
“Eileen is not somebody that our world, our current society would see as being these things.
“But she shows us that no matter who we are, no matter our weaknesses, our failings, our frailties, our vulnerabilities, we have an opportunity to offer these up and join them with Christ’s own sufferings.”
Archbishop Fisher meets with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, at the Vatican to formally present the Australian documentation for the Cause for Sainthood for Servant of God, Eileen O’Connor. PHOTO: Facebook, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP.
Eileen O’Connor was born in 1892 and died 1921, aged only 28. She suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, spinal curvature, stunted growth, periods of blindness, long periods of paralysis and extreme nerve pain, amidst other ailments.
Despite this Eileen offered her suffering up to God and dedicated her life to his mission, founding the Our Lady’s Nurses of the Poor—known as the “Brown Nurses”—alongside Fr Edward McGrath msc.
In 1936 her remains were transferred from Randwick Cemetery to the chapel at Our Lady’s Home in Coogee, Sydney. At the time, her body was claimed to be incorrupt.
She was declared a Servant of God in 2018.
This article by George Al-Akiki was published in The Catholic Weekly. with updates added from Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP’s Facebook page.