The diocesan phase of the beatification of Sister begins. Clare Crockett

This January 12, the diocesan phase of the cause of beatification of Sister Clare Crockett was opened, the young Irish woman who left a promising career as an actress to pursue religious life, and who died in the earthquake in Ecuador on April 16, 2016. .

The ceremony took place in the Magistral Cathedral of the Holy Children Justo and Pastor of Alcalá de Henares (Spain), in the presence of the local Bishop, Mons. Antonio Prieto Lucena; the Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, Cardinal Chomali, among other bishops, priests, nuns and faithful.

During the event, the Bishop of Alcalá de Henares explained that although the nun of the Servants of the Home of the Mother died in the Ecuadorian diocese of Puerto Viejo, on July 20, 2021, jurisdiction was granted to the Spanish diocese. For its part, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints gave him the nothing stands in the way (nothing opposes) on March 2, 2023.

The prelate also explained that, after the ceremony, the chosen tribunal will begin its work of “investigating in detail the life, the virtues, the reputation of holiness and the graces and favors received through the intercession of Sister Clare, to prove the heroism of his virtues.”

In that sense, he expressed that “we are convinced that God is good and does not stop enriching his children in the Church with his gifts. So that the Christian people can recognize in them a special presence of grace.”

We receive testimonies of possible miracles

For her part, Sister Kristen Gardner, postulator of the cause and also a servant of the Home of the Mother, formally requested the opening of the diocesan phase and assured that this request “is motivated by human reasons, but by the desire to give glory to God, who manifests himself in the testimony of dedication to Christ that shines in the lives of his servants.”

In recounting the life of Sister Clare, he assured that her overflowing joy and coherence of life led many souls “to discover that true happiness is found only in God.”

The postulator recalled that after her death, at the age of 33, the family requested Sister Clare’s body to be buried in her hometown, Derry (Northern Ireland).

And although at first the nuns believed that the sister’s mission was to “evangelize her native country after her death,” they discovered that her apostolate extended beyond the borders, as they began to receive “messages and emails from more than 50 countries.”

“Desperate souls, on the brink of suicide, have regained hope; university students, lost in vice, have received strength to return to the Lord”, are some of the testimonies received.

Furthermore, the postulator added, young people have written to them who, upon learning about the life of the nun, have decided to embrace the consecrated life, while “countless seminarians and religious have said that Sister Clare has saved their vocation, just when they were thinking that they had no “no other option than to turn your back on God.”

“There is a very characteristic common note in the messages received,” he stated, “and that is that many describe Sister Clare as their friend, even without having met her, she is their friend.”

Sister Kristen Gardner said they have also written to them from people who “speak of miracles,” who “come to Sister Clare with their needs and feel heard. “They ask for relics and for her to be proclaimed a saint by the Church.”

Sister Clare’s Vocation Story

On the website Hermanaclare.com It is reported that the young Irish woman, born on November 14, 1982, had attended a prayer meeting at the Home of the Mother, in Spain, for Holy Week in 2000.

She was a 17-year-old teenager who dreamed of being a movie star and who had already been a presenter of youth programs in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, “the Nickelodeon Channel had been interested in her.”

Thus, the first days of the meeting “were spent sunbathing and smoking,” but “on Good Friday someone told her: ‘Clare, today you really have to go into the chapel. “Today is Good Friday.”

Although he stayed in the last pew, during the liturgy he came closer to worship and kiss the cross. “That simple gesture marked a before and after in his life. When the ceremony was over, a sister found her crying as she repeated: ‘He died for me. ‘He loves me!… Why hasn’t anyone told me that before?’”

However, upon returning to his country he once again entered “the maelstrom of superficiality and sin that the world of cinema offered him.” “She herself expressed it like this: ‘I lived badly, I lived in mortal sin. I drank a lot, I smoked a lot, I started smoking drugs. I continued with my friends, with my boyfriend. It remained the same. I didn’t have the strength to cut through all that. But of course, I didn’t have the strength because I didn’t ask the Lord to help me.’”

But one night of partying when he overindulged in alcohol “he experienced Jesus saying to him: ‘Why do you keep hurting me?’” Later, while in a London hotel, “he experienced such a great emptiness that he understood that his life had no meaning if he did not give it to Jesus Christ.”

Despite promises of success, young Clare entered as a candidate for the Servants of the Home of the Mother on August 11, 2001, and years later, on September 8, 2010, she made her final vows in the United States.