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Eileen O’Connor reaches Rome

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Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP, Fr Anthony Robbie, Cardinal Semeraro, the Prefect of the Dicastery, and Fr Martin Roestenburg OP. Photo: Supplied.

The long awaited Cause of canonisation of Eileen O’Connor has reached a massive milestone in Rome. After many years of preparation the collected documentation has been presented to the Roman authorities so that they can weigh up the merits of the Cause and hopefully advance it to the next stage.

Eileen O’Connor, a young Australian woman from Coogee founded Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor (the Brown Nurses) over a century ago to provide home medical care but also spiritual assistance for the very poorest of the poor in Sydney, who had no other hope of assistance.

Despite severe medical suffering herself she disregarded her limitations and achieved remarkable results inspiring generations of young women to dedicate themselves to a demanding, but intensely fruitful life on the margins. She died at the age of 29 and was buried at Coogee where generations of pilgrims have constantly sought her assistance and visited her tomb. When it was last opened about 90 years ago, she was found to be fully incorrupt.

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Archbishop Anthony Fisher decided a few years ago to take up the Cause. It had been languishing for many years despite the continuing and growing interest of the faithful in the remarkable young woman from Coogee whose legendary labours a century ago have brought remarkable spiritual fruits— not just during her lifetime, but perhaps even more after her death.

Devotion is the crucial element in identifying an authentic cause, that is, seeing that the faithful are already finding an answer to their prayers when they ask for help from someone like Eileen. Despite ample proof of that, nothing can begin until someone officially proposes that a Cause of Canonisation begin.

Several archbishops of Sydney in the past had quite a devotion to Eileen, the “Little Mother,” but none ever took the plunge and decided to devote sufficient time and energy to undertake the lengthy and arduous preparations for the investigation that is necessary.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP and Cardinal Semeraro, the Prefect of the Dicastery. Photo: Supplied.

Cardinal Gilroy in particular was so devoted that he used to regularly visit the Sisters at Coogee and serve the poor himself at their soup kitchen. Even so, with Mary Mackillop such a long way off from being canonised, it was understandable that more attention was given to that massively important Cause.

It was Archbishop Fisher who finally proposed that we get underway about five years ago, in time for the centenary of Eileen’s death in 2021. Bishops Randazzo and Brady had a big part in promoting the works to begin the formal cause and the first step, the identification of a postulator was decided early on. As a priest resident in Rome, I was asked to undergo the training for that role at the special school attached to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and I then returned to Australia to assist the process of forming the Cause and guiding the works of the teams of canonists, historians and theologians who would prepare the case over the next four years.

The results are an impressive and very substantial documentation of every aspect of the life of Eileen, tracking through all her ups and downs, her challenges and her victories. They give us a remarkable insight to the deep spirituality of this saintly woman who touched the lives of so many, largely from her own sick bed over a short but powerful life.

Archbishop Fisher, already in Rome for the synod on synodality took the opportunity to officially pass over the results of his and his collaborators’ work to the Dicatsery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican this week. Cardinal Semeraro, the Prefect of the Dicastery, the man charged by the Holy Father to guide and assess all these Causes throughout the world, was very generous in coming to meet Archbishop Fisher in person and take custody of the papers, a rare honour. The cardinal spoke to the assembled Australians present on the value of another saint for Australia and of the good example she could set, as well as encouraging everyone to ask God for a miracle to help things along!

Present for the occasion were the seminarians of the Archdiocese of Sydney studying in Rome, several of the priests of Sydney who are resident in the Domus Australia and engaged in studies, Fr Joseph Hamilton the rector of the Domus and Fr Martin Roestenburg OP, who will carry on the work representing the Cause at the Roman end from now on.

The next step involves the Roman authorities making an assessment of the merits of the documentation that has been presented to them. It will be sifted and formed into a “Positio” or position paper of several hundred pages, which will analyse the issues in Eileen’s life and hope to identify signs of heroic virtue in her story. If all goes well, and she passes the test, she will be declared “Venerable” and from that point on all we will need is a miracle to have her declared Blessed.

This next step typically takes a few years, but we are very well prepared indeed for everything required. Meanwhile, we need to ask God to provide a miracle if it is his will. There are very many miracles already attributed to Eileen, but we need miracles within very restricted categories to prove beyond any possible doubt that God is favouring this particular Cause. Nevertheless, Eileen’s many friends are confident that all will come in time and that before long Australia will have a second saint by the sea.

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