The cause of the Servant of God Eileen O’Connor, the ‘Little Mother’, has taken another step forward.
In October 2024, the boxes containing all the acts and documentation collected over four years by the diocesan inquiry were formally presented by Fr Anthony Robbie to the Roman authorities at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
The boxes have now been opened and formally identified in the presence of the Roman postulator Fr Martin Roestenburg OPraem and Vatican officials.
Now the information will be thoroughly examined before weighing up the merits of the cause in order to make a formal pronouncement on whether Eileen merits to be beatified. Ultimately, the final decision lies with the Holy Father.
Eileen O’Connor was born in 1892 into a family of devout Catholic Irish immigrants, and died in 1921.
A childhood accident left her with severe medical issues, which caused her to become bedridden for much of her young life, while suffering constant pain.
Despite her incapacities, from her sickbed at Coogee she founded Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor (the Brown Nurses) to provide medical care and spiritual assistance to Sydney’s poorest of the poor in their homes.
At a time when there were no social services or government assistance, this idea of going to the homes of the sick poor was truly revolutionary.
With her eyes fixed on the Crucified Jesus, Eileen disregarded her limitations and inspired generations of young women to dedicate themselves to a life of Christian self-offering and service to the poor and dying across the boundaries of culture, race, sex and religion.
She died at the age of 28 and was buried at Coogee where generations of pilgrims continue to visit the tomb. Drawn by her reputation for holiness, they seek her assistance and an answer to their prayers through her intercession.
Despite the continuing and growing interest of the faithful in this remarkable young woman, and the reports of graces received through her intercession, no church authority ever ventured to officially open an inquiry into her life, and the cause languished for many years.
Even though several past archbishops had a devotion to Eileen, the ‘Little Mother’, none could muster the energy to undertake the onerous and lengthy task of preparing for the investigation.
In later years, the cause was somewhat eclipsed by the rise of St Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first (and only) canonised saint, and it is understandable that all attention came to be focused on her. Nevertheless, devotion towards Eileen continues unabated to this day.
It was Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP who finally took the plunge, and the diocesan inquiry was formally opened at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on 20 February 2020.
Fr Anthony Robbie was nominated postulator of the cause, and he had the mammoth and arduous task of forming the cause and guiding the work of the teams of canonists, historians and theologians who would prepare the case over the next four years.
The work of documenting, collating and tracing every aspect of Eileen’s life culminated in the closing session of the diocesan inquiry on 16 August 2024.
The many documents and acts were bundled, boxed and sealed and entrusted to Fr Robbie, who accompanied them to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
Archbishop Fisher was already in Rome for the Synod on Synodality, and so, in October 2024, in the presence of the archbishop, Fr Robbie and Fr Roestenburg, the Acts were formally presented to the Prefect of the Dicastery, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, and placed in his custody.
Fr Roestenburg was nominated the Roman postulator by Archbishop Fisher on 24 August 2024.
The postulator’s task is to oversee each step of the cause and to make sure it progresses through all the hurdles, rules and regulations of the Roman system.
The first of these steps was to open the boxes of acts and documents sent from Australia. On 3 October 2025, the boxes were formally opened in the Vatican Dicastery offices.
Present were Fr Roestenburg and two Vatican officials. The fairly unceremonious, but important, event marks the official opening of the ‘Roman phase’ of the inquiry. The Roman authorities will now make an assessment of the merits of the documentation that has been presented to them.
All the official acts, original writings, witness reports, reports of the historians and theologians, and so on, will be collated into a voluminous Positio or position paper, which will be sent to various Vatican experts who will analyse the issues in Eileen’s life and hopefully identify signs of heroic virtue in her life story.
If all goes well, and she passes the test, she will be declared ‘venerable’ and from that point on, a miracle will be required to have her declared ‘blessed’.
Meanwhile, we need to ask God to provide a miracle, if it is his will, through Eileen’s intercession, in order to prove beyond any possible doubt that God is favouring this particular cause.
The Prefect of the Dicastery, Cardinal Semeraro, stressed that if no miracle was forthcoming, it was often the fault of us, the faithful, who forget to ask for one. When praying to Eileen, therefore, be ruthless in asking her to send a miracle, for without a documented and proven miracle, the cause will stagnate.
Let us therefore pray that by providing a miracle proving God’s grace and favour, this saintly woman will before long become Australia’s second canonised saint. May many people be touched by her story and find solace and comfort through her example of selfless sacrifice and evangelical love for the sick poor.
