A nun from Northern Ireland who was killed in an earthquake while she was teaching music in Ecuador has taken a step closer to sainthood.
A ceremony on Sunday afternoon started the process of beatification for Clare Crockett, who died in the Portoviejo, Ecuador during an earthquake in April 2016. The 33-year-old had been working in the country as part of her work as a nun, which had also taken in placements in Spain and the US.
Crockett, from Brandywell in Derry, had been an actor before she took religious order. She had the opportunity to become a presenter on the children’s TV channel Nickelodeon before leaving the acting profession.
She was a self-confessed party girl as a teenager, according to a testimony she had written before her death. Her calling came during a retreat in Spain on Good Friday 2000. Crockett ultimately took her Holy Orders with the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother order in 2001.
More than 100 people travelled to Madrid for the opening of the cause of beautification at the Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares on Sunday. The ceremony had been streamed at the Brunswick Moviebowl in her home town. About 1,000 were expected at the service.
Her sister, Shauna Gill, told the PA news agency that the group who had travelled to Spain included friends, family, priests and the Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown.
Gill said the family was “very proud and excited”. “There’s people we’ve never met before here too so it’s a great experience,” she said, adding that the ceremony will see her sister declared as a “servant of God”.
“There’s four steps to becoming a saint, so this is the first one,” she said. “Clare’s life will be investigated before we can move on. No one knows how long it can take, 10 years, 20 years, two years, it depends on how fast things move.
“Nobody has been through this in our lifetime, so nobody knows what to expect or what’s going to happen.”
The next stage in the process would be being designated “venerable”, “blessed” and finally a “saint”. If all those steps are passed, McKeown said Crockett would be the first saint for the region in the 21st century, adding: “She ended up being famous after her death.”
The bishop said there was a party atmosphere among the group in Madrid. “The people of Derry are so proud of her,” he said. “There’s a group of people from all ages and backgrounds have travelled from all over.”
