Sydney Woman Being Considered for Country’s Second-Only Sainthood

Born in Melbourne in 1892 before moving to Sydney as a child, Eileen contracted tuberculosis in infancy leaving her with a severely deformed spine that rendered her repeatedly bedridden with constant pain.

Despite that, she went on to co-found Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor, or Brown Nurses, a Catholic organisation providing free, in-home healthcare, nursing, and welfare support to disadvantaged individuals.

“[Eileen] was kind of unstoppable,” Kate told Hope 103.2.

“[Against the backdrop of World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic] you’ve got this young woman who is desperately ill, she is partially paralysed, she’s largely bedbound, and yet she managed to set up a pioneering order of domiciliary nurses to care for the sick poor in the slums of Sydney.”

It was during Kate’s own near-death experience and later cancer diagnosis that she began asking questions about suffering, healing and faith and came across Eileen’s story.

Documenting it in Every in a Saint, Kate discovered a “woman who had an extraordinary life and terrible obstacles”.

“Eileen had an episode of illness that was so severe she was expected to die,” Kate said.

“Afterwards she said she was as close to dying as it was possible to go without actually dying.

“During that time, she had an apparition of the Virgin Mary and came back from that near death experience absolutely convinced that she was called to help the sick poor.”

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For Eileen to be deemed a saint, the Catholic church requires proof of “living a life of heroic virtue, dying in a state of grace, and having miracles attributed to one’s intercession after death”.

“It’s quite a complicated and lengthy process,” Kate said.

“People that knew [Eileen] felt she was a saint in her lifetime, [but] in the Vatican process the first stage is to be investigated for devotion to God’s will and using your resources to serve others without ego.

“This young woman had the most extraordinary pain and still managed to care for others with an incredible commitment.

In 2018 Eileen was declared a servant of God by the Vatican and now, with documentation sent over from Australia, there’ll be an investigation into her legacy, her history, her letters and everything else recorded about her.

The official process can take decades at a minimum, but Kate believes Eileen’s example of compassion and resilience deserves recognition.

“[Eileen] was a living example of someone who did not let overwhelming odds stop her,” Kate said.

“She never went into the victim mode that you could imagine someone that lives in unendurable pain and is partially paralysed could take on.

“Her whole life was about caring for people and not giving up.

“[Eileen] is an example of how we can hold on to hope in the face of insurmountable odds.”

Kate Clinch’s book Every Inch a Saint is out now.

Listen to the full conversation in the player above.

Feature image: Canva Pro