Cause for beatification of Sister Clare Crockett opened

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 4, 2024 / 17:20 pm

The congregation of Sister Clare Crockett, a young nun who died in 2016 during an earthquake in Ecuador, announced the beginning of her cause for beatification.

The Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother announced that the opening ceremony of Crockett’s cause will take place on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, at the Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares in Spain.

The postulator of the cause will be Sister Kristen Gardner, also a member of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, who wrote a biography about Crockett in 2020 titled “Sister Clare Crockett: Alone with Christ Alone.”

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Gardner explained that “the cause began in Alcalá de Henares because it is our headquarters [of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother] and it was easier for us to carry out the cause from here. The transfer of jurisdiction was requested by the bishop of Portoviejo [Ecuador], and he gladly gave it and Rome has approved it.”

Crockett is also the subject of a documentary in both English and Spanish titled “All or Nothing: Sister Clare Crockett,” which has amassed over 4 million views on YouTube.

Who was Sister Clare Crockett?

Crockett was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1982. A charismatic, fun-loving teenager, she quickly caught the attention of television producers. 

At 15, she was hired to host a show on the British network Channel 4, and at 17, she caught the attention of Nickelodeon.

However, in 2000, during a Holy Week retreat in Spain with the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother — a community founded in 1982 with a focus on the Eucharist, Marian spirituality, and young people — she had a life-changing encounter with God.

“I don’t know how to explain exactly what happened. I didn’t see the choirs of angels or a white dove come down from the ceiling and descend on me, but I was certain that the Lord was on the cross, for me,” recalled the nun, who made her first vows in 2006.

On April 16, 2016, a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck the Ecuadorian province of Manabí, killing at least 673 people, including Crockett.

“Her coherence of life and her total dedication in the different apostolates that she carried out in Spain, the United States, and Ecuador transmitted the message that only God can satisfy the heart of man when he gives himself completely to him, without denying him anything,” the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother pointed out in their statement on her cause for beatification.

After hearing that many have asked in recent years for the start of the beatification process, “the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, after praying and reflecting intensely on what we should do, saw in this concern of the faithful a clear indication that the Lord asked us to request the opening of Sister Clare Crockett’s process at the diocesan level.”

“Let us thank God for this important step in the study of the life and virtues of our dear sister,” the statement concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.