Northern Ireland nun to take step toward sainthood with Spain ceremony

Cause for beatification event will take place in Madrid for Clare Crockett (33), who died in an Ecuador earthquake in April 2016

Sr Clare Crockett, from Derry, was teaching guitar at a school when an earthquake struck. Photograph: Home of the Mother/PA Wire
Sr Clare Crockett, from Derry, was teaching guitar at a school when an earthquake struck. Photograph: Home of the Mother/PA Wire

A nun from Northern Ireland will be a step closer to sainthood on Sunday following a special ceremony in Spain.

Clare Crockett (33), from Derry, was killed in an earthquake in Ecuador in April 2016. The building where she had been teaching music collapsed.

The opening of the cause for her beatification is scheduled to take place in the Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid at 5.30pm local time (4.30pm Ireland time).

The ceremony is seen as a first step towards sainthood for Ms Crockett, who has previously been associated with fertility miracles.

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Friends and family have travelled for the event, which will be live-streamed online and at the Brunswick Moviebowl in Derry.

Ms Crockett, from Brandywell in Derry, was a larger-than-life character who had been an actor before choosing the religious life. She turned down a chance to present on children’s TV channel Nickelodeon to become a nun.

She said friends were in disbelief when she declared she was going to be a nun while holding a “beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other”.

Ms Crockett, whose motto in life was “all or nothing”, ultimately took her holy orders with the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother order. – PA