Eileen O’Connor’s Extraordinary Life!
Diocese of Broken Bay’s Bishop Anthony Randazzo has long admired Eileen O’Connor as an extraordinary woman who constantly thought of others. Bishop Anthony notes the importance of Eileen as a beacon for human dignity.
Eileen O’Connor was born in 1892 and died in 1921, aged only 28. She suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, spinal curvature, stunted growth, periods of blindness, long periods of paralysis and extreme nerve pain. A visitation from the Blessed Virgin Mary in her teen years encouraged Eileen to offer up her health and suffering for the good of others.
Eileen co-founded and led the religious order of Our Lady’s Nurses of the Poor, more commonly known as the Brown Nurses. She was affectionately nicknamed “The Little Mother”.
Eileen O’Connor was declared a Servant of God in 2018. Her path to sainthood is now in God’s hands and the care of the Vatican after Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP formally concluded the diocesan phase of the canonisation cause on the 16 August 2024.
Postulator for her cause, Fr Anthony Robbie, describes Eileen as “a very compelling, magnetic individual”. He recognises her twice-exceptionality when he goes on to say “She’s a little person of this world in every visible way, [yet] supernaturally she’s a giant. She exceeded the bounds of her human nature in the most wonderful way and brought happiness and light and life into the lives of so many people. And that’s never passed away.”
We will proudly honour and continue her legacy through the Eileen O’Connor Catholic School.