Sister Clare Crockett, who lived 'exceptional, holy life,' begins road to sainthood as cause opens

(OSV News) -- Her wide smile and eyes beaming with joy are a signature of Sister Clare Crockett, a 33-year-old Northern Irish nun, who tragically died in the 2016 Ecuador earthquake.

Now she has officially begun her journey to sainthood as the diocesan phase of her beatification process kicked off at Madrid's Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares Jan. 12.

Bishop Antonio Prieto Lucena of Alcalá de Henares opened the cause and appointed a tribunal to investigate Sister Clare's sainthood prior to a Mass in a cathedral packed with family, friends and faithful.

The postulator of the cause is Sister Kristen Gardner, a member of Sister Clare's congregation -- the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother. Accompanied by the sisters present in the Spanish cathedral, Sister Kristen said during the ceremony that "the cause is not moved by human reason" but "a desire to give glory to God." Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry, Northern Ireland, was present in Alcalá de Henares for the ceremony.

Reading a moving account of Sister Clare's life, the postulator said that her "ultimate aspiration was to become a famous actress," but that "she set aside all her dreams one Good Friday after an encounter with Christ crucified." Sister Kristen herself is the author of a biography of Sister Clare -- "Sister Clare Crockett: Alone With Christ Alone."

Derry-born Sister Clare was a promising actress with little interest in religion when she went on a Holy Week retreat in Spain in 2000 that changed her life.

The then almost 18-year-old self-confessed "wild child" felt a profound call to religious life, and entered the Spanish convent of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother.

"The Lord transformed her soul and she no longer longed for anything other than to have Christ as her only love," Sister Kristen said.

She gave to her vocation "absolute generosity," she added. "Her overflowing joy led many souls, especially those of the youth to discover that true happiness is found only in God."

The 2016 earthquake that collapsed the school in Playa Prieta, Ecuador, where she was teaching music led her to "the long-awaited final encounter with the Lord," Sister Kristen said.

Following her sudden death, the sisters wanted her to be buried in Derry as they believed she had "a special mission to evangelize her native country," Sister Kristen said Jan. 12, but as she noted the "surprise after her death" was that the mission "extended to the whole world."

Sister Clare's parish church in which the funeral took place May 2, 2016, was "simply overflowing," Sister Kristen said, "by the people who were impressed by the witness of her life."

Stories soon began to spread of her holiness of life and devoted pastoral service. Her grave became a place of pilgrimage, and devotion to her intercession has grown.

Shauna Gill, Sister Clare's sister, told the BBC that as her cause begins, the whole family is "beaming with pride."

"Never in a million years did we think she was going to be a nun, never mind make her way to sainthood," she told Northern Ireland's BBC News NI before the ceremony that officially opened her cause.

Eight years after her death, Sister Clare's community received "messages from over 50 countries," giving testimony to exceptionally holy life and also graces through her intercession, "and they are still arriving years later," Sister Kristen said.

The testimonies, the postulator said, included saving young people from suicide, helping students fight vice, lukewarm Catholics receiving a desire to be saints, but also bringing vocations both to priesthood and religious life and saving priesthood "just when (the priests) were thinking they had no choice but to turn their backs on God," Sister Kristen said.

Many called Sister Clare "their friend" in their testimonies, the postulator underlined.

Sister Clare's first assignment was in the community at Belmonte, in Cuenca, Spain, in a residence for girls that come from families in difficulty. "Her zeal for souls, especially those of the youth, was immense," the sisters wrote in her online biography.

Soon after she was sent to the new community that was about to be opened in Jacksonville, Florida, in October 2006. The sisters began pastoral work at Assumption Parish and School.

Now, sister Kristen said the young nun's apostolate is bigger than "she could ever have done on Earth."

Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, a congregation started in mid-1980s by Spanish Father Rafael Alonso Reymundo and officially approved by the church in 1994, started with the commitment of three young women and has since grown to more than 200 sisters from 11 different countries, including the U.S., Spain, Ecuador, Ireland and Italy and serving in 20 communities across Europe, in the U.S. and Ecuador.

Sister Clare died with five candidates for her order: Jazmina, Maria Augusta, Mayra, Valeria and Catalina.

The Lord called her when "she was prepared" as "she kept nothing for herself," her postulator said.