Beautification is a recognition of a deceased person’s entrance into heaven and belief in the individual’s capacity to intercede on our behalf. From the Latin, beatus meaning blessed and facere, to make. Much criteria is talked about, but mainly they had to do good, so being a good example, and have a good be attitude. Reportedly there is currently a case for the beautification of Eileen O’Connor who was born in Victoria, Australia in 1892 of Irish born parents.
There was no publicly funded healthcare at the time according to a news source. She is said to have co-founded the religious order of the as called Our Lady’s Nurses of the Poor with parish priest Father McGrath, which she is believed to have administrated. At just 115 cm or 3 foot 8 inches tall, she was known as ‘Little Mother’. The order was said to be dedicated to caring for the sick and dying poor in their homes.
At the age of three Eileen reportedly broke her spine. She was diagnosed with tuberculous osteomyelitis, an infection that developes, said to be secondary to lung disease, as a result of cross infection via infected blood. Probably the result of a fall. At the age of 10 the family moved to Waterloo, Sydney. Her father is believed to have died while she was young. Eileen died a month short of her 29th birthday. If beautified she will be Australia’s second saint.
Mary MacKillup was beautified in 2010. She was born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was of Scottish descent. Her father reportedly left, at least for a while, and her mother, Flora MacDonald may have brought the family up. Mary became a governess, got a job teaching in Portland, Victoria and sent for her family. She was said to have worked with neglected children, girls in danger and the aged poor.
She was involved in the founding of the as called Josephites who reportedly expanded quickly. By 1871 according to official sources, 130 sisters were documented as working in more than 40 schools and charitable institutions across South Australia and Queensland.
A clash with a priest which may have been a power struggle resulted in her leaving the diocese in 1879. Changes in administration enabled her to return to teaching in 1882 in Clarmont and other places. Still, there was believed to be rumours and innuendo as a result of the rift.
Mary reportedly repeated a rumour to administration that friends of the accused believed to be untrue; the reason given for the sisters being asked to leave and becoming discommunicated. There is still believed to be a shrine dedicated to Mary in Roybridge, Inverness. An ancestral home.