A most extraordinary story…
Eileen O’Connor, Mary MacKillop, Our Lady of Coogee and a chain of synchronicities — the extraordinary story of a saint-in-waiting at the end of my street. (6 min read)
It is hard to know the best place to begin this story. It is a tangle of seemingly disparate anecdotes that are all connected by the theme of direction of spirit.
I am not a typical medium. I rarely see or hear spirit. But I often feel the presence of spirit. And I sometimes receive (seemingly random) impressions from spirit. I am grateful for the ability to see patterns that have deeper significance and read the signs from the other side.
It was paying attention to pattern that led me to the crystal light bed, the Casa Dom Inacio, my house in Coogee, miraculous spirit photographs, innumerable experiences on pilgrimage, and Eileen O’Connor.
My house is near Coogee Beach. I knew from the outset that the field of my light bed ordinarily extends to the Prince of Wales Hospital up on the hill down to the site of the apparition of Mary on the northern headland of Coogee Beach. But I recently discovered another sacred site, less than 10 minutes walk away, that I expect will become important for me this year. The way this possibility came to my attention is most interesting.
At the beginning of December 2015 we held a special meditation in Sydney in honor of St Francis Xavier – a much loved entity of the Casa Dom Inacio and former patron saint of Australia.
I needed to ensure the relic of Xavier kept in St Mary’s Cathedral would be accessible on our meditation day. I called the Cathedral four times over a six week period to ask this question but my calls were never returned. Undeterred, I went to the sacristan’s office to clarify the situation. I was told that the sacristan was unavailable. I decided to wait for him. And while I waited I read a church magazine that would ordinarily not be of interest to me. The magazine was a game-changer because it included the story of Eileen O’Connor, a holy woman from Coogee who has been a candidate for canonisation since 1962.
Eileen O’Connor was born in Melbourne in 1892. She sustained a spinal injury at age three that left her disabled and in constant pain for the rest of her life. Her family moved to Sydney in 1902, living first in Surry Hills and, after the premature death of her father in 1911, in various houses in Coogee. Eileen, who was of dwarf-height, ultimately founded, organized and led the Society of Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor (“the Brown Sisters”) along with Fr Edward McGrath. Eileen was a mystic and spiritually advanced. Mary appeared to her several times (and Jesus on at least one occasion) and Eileen was a healing instrument. Her mission was one of loving service to the poor. Like Mary Mackillop, the independently-minded Eileen travelled to Rome to clear up absurd scandals and resolve serious issues with the church hierarchy in Sydney. Eileen died in 1921 at the age of 28 years. She was buried in Randwick Cemetery and members of her order visited her grave daily to pray the rosary. In 1937, when her body was exhumed to move it to the mother-house, it was found to be incorrupt. Just like Xavier! The only case of an incorrupt Australian that I know of!
An incorrupt saint-in-waiting at the end of my street was too good a story to ignore!!
Later that day, my friend Nicole drove me to meditation at the Balmain Hospital. In the car I asked if she knew anything about a holy woman from Coogee? To which she immediately replied “You mean Eileen O’Connor? I grew up in her house in Neptune Street… People used to come to that house and say prayers all the time”. Interesting!
When we arrived at Balmain I felt compelled to tell Mel about this interesting coincidence. And when I did she said “Oh my God. Yesterday, I watched a DVD about Eileen O’Connor for the first time in my life”.
I spent the next day in the State Library of NSW reading 3 books about Eileen O’Connor and looking for any clues of devotion to or connection with Xavier. None of these books confirmed or refuted the hypothesis I was developing – that Eileen was devoted to Xavier and now a member of his phalange.
First thing Monday morning I called the mother-house of Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor in Coogee and asked if I could visit. They kindly agreed and as I walked straight there, along my usual path from Bronte to my home in Coogee, I prayed for help and guidance with this mission.
The mother-house is on the top of Dudley Street in south Coogee. It has a small museum containing various personal items of Eileen and Fr McGrath and other memorabilia, including a life-sized statue of Eileen. There is a chapel in the room where Eileen is buried. And an adjacent room, which is highly energised, has the bed in which she died and the statue of Mary which several of the sisters saw come to life.
While the energy of the house was sublime, I did not find any clues in the museum to help me with my quest. But on leaving I was given some holy cards and a copy of the only book about Eileen that I had not read – “Our Lady of Coogee” by Mary O’Connell.
I headed straight to the beach to read this book. I decided to lay on the hill at the northern end of the beach near the spot where the Virgin Mary appeared. And to my surprise, the book opened with: “Towards the end of 2002 a strange phenomenon occurred repeatedly at Sydney’s Coogee Beach, in the city’s eastern suburbs. In the bright summer afternoon sun, a white figure appeared at the end of the picket fence that runs along the northern cliff face”. I was close to this very same spot and fascinated by the way the author was laying the foundations for the argument that this was not the Virgin Mary’s first visit to Coogee!
I read the foreword of the book and discovered that the book was mostly written in the Globe cafe in Coogee. The cafe located in my building!! All I could do was laugh at the “coincidences” mounting up around me.
I consumed the book very quickly and redoubled my efforts to find evidence of a connection between Eileen and Xavier.
First stop was the Church of St Francis Xavier in North Sydney. Located close to the shrine of Mary Mackillop, I assumed the Jesuits would be more likely than most to know the answer to my question. But the church was shut. I was directed to the parish office about half an hour’s walk away. When I eventually reached the Church of Our Lady of the Way I was rewarded with the most life-like statute of Dom Inacio but no other sign that I was on the right track. I headed to the parish office with my question and ended up sharing my photos and research about Xavier with a woman who was preparing a speech about him for his feast day! While a worthy thing in itself, this was a diversion from my quest.
Traveling back to Bondi on the bus, my attention was drawn for the third time that week to St Patrick’s Church on Bondi Road. Something about this church had always repelled me, yet it kept coming into my field. I decided to visit it the next morning in case it was spirit that was prompting me to go there.
St Patrick’s Church was built in 1917. More functional than beautiful, the church faces Wellington Street and has a plain side on Bondi Road. The interior is unremarkable with one exception – a large statue of Xavier close to the front. I got a little teary when I saw this statue and as I sat beneath it to ask for guidance about Eileen. Nothing! On the way out of the church I looked at the various pamphlets and holy cards and was amused to see several copies of a book about Eileen O’Connor available for free! I took one and went into the church grounds to read it. On completing the book I went in search of the parish priest to talk to him about Eileen. He was not available but when I asked his secretary what she knew about Eileen O’Connor she came back with a flyer about a new school dedicated to Eileen opening in 2016. Of course, I phoned the school straight away but this was also a dead-end.
Back in St Patrick’s church and sitting under the statue of Xavier I prayed for guidance as to the next step. And as I looked at the statute of Xavier, it struck me that the posture was different from the usual statues of him. Instead of holding the crucifix close to his heart, he was holding it forward like a soldier. And with his other hand he was pointing to the crucifix. There was nothing subtle about the sculptor’s intention but I started to muse about it. Was I being pointed towards the crucifix? Where is the main crucifix in Sydney? Where is the cross in Sydney? The cross in Sydney? Kings Cross? You want me to go to Kings Cross?
I immediately caught the bus to Bondi Junction and the train to Kings Cross. And on the way, I googled “Eileen O’Connor Kings Cross”, “St Francis Xavier Kings Cross” and “Catholic Church Kings Cross”. Only the last one was helpful.
I headed straight for St Canice’s Church in Roslyn Street. I had never visited this church before, nor did I know it supported the Jesuit Refugee Service. I loved the energy and orientation of this church (seating in the round like the Uniting Church) but found no clues there. The parish priest was unavailable but when I asked his secretary about Eileen she said that one of Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor had been based there for many years helping in the soup kitchen. She was now in retirement in the mother-house in Coogee. The secretary suggested I phone her.
Sister Pat was bright as a button and told me she had been educated at the Church of St Francis Xavier before entering Our Lady’s Nurses. She said that Eileen loved the saints but that her focus was “Jesus through Mary”. She had no knowledge of Eileen having a particular affection for Xavier, although she agreed with my proposition that Eileen would have been aware of him as Australia’s patron saint and would most likely have visited Il Gesu in Rome (which holds Xavier’s incorrupt blessing arm). She suggested I ask an old Josephite Nun (from Mary Mackillop’s Order) about my theory. So I headed back to North Sydney to Mary Mackillop Place and the Church of St Francis Xavier and also had a coffee with my friend Judy. Judy surprised me with the news that her family attended St Patrick’s Church but there were no new leads in our conversation.
This year the feast of St Francis Xavier was on a Thursday (3 December). I began the day with Mass at St Patrick’s in Bondi. A longstanding Irish chaplaincy, St Patrick’s has now fallen to the Indians – a priest was from Goa, India no less! Devoted to Xavier, whose incorrupt body has been kept in Goa for 450 years, this priest spoke with insight and great affection for my saint but he said nothing in the homily which connected Xavier to Eileen.
I sat under the statute of Xavier during the Mass but soon realised that the front row is no place for a person who has a poor memory for the devotional calisthenics of the Catholic Church!
I spent some time with the priest after the Mass. While he was enthusiastic about Xavier he was not able to answer my questions about Eileen. Somewhat impertinently, I informed him it was his responsibility to understand her story and bring it to life for the parish.
Figuring I would have more luck with a Jesuit, I headed back to St Canice and met with Fr Chris Jenkins SJ. He was very kind and listened carefully to my theory and my research. He said he knew insufficient about Eileen to help but, in fact, he helped a great deal by pointing out that Xavier’s feast day coincided with the United Nations Day for People with Disability (Eileen’s disability was a whopper!). Perhaps this was a coincidence or maybe it was the sign I was asking for. I asked him if Eileen may have prayed for the grace of an incorruptible body after seeing Xavier’s arm and St Catherine Laboure’s body and he diplomatically said it was unlikely. I started to wonder if my theory was fanciful.
Back in North Sydney, I attended my second Mass of the day at the Church of St Francis Xavier. I didn’t care for this service at all. It seemed like the old priest hardly knew my friend Xavier. And this was also the case at the Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. The homily was more sophisticated than North Sydney but still lacked the heart of the Indian’s speech in Bondi.
I don’t want to give the impression that Eileen was my focus at the masses on Xavier’s feast day. My main focus was preparation for our meditation on the 5th of December. But I had decided that I would not mention Eileen to the group unless I had a clear sign of her connection to Xavier. And as none was forthcoming, I kept silent.
As I was getting ready to speak at the meditation on the morning of 5th December, I experienced the most unusual phenomenon. My left arm was grabbed by spirit and yanked about. While I had never experienced anything like this before, I remained calm and steadied my arm behind my back. I thought at the time it was a child’s spirit trying to get my attention. But I later wondered if it was Eileen? My head said it was not – because the superior spirits do not behave in such a way – but I remain open to this possibility.
It seems that my work with Eileen and Xavier will not be completed until I return to Sydney in 2016. Interestingly, and without any conscious planning on my part, I return to Sydney the day before Eileen’s feast day – the only day of the year when her grave is exposed in the mother-house. Rest assured, I will be visiting her grave that day.
Please learn about Eileen O’Connor and if you are touched by her story make a little prayer for her intercession.
Namaste.
© Paul McCarthy & Iluminar.au
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