Devoted nun Sister Clare Theresa Crockett with children at a school in Playa Prieta
THE DERRY nun tragically killed in the Ecuadorian earthquake disaster gave up ‘acting, partying, drinking and cigarettes to follow the Lord’.
Sister Clare Theresa Crockett was among the 350 people who have now perished after an earthquake measuring 7.8 magnitude rocked the south American country at the weekend.
Her tragic death has touched so many people across Derry, Ireland and further afield as messages of sympathy pour in for her family at this painful time.
Prayers have been offered both in Derry and in Ecuador where her religious sisters are said to be deeply saddened that Sister Clare has been taken from them in a such a devastating way.
The aspiring actress had been a nun for almost six years when disaster struck on Saturday struck on Saturday as a staircase collapsed on her while she was trying to help young children to safety.
After joining the Home of the Mother Order in 2001, she took religious vows in 2010 devoting her life to good works and deeds.
Sister Clare has detailed her ‘road to Damascus’ conversion in a personal testimony from her teenage party life in Derry to a life of “poverty, chastity and obedience’’.
The 33-year-old penned: “I grew up in a Catholic family. I’m from a small part of the world called Derry, in the North of Ireland.
“This was a place where, when I was growing up, “Catholic” and “Protestant” were political terms.
“The Catholics who wanted a united Ireland killed the Protestants, and the Protestants who didn’t want a united Ireland killed the Catholics.
“That was what being Catholic meant to me. God played no part in my life. In a society where hatred prevailed, there was no room for God.’’
The nun said that her dream growing in the Brandywell area of the city was to become an actress.
“Ever since I was little, I always wanted to be an actress. When I was around 15, I joined an acting agency and had a manager.
“I was a presenter for some television programs, I wrote plays, did a lot of stage acting, won awards and when I was eighteen I had a small part in a movie.’’
Sister Clare said she was not happy with her weekends of partying and drinking and her life turned around when she went on a trip to Spain aged 18.
“I liked to party a lot. My weekends, since I was 16/17, consisted of getting drunk with my friends. I wasted all my money on alcohol and cigarettes.
“One day one of my friends called me. “Clare”, she said, “do you want to go on a free trip to Spain?” Free trip to Spain, I thought, ten days of partying in sunny Spain – of course I wanted to go!’’
But the free trip turned out to be a 10 day Holy Week pilgrimage to a 16th century monastery in Spain and she found herself in a house surrounded by middle-aged people clutching their Rosary beads.
“I tried to get out of it,’’ wrote Sister Clare, “but my name was already on the ticket, so I had to go. ‘’
She added that it was during her pilgrimage that was introduced to the Home of the Mother Order.
“I was not a very happy camper,’’ she wrote in her testimony.
“Nevertheless, it was on that pilgrimage that Our Lord gave me the grace to see how He had died for me on the Cross.
“After I had received that grace, I knew that I had to change. I asked myself: “If He has done this for me what am I doing for Him?’’
And she said that during a pilgrimage with the Order to Italy that “Our Lord spoke very clearly to me’’
“He wanted me to live like the sisters in Sister Clare with poverty, chastity, and obedience. I automatically told Him that that was impossible for me.
“I said: ‘I can’t be a nun! I can’t leave drinking, cigarettes, partying, my career, and my family’.
“Without His help I would not have been able to do what I had to do to respond to His call and follow Him.
“After I knew what He was calling me to do, the Lord gave me another big grace when I was filming a movie in England.
“I saw that even though it seemed that I had everything, in reality I had nothing. I felt a great emptiness as I sat on top on my bed in the hotel room.
“All that I had ever wanted I seemed to be achieving and I wasn’t happy. I knew that I would only be truly happy by doing what God wanted of me. Our Lord showed me that my wild lifestyle deeply him.
“I knew that I had to leave everything and follow Him. I knew with great clarity that He was asking me to trust in Him, to put my life in His Hands and to have faith.’’
Sister Clare added that she was now “very happily consecrated’’ working with her religious order.
“I thank God for the patience that He has had with me, and still has!!!!
“I do not ask Him why He has chosen me, I just accept it.
“I depend totally on Him and Our Blessed Mother and I ask them to give me the grace to be whatever they want me to be.’’
Sister Clare Theresa Crockett who was tragically killed in Ecuador earthquake disaster
