Venerable
Edel Quinn
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Prayer
Eternal Father, I thank You for the grace you gave to
your servant, Edel Quinn, of striving to live always in the joy of Your
presence, for the radiant charity infused into her heart by Your Holy
Spirit, and for the strength she drew from the Bread of Life to labor
until death for the glory of Your Name, in loving dependence on Mary,
Mother of the Church. Confident, O Merciful Father, that her life was
pleasing to You, I beg You to grant me, through her intercession, the
special favor I now implore …, and to make known by miracles
the glory she enjoys in Heaven, so that she may be glorified also by
Your Church on earth, through Christ Our Lord. Amen. We place our
petitions in the hands of Mary to whom Edel turned in every need. Hail
Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among
women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb. Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother
of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
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Edel Quinn was born in Kanturk, Co. Cork,
Ireland on September 14th, 1907. As a girl her ambition was to enter a
Contemplative Convent, but she was prevented from doing so by ill
health.
At the age of 20 Edel Quinn joined the
Legion of
Mary in Dublin and gave herself entirely to its apostolate. in 1932 she
became seriously ill and spent a long period in hospital. Edel later
resumed her Legion work, though with her health permanently impaired.
In 1936, Edel Quinn was appointed Legion
of
Mary Envoy with the commission to establish the organization in the
vast territories of East and Central Africa. She encountered great
obstacles in this pioneering work. As against every difficulty and her
wretched health, Edel Quinn brought to her task an absolute faith in
God's
love and a limitless trust in the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin.
Edel Quinn was gifted with a clear
practical
mind, notable organizing ability, an indomitable will, a deep fund of
warm, human sympathy and an infectious joyousness of spirit that never
failed her. These qualities eventually won everyone to her side.
Although working alone and in a state of
perpetual ill-health and exhaustion, Edel Quinn established the Legion
on a
firm, enduring basis even as far a Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.
Hundreds of Legion branches and multiple councils were established and
she mobilized thousands of Africans in the service of the Church.
After eight years of heroic labor, Edel
Quinn
died in Nairobi on May 14th, 1944, where she is buried in the
Missionaries' Cemetery. The Diocesan Process, the first step towards
her beatification, was sent in motion by the Archbishop of Nairobi.
On 15th December 1994 our Holy Father,
Pope John Paul II in a special assembly of the Cardinals and other
members of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints made the
following solemn declaration.. "It is certain that the Servant of God,
Edel Mary Quinn, a secular virgin of the Legion of Mary, practiced to a
heroic degree the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity
towards God and her neighbor and likewise the cardinal virtues of
Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude".
He ordered the Decree to be published and
to be inserted in the Acts of the Congregation.
Because of this proclamation of her
outstanding holiness Edel Quinn now bears the title Venerable.
