Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral in Derry yesterday of Sr Clare Theresa Crockett, the 33-year-old local nun who died in last month's earthquake in Ecuador.
Sr Clare, who was originally from the Brandywell area of the city, was killed as she tried to lead schoolchildren to safety from a four-storey building when the earthquake struck the Playa Prieta area of northwest Ecuador on April 17th.
More than 650 people were killed in the earthquake, five of them alongside Sr Clare, who had been teaching music to the children. When her body was recovered from the collapsed building, she was found holding on to her beloved guitar.
Sr Clare’s body was flown home to Ireland on Friday night. Her remains were accompanied from Ecuador by three other sisters from the House of the Mother order which she joined in 2001 after she left St Cecilia’s College in the Creggan area of Derry. Sr Karen, Sr Kelly and Sr Rachel all read prayers of the faithful during the Requiem Mass in St Columba’s Church, Long Tower.
The chief mourners were Sr Clare’s parents Gerard and Margaret, her sisters Shauna and Megan, her nieces Lily, Kayleigh and Maisy and her nephew Cahir.
Pupils from former St Cecilia’s College formed a guard of honour as her coffin was carried into the church for the concelebrated Mass.
Family members
Among those present were Bishop of Derry Dónal McKeown, former bishop of Derry Edward Daly, Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran, Rev David Latimer from the First Derry Presbyterian Church and family members of other Irish nuns from the House of the Mother order.
The chief celebrant, Fr Eamon Graham, administrator of Long Tower parish, told the congregation that Sr Clare had died on Vocation Sunday and that her grieving family have had to deal with an unimaginable loss.
“The Derry women have so often lived the Gospel by putting the needs of others first,” Fr Graham said.
“Sr Clare was a striking example of Derry womanhood. Clare asked herself what could she do to make the world a better place and how could she serve God through the most vulnerable. She clearly did this in an exemplary manner as a religious sister nourished by prayer and especially through the Eucharist, but she did it above all as a woman who never forget her Derry and Brandywell roots,” he added.
Bishop McKeown said that Sr Clare had died doing what she believed was beautiful.
Following the Mass, Sr Clare was buried in the Derry City Cemetery which overlooks the Brandywell area of the city.