A Pilgrimage is Born

 One step out my front door and I was technically a pilgrim.  A peregrino or bicigrino depending on whether I walked or ride. I would be doing both. 

A pilgrimage, based on my study of the Camino de Santiago, is simply a heartfelt journey towards a site of religious importance.  My pilgrimage is unknown to anyone except me and  I am pretty certain I will be the first to follow this route. A handful of people  have trodden a shorter version,  the final 12 kilometres, but I will be tracking that onto 250k that it will take to get there from my home.  

My destination is the tomb of  Eileen O'Connor. Recent efforts have supporters has seen Eileen pass several steps on the path to Canonization, or sainthood.  At this time she is referred to as "saint in waiting", a miracle is needed for that final blessing. 

So,  who is Eileen? Well, a young woman who's time on earth was both brief and arduous. A childhood injury rendered her severely disabled and in constant pain. Following a visitation from the Virgin Mary at age 19 years,  the diminutive young woman co-established a religious order of nuns to provide nursing care for the sick and dying poor in their homes. The Order is formally known as Our Lady's Nurses for the Pòor, informally as ThThere'se Brown Sisters.  Sixteen years after her death in 1916 Eileen's remains were exhumed and found to be unusually well preserved.  This is significant early step towards sainthood.  

My knowledge of The Brown Sisters began when I was a young child. My father was a committee member,supporter and donor for over 50 years.  Each year in spring my family were heavily involved in making, collecting and selling wares for their annual fete. This fete would reliably raise tens of thousands of dollars to help the nuns in their works.  The Order remained small in size with just four convents amd unfortunately the number or active nuns is in serious decline. Attaining sainthood for Eileen O'Connor would bring eternal recognition not only to her works,  but to those nuns that have served the poor for a century or so. 

Eileen is also a great role model for pilgrims. Despite debilitating pain and early death due to health conditions arising from a spinal injury, it is said that she never complained and only ever thought of being of service to others in need.  

  

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I plan is to walkwalk and ride a $100 folding bike from my home to the nearest convent at Merewether before following the coast south to Eileen's tomb at Coogee in Sydney's east. The whole distance will  be around  250 kilometers. It will be an anonymous pilgrimage, unsponsore and unsupported. Due to work and other commitments I will have to section ride using my little red folding bike and use public transport to and from the end of each stage.