Sister Clare Theresa CrockettA popular nun and five postulants of the Home of the Mother Order were killed on April 17 when a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country.
According to a statement from the Home of the Mother Order, 33 year-old Sister Clare Theresa Crockett, a missionary from Derry, Ireland who was based at the Colegio Sagrada Familia school in Playa Prieta, was teaching guitar to a group of children when the quake struck. Her body was found in the rubble along with five Ecuadorean postulants who also died in the collapse. Several sisters survived.
The quake struck the coastal region of the country on Saturday evening, causing heavy damage in Playa Prieta where the sisters ran a school which provides education to over 400 area children. The Sisters residence was located on the third floor of one of the school buildings.
At the time of the quake, four professed Sisters were in the residence: Sr. Estela Morales (age 40, from Spain), Sr. Therésè Ryan (age 36, from Ireland), Sr. Merly Alcybar (age 34, from Ecuador), and Sr. Clare Crockett (age 33, from Northern Ireland). Along with the Sisters were seven young postulants, all of them natives of Ecuador: Jazmina, Mayra, Maria Augusta, Valeria, Catalina, Guadalupe, and Mercedes. There were no students in the school when the quake struck.
“The first news that reached us in Spain – at 3:10 AM Spanish time on Sunday, April 17, 2016, just an hour after the earthquake – was that all the Sisters and postulants in Playa Prieta were under the rubble. All of our communities – in Spain, Italy, and the United States – were immediately informed. From that moment, all of the Sisters began praying an unending Rosary in front of the Blessed Sacrament, hour after hour,” the statement reads.
“Shortly afterwards, news arrived that Sr. Therésè had been rescued, with a fractured ankle and several bruises. The improvised rescue team composed of local neighbors, heard the voice of Sr. Estela, Superior of the community, and was able to reach her. They found she had a broken foot, a black eye, and was covered with bruises. As soon as she felt the impact of the earthquake, Sr. Estela went running into the chapel to rescue the Blessed Sacrament. As soon as she had the Lord in her hands, everything around her collapsed and fell down to the ground floor. Her first thought had been to save the Lord before saving her own life, and the Lord rescued her in turn – there is no doubt about it.”
Rescuers also heard the voices of Sr. Merly, Guadalupe and Mercedes who were buried in an area that was difficult to reach. While the volunteers worked to free them, they could hear the nuns praying and singing songs to the Lord, especially when they felt as if they were being suffocated by the lack of oxygen. All three were rescued.
Meanwhile, the sisters from another community in Guayaquil organized a rescue team and drove four hours to Playa Prieta to help in the recovery work. They were able to obtain better equipment and assistance from the Ecuadorian Armed Forces.
“The hours passed and worries increased as no voices of Sisters were heard from underneath the rubble. There was particular concern when a fairly intense aftershock toppled what was left standing of the building,” the statement reads. “Sr. Clare and five postulants were still under the rubble.”
The first body to be recovered was that of the postulant Jazmina. Hours later, they located the lifeless bodies of Sr. Clare, Mayra, Maria Augusta, Valeria and Catalina.
Sister Clare, who had spent nearly 15 years of her life in the order, was described as being “a generous Sister with a special gift for reaching out to children and young people” and the postulants as “generously preparing themselves to become servant sisters.”
“And now our gaze is fixed on Heaven, where we hope that the merciful Lord has received them.”
According to Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the quake, which is the most powerful to hit the country since 1979, has killed at least 350 people and left thousands injured and/or homeless.
A state of emergency has been declared in six of Ecuador’s 24 provinces with 10,000 armed forces and 4,600 national police deployed to the affected areas.
CRS is working with the U.S. bishops’ relief and development agency and partnering with local relief organizations to determine how best to respond in the communities most affected by the disaster, Catholic News Service reports. Water, food and emergency shelter are the biggest needs, the agency said on its website.
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