The last thing she expected to be was a member of a Catholic religious congregation.<\/p>\n
She was from a Protestant nation, and her interests were far from Catholicism or consecrated life. But then she traveled unexpectedly to a Mediterranean country, and her religious experiences there changed everything. Now, after dying young, she is one of the best-known religious sisters to young people in America.<\/p>\n
Of course, those words describe both Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and Sister Clare Crockett \u2014 but the two have more in common than just the broad outlines of their lives.<\/p>\n
Go to a Catholic college, and you will see how popular this Northern Irish sister is.<\/strong><\/p>\n A number of healings have put her on the path to beatification but that\u2019s not why Sister Clare Crockett is famous. YouTube is why \u2014 or, better, her larger-than-life personality that comes across so well in the age of social media.<\/p>\n \u201cAll or Nothing\u201d is the documentary on YouTube of the life of Sister Clare, and it has nearly 3 million views, even after it was accidentally deleted for a month.<\/p>\n Its title comes from the words of a sister who knew her. \u201cWhen she did something, she did it to the best of her ability, with all of her strength, keeping nothing back for herself,\u201d a fellow religious tells the camera in the opening minutes of the documentary. \u201cWhen I saw Sr. Clare do things, she really was all or nothing.<\/em>\"<\/p>\n Clare Theresa Crockett was born in 1982 in what was, at the time, the majority Protestant nation of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m from Ireland, from a wee town called Derry,\u201d she introduces herself on camera. \u201cEver since I was little, I don’t know why, but I always had this desire to be famous.\u201d<\/p>\n She grew up a \u201cdrama queen\u201d focused on becoming a famous actress. When \u201cWannabe\u201d by the Spice Girls was climbing the Irish charts in 1996, Clare began acting, writing and even directing on Irish television.<\/p>\n Two years later, what could have been her big break happened. \u201cWhen I was sixteen and had already done some work on television, I began to experience an emptiness inside me and I didn\u2019t understand what was going on,\u201d she said in one testimonial. “\u2018This whole thing of being a host isn\u2019t for me,\u2019 I thought, and I declined a job offer for a well-known channel, Nickelodeon.\u201d<\/p>\n Around this time, a friend offered her a free trip to Spain. A self-described \u201cwild child,\u201d Clare pictured herself drinking on a Spanish beach. But the trip turned out to be a Holy Week religious pilgrimage. Sister Grace Silao, S.H.M., a Servant Sister of the Home of the Mother, describes how delighted everyone was with Clare \u2014 and how unhappy Clare was with them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever she said made us all laugh,\u201d she said, but Clare skipped most of the activities.<\/p>\n But she didn\u2019t skip Good Friday\u2019s liturgies. She sat in the back, and after venerating the cross, Sister Grace found her \u201ctrembling and crying profusely\u201d outside the church, and asked her, \u201cClare, are you okay?\u201d<\/p>\n Clare just stared back and repeated through her tears, \u201cHe died for me. He loves me!\u201d<\/p>\n Next, she spoke to the priest and said, \u201cI have plans to be a famous actress, but after this, I am confused, because I think God wants me to be one of \u2014 them.\u201d She pointed to the Servant Sisters in their habits.<\/p>\n Soon, she entered the convent, and never left.<\/p>\n Her life was filled with joy.<\/strong><\/p>\n The sisters assigned her at various times to the United States and Ecuador, where she was a hospital chaplain, a teacher and a missionary. She was popular everywhere she went, and she even kept a toe in the entertainment industry, voicing a character in a children\u2019s show for EWTN.<\/p>\n The documentary shows her truly charismatic personality \u2014 and her tragic end.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks to the original footage of her, I think people are truly able to get to know her as she was: full of joy,\u201d the postulator of her cause, Sister Kristen Gardner, told the Registro Cat\u00f3lico Nacional<\/em>. \u201cWe have many clips of her laughing and joking around, and I think this permits the viewers to see the true happiness that only God can give.\u201d<\/p>\n Crockett died at age 33 in the April 16, 2016, Ecuador earthquake when the school building she was in collapsed. She was finishing guitar practice with her students when the earthquake hit \u2014 two minutes before the 7 p.m. evening rosary would start. One sister ran to the tabernacle to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament; others ran to the stairway, which is among the worst places to be in an earthquake.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the ones who died were on the staircase,\u201d explained<\/a> Sister Kristen. Sisters \u201cwho did not make it to the staircase are the ones who survived.\u201d<\/p>\n Sister Crockett was found in the stairway rubble, still holding a piece of her guitar. She was rushed to the hospital but soon died.<\/p>\n Sister Clare\u2019s reaction on that first Good Friday summed up her life, says Sister Kristen.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cShe had a very radical personality, so her immediate reaction was like, \u2018Okay, he\u2019s on the cross for love of me. I have to give my life to him,\u2019\u201d said Sister Kristen.<\/p>\n In 2006, after taking her first vows, Sister Clare wrote:<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart is Yours, my mind is Yours, my thoughts are Yours. Ask me for anything. Nothing matters now, since nothing I have is mine! Possess me, Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n One sister notes in the documentary that while Clare was vivacious and outgoing, \u201cshe preferred to remain hidden. \u2026 She always looked for times to be alone with the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n She loved to spend time with the Blessed Sacrament, and at her consecration, Sister Clare was given the religious motto, \u201cAlone with Christ Alone\u201d \u2014 which became the title of her spiritual writings.<\/p>\n That combination of vivacious personality, eager generosity, and love for solitude and the Eucharist are also hallmarks of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.<\/p>\n When Elizabeth lost her husband while in Italy, during the trip where she discovered the Catholic Church, she wrote, \u201cMy poor high heart was in the clouds roving after my William\u2019s soul and repeating, \u2018My God, you are my God, and so I am now alone in the world with You and my little ones, but You are my Father, and doubly theirs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Her intensity and joy also came from solitude with the Lord. \u201cHe never disappoints me but repays every instant with hours of sweet peace and unfailing contentment, and the tenderest interest you ever can bestow on me is only a stream of which he is the fountain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Both women lost the love of their lives \u2014 the stage and a spouse \u2014 and found a source of love and joy that far surpassed both.<\/p>\n TOM HOOPES<\/strong>,\u00a0autor m\u00e1s reciente de El Rosario de San Juan Pablo II, es escritor residente en el Benedictine College de Kansas, donde imparte clases. Es anfitri\u00f3n de La extraordinaria Stor<\/a>y podcast sobre la vida de Cristo. Su libro Lo que dijo realmente el Papa Francisco<\/a> ya est\u00e1 disponible en Audible<\/a>. Antiguo reportero en la zona de Washington, D.C., fue secretario de prensa del Presidente del Comit\u00e9 de Medios y Arbitrios de la C\u00e1mara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos y pas\u00f3 10 a\u00f1os como editor del peri\u00f3dico National Catholic Register y de la revista Faith & Family. Su trabajo aparece con frecuencia en el Register, Aleteia y Catholic Digest. Vive en Atchison, Kansas, con su esposa, April, y tiene nueve hijos.<\/em><\/p>\n Image Credit: Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother<\/p>\n