Venerable Edel Quinn     

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 she 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. She later resumed her Legion work, though with her health permanently impaired.

    In 1936, Edel 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, she brought to her task an absolute faith in God's love and a limitless trust in the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin.

    Edel 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 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 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.

    The following extracts from Venerable Edel's private notes and diary indicate the basis of her spiritual life:

    "What boundless trust we should have in God's love! We can never love too much; let us give utterly and not count the cost. God will respond to our faith in Him" ..... "Mary loves us because we are Christ's legacy to her. Let us give ourselves completely to her to be made all His, to be consumed unceasingly, to be spent for Christ" " To suffer for love of Our Lord is my very greatest joy". Finally a favorite prayer:

Dear Jesus make Thyself to me
A living bright reality
More present to Faith's vision keen
Than any outward object seen
More dear, more intimately nigh
than e'en the sweetest earthly tie

Literature written by or about Edel Quinn

Edel Quinn
Anselm Moynihan OP

The following is a prayer for Venerable Edel Quinn - composed by His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Quito, South America

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. 

A prayer to follow the example of Edel!

    Mary, our Mother, teach us, as you taught Edel Quinn,
to say yes to the Father always and everywhere;
to see the Face or your Divine Son in everyone we meet;
to rejoice in the Holy Spirit and shed his light above us.
Help us to reflect your love as she did,
and so draw the world home to your Immaculate Heart
for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity 

Amen.

  (Favors attributed to the intercession of Edel Quinn should be reported to:        

Legion of Mary, Concilium Legionis)