Former ‘Wild Child’ Actress on Path to Becoming a Saint: ‘Always Destined for a Life in the Spotlight’

• Former actress and presenter-turned-nun, Sister Clare Crockett — who was killed in an earthquake in Ecuador on April 16, 2016, at age 33 — is on her way to becoming a saint
• A special ceremony was held to mark the opening of the case of beatification in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, Jan. 12
• “Never in a million years did we think she was going to be a nun, never mind make her way to sainthood,” Crockett’s sister, Shauna Gill, told BBC News Northern Ireland

A self-declared former “wild child” and actress from Northern Ireland is on her way to becoming a saint following her death almost nine years ago.

On Sunday, Jan. 12, a special ceremony marking the opening of the case of beatification for Sister Clare Crockett — who was killed in an earthquake in Ecuador on April 16, 2016, at age 33 — was held in the Cathedral of Alcala de Henares in Madrid, Spain.

Sister Clare became a nun after making the decision to swap her brief career as an actor — starring in the 2002 TV movie Sunday, per her IMDb page — and turning down a chance to present on Nickelodeon, according to the Press Association.

Crockett, born in Londonderry, revealed she was going to become a nun while holding a “beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other,” the news agency stated.

Sunday’s service, which was live-streamed on the Home of the Mother YouTube account and screened at the Brunswick Moviebowl cinema in Derry, saw more than 100 people travel to the Spanish capital for the event, which recognized Crockett “as a candidate for sainthood,” the BBC reported.

Her sister, Shauna Gill, told BBC News Northern Ireland (NI) before the ceremony that the family would be “beaming with pride.”

“Never in a million years did we think she was going to be a nun, never mind make her way to sainthood,” Gill told the outlet of Sister Clare, who has previously been linked to fertility miracles.

“A lot of people have asked us about grieving for Clare, but I don’t think we have ever grieved for Clare because she is talked about every day,” she added.

Crockett died in the 2016 Ecuador earthquake after the building where she’d been teaching music in Playa Prieta collapsed.

While remembering her late sister, Gill told BBC News NI, “Everything in Clare’s life growing up was dramatic, nothing was plain sailing,” adding that she was “always destined for a life in the spotlight.”

“Our Clare would have loved all of this attention and the drama about her,” Gill told the publication. “But Sr Clare would have liked to be in the background – I don’t think she would like all the limelight.”

According to her biography on the Sister Clare and companions website, Crockett “entered the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother on August 11, 2001, at the age of 18.”

“She took her first vows on February 18, 2006, taking the religious name of Sr. Clare Maria of the Trinity and the Heart of Mary,” the bio continued, adding that Crockett “took her perpetual vows on September 8, 2010.”

“From the moment of her first vows, she served in the Servant Sisters’ communities in Belmonte, Cuenca (Spain), Jacksonville, Florida (USA), Valencia (Spain), Guayaquil (Ecuador), and Playa Prieta, Manabí (Ecuador),” the site stated.

Sunday’s ceremony came after Crockett was declared a Servant of God by the Catholic Church — which is the first step towards sainthood — in November 2024, the BBC reported. The next stages in the sainthood journey could see Sister Clare be declared “venerable” and later beatified, per the outlet.

Gill said the ceremony, which was attended by around 1,000 people, marked her sister being declared a “Servant of God,” the PA reported.

“There’s four steps to becoming a saint, so this is the first one,” she added to the news agency. “Clare’s life will be investigated before we can move on.”

“No one knows how long it can take, 10 years, 20 years, two years, it depends on how fast things move,” Gill shared. “Nobody has been through this in our lifetime, so nobody knows what to expect or what’s going to happen.”

In a testimony written by Crockett in 2014, per the Sister Clare and companions website, she admitted of her teenage years, “I was a bit (or a lot) of a wild child.”

She also revealed that she took her first steps into the world of television as a 14-year-old after attending a workshop.

“I got my first job on Channel 4 in England when I was 15 years old, then had a few small jobs as a television host, and when I was 18 I had a small role in a film. I loved theater, just as much acting as writing, reading and directing. My goal was Hollywood… seriously. Why couldn’t it be?” Crockett continued, per the site.