The Eileen O’Connor Centre has opened in Coogee in Sydney’s east honouring the life’s work and legacy of the co-founder of the Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor, reports The Catholic Weekly
Also named the Brown Nurses due to their trademark brown cloaks and bonnets, Eileen O’Connor established the congregation in 1913 with Fr Timothy Edward “Ted” McGrath MSC to help Sydney’s most vulnerable receive medical care.
The Eileen O’Connor Centre has now opened in Coogee. PHOTO: Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2025/via Catholic Weekly.
The beloved “Little Mother” herself lived in constant pain from debilitating illness until her death in 1921 aged 28.
Despite her limited opportunities for education and religious formation she was named a Servant of God by the Holy See in 2018, and in October 2024 Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP travelled to Rome to present the required documentation supporting her cause for sainthood.
Inside the centre, built close to the house where Eileen O’Connor lived, visitors can see recreations of her bed and living space, as well as personal effects from her life, such as hair combs, a camera from the 1890s, crucifixes, and even a manicure set.
The centre was blessed by Bishop Terence Brady, with several guests in attendance including the local postulator for O’Connor’s cause for sainthood Fr Anthony Robbie, several Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor, Coogee MP Dr Marjorie O’Neill, and other friends of the congregation.
Sr Gabriel Bast OLN, who joined the Our Lady’s Nurse for the Poor in 1957, said she hoped the centre’s guests will “get to know Eileen better.”
“Even if she doesn’t become a saint, she’s still a very holy person,” she told The Catholic Weekly.
The centre is a lively and open space filled with a selection of O’Connor’s possessions and walls adorned with some treasured messages of hers.
She said she was happy the centre was arranged in such a way that everything important in O’Connor’s life is visible at once.
Project Manager Andrew Summerell said the centre is more light-filled than most museums and hoped it would become cherished as a retreat away from the busy city and “a real blessing for people.”
Looking to the future, Summerell would like to expand the centre, with ideas of adding a courtyard and even a retreat centre.
“I want it to be a place that’s peaceful,” he said.
“I’d love to think in time that some people who may be not overly religious have come here and then returned a few times.
“I think it has the opportunity to be the most amazing little space in Sydney for people who just want to come and reflect, pray or just stop for a while.”
This article by Tara Kennedy was published in The Catholic Weekly.