Edel Quin 1907 : Short Biography

Edel Quin was born in the civil parish of Castlemagner in County Cork on the 14th of September 1907. 

As a young girl, Edel felt a calling to enter into a religious life. It was her desire to join the Poor Clares, but her poor health did not allow it. After spending a number of years in a sanatorium recovering from advanced tuberculosis, Edel realised that her condition was not going to greatly improve. She left the sanotorium and joined the Legion of Mary, a religious organisation for lay people. She was 20 years old at the time. 

Whilst with the Legion of Mary, Edel became involved in aiding the poor of Dublin's slums, all the while her health was deteriorating. 

At the age of 29, Edel was terminally ill, but this did not stop her from engaging in her charitable works. If anything she increased them. She travelled to East and Central Africa where she became involved in missionary work. Though she based herself in Nairobi, her work took her far and wide. She established brances of the Legion of Mary in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Mauritius, but her illness finally caught up with her. 

Edel was admitted to a sanatorium in Johannesburg in 1941, her condition deteriorated and in 1943 she became fatally ill. 

Edel Quinn died on the 12th of May 1944 and is buried in St. Austin's Cemetery, Nairobi which is located in the grounds of St Austin's Church and St Mary's School both managed by Holy Ghost Fathers from Ireland.

An ongiong campaign is in place to have Edel Quin beatified. In 1994 she was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II.