An Australian nun who was murdered while working with the poor in Peru will be nominated to become her homeland's second saint.Church officials in Peru and Australia will prepare a submission to the Vatican for the cause of Sister Irene McCormack after the official canonisation of Mary MacKillop, News Limited has reported.
Sister Irene was a member of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the same order founded by Mary MacKillop.
Guerrillas brutally executed her while she working in the mountain village of Huasahuasi, Peru, in 1991 where she had dedicated her life to feeding the poor.
A congregational leader of the order, Sister Anne Derwin, who has visited the village where the nuns continue their work, said the push for sainthood would be led by the Bishop of Tarma in Peru, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
"The bishop said the people need new models of holiness, and he said they have already declared her," Sister Anne told the paper.
Father Brian Lucas, general secretary of of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said: "With respect to martyrs, the emphasis of the inquiry is on the connection between the person's death and its link to their upholding the faith."
Under Vatican rules, martyred saints do not require the same evidence of miracles performed through their intercession.
Mary MacKillop will be recognised as a saint in Rome on October 17.
SIC: SMH/AUS