Mary O'Connell and Sister Margaret Mary Birgan - Sainthood in 2018

The Catholic church in Sydney this week began the formal process for the beatification of Australian Eileen O'Connor, who co-founded the religious order Our Lady's Nurses of the Poor - also known as the ''Brown Nuns'' because of their distinctive brown cloaks and bonnets. O'Connor died in 1921 aged 28, and the Sisters - who still provide nursing care to the poor, have prayed for her sainthood ever since. To talk about O'Connor, her legacy, and the role of saints in modern life, Kim is joined by Mary O'Connell, historian and author of Our Lady of Coogee: Eileen O'Connor and the founding of Sydney's Brown Nurses, and Sister Margaret Mary Birgan, a Brown Nun who is in charge of the Sydney diocese's investigation into the cause of Eileen O'Connor's sainthood.