A CATHOLIC nun who helped bring education to the area and was buried in the grounds of a St Helens church has moved a step closer towards Sainthood as the Pope declared her Venerable . Mother Elizabeth Prout laboured in the slums of towns in the north west of England and in Manchester until she died aged 43 from tuberculosis in 1864. Elizabeth, who became known as the Mother Teresa of Manchester , was born in Shrewsbury in 1820, baptised as an Anglican, but was received into the Catholic faith in her early 20s by Blessed Dominic Barberi. At 28 she became a nun and a few years later was given a teaching post in some of the poorest areas of industrial Manchester, working largely among Irish migrants, women and children, and factory workers.
Elizabeth Prout (pictured) has been approved by the Pope for the title of venerable
A Victorian nun known as the Mother Teresa of Manchester is on course to become Britain s second saint of modern times as the Pope approves her for the title of venerable .
Elizabeth Prout, who died 155 years ago, has been hailed by Vatican theologians as a figure who lived a life of heroic virtue .
Now the nun has taken another key step on the road to canonisation, as a Vatican bulletin announced yesterday that the Pope had approved Mother Elizabeth for the title of venerable .
She is remembered as an activist who opened a chain of schools for poor children and homes for destitute women across the industrialised North West, and is considered to have been ahead of her time in teaching women skills to earn their own living.
Elizabeth Prout (1820-1864). Courtesy of the Diocese of Shrewsbury.
CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2021 / 03:10 am (CNA).- An English Catholic bishop welcomed on Thursday a step forward in the sainthood cause of a religious sister who served poor communities ravaged by cholera and typhoid.
Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury said on Jan. 21 that it was fitting that Elizabeth Prout’s cause was progressing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The bishop made the comment on the day that Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of the nun known as the “Mother Teresa of Manchester,” meaning that she can now be called “Venerable.”
“It seems appropriate this announcement came during the pandemic when we can look to Elizabeth’s example and ask the help of her prayers as a woman who helped many during the epidemics which swept the industrial communities of Victorian England,” Davies said.
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