January 19, 2012
British nun who saved Jews from Shoah on way to sainthood
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A British nun who saved dozens of Jews in Rome during the Holocaust has been advanced on the road to sainthood.
Britain’s Catholic Herald newspaper said the file on Mother Riccarda Beauchamp Hamrough, who died in 1966, was sent recently to the Vatican for investigation by the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.
Mother Riccarda was the director of the Bridgettine Sisters order and spent most of her life as a nun in Rome at the order’s mother house. In 1943, after the Nazi occupation of Rome, she saved about 60 Roman Jews by hiding them in the convent.
The cause for her sainthood was opened in July 2010, along with that of another British Bridgettine nun. The Catholic Herald said that the rapid completion of the first stage in the investigation of their causes represented a “quick and early step forward in the long road to becoming saints.” According to the report, several Jews gave evidence on behalf of Mother Riccarda, saying that while hiding in the convent they had nicknamed her “mama.”
