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.

During her life she opened a chain of schools for poor children and homes for destitute women across the industrialised north west, and was said to be ahead of her time in teaching women crucial skills to earn their own livings.

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In 1855 Elizabeth and another Sister moved to Sutton and she opened a school at St Mary’s, Blackbrook, and took charge of St Anne’s School, Sutton.

She created the community of the Passionist Sisters, who inhabited Holy Cross Convent where she died on January 11, 1864.

Her body lies in the shrine of St Anne’s Church in Sutton together with that of Dominic Barberi and Ignatius Spencer.

Her sainthood cause was submitted to the Vatican in 2008 for scrutiny by theologians who concluded that she lived a life of “heroic virtue”.

The ruling meant not only that there is nothing in her background that would disqualify her from sainthood but also that evidence of her sanctity has been proven.

A document on her life has been examined by top-ranking cardinals and bishops in Rome.

Pope Francis has now declared Mother Elizabeth as “Venerable”.

This means that the Catholic Church has concluded its theological and historical investigations into her life and work

It will now seek two miracles as supernatural signs from God that Mother Elizabeth is a Saint. The first will lead to her beatification, when she will be given the title “Blessed” and the second will lead to her canonisation.

The announcement was welcomed by the Most Reverend Malcolm McMahon, the Archbishop of Liverpool and leader of the archdiocese in which Mother Elizabeth is buried and where her sainthood cause was first opened in 1994.

The archbishop said he would like to see her shrine at St Anne's (below) become a place of prayer for her canonisation.

The shrine to Elizabeth Prout at St Annes Church

The shrine to Elizabeth Prout at St Anne's Church

Archbishop McMahon said: “I am delighted that the Holy See has further recognised the holiness of Mother Elizabeth Prout, foundress of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion.

“Her contribution to the Church and people of England and further afield in the education and healthcare through the institutions she founded and the Sisters of the congregation continues to show the care of the Catholic Church for those in need. My prayer is that the shrine at Sutton will be a place of prayer for her eventual canonisation.”

St Helens Star:

St Anne's Church, Sutton

Passionist Sister Dominic Savio Hamer, the author of Elizabeth Prout: A Religious Life for Industrial England, added: “This is wonderful news for Congregation of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

“She loved Our Lord so much and also knew so much suffering in her own life and was conversant with the bad social conditions in which so many people lived in Manchester that she will be an ideal person to pray to in our difficulties today.”

In a homily at a Mass in Shrewsbury Cathedral to mark the bicentenary of her birth, Bishop Davies had earlier described Mother Elizabeth as an “educational pioneer” who founded schools for the industrialised poor and refuges for factory girls as she “dedicated her life to the service of the most abandoned”.

He said she was inspired by her Catholic faith to confront “the most degrading situations with the confidence of the revolution which flows from Christ’s command: ‘Love one another as I have loved you’.”

Her canonisation could mean she will become the first English female since Pope St Paul VI in 1970 included Ss Margaret Clitheroe, Anne Line and Margaret Ward among 40 canonised martyrs of England and Wales.

However, she would be the first non-martyr English female saint in almost 800 years, since St Margaret of Wessex, an 11th century Anglo-Saxon princess who became Queen of Scotland after the Norman invasion of William the Conqueror, and who was canonised in 1250.