Veronica O’Brien

Veronica O'Brien (16 August 1905 – 19 February 1998) was a Catholic nun, a missionary of the Legion of Mary, a lay worker and spiritual adviser to King Baudouin of Belgium and the Belgian Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens.

Biography Louise Mary O'Brien (from her canonical name Veronica) was born in Midleton on 16 August 1905, the daughter of Patrick O'Brien, a physicist, and Kathleen Leahy. She came from a large, devoutly Catholic family. She received her Catholic education from the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Midleton.

She had a deep faith from an early age. At her First Communion, she fainted and, when she came to, said that her eyes had been opened to the mysteries of God. This incident was to be repeated several times. At home she was an undisciplined child and as a nun she found it difficult to keep the vow of obedience.

After completing her secondary education with the Sisters of St Clotilde in Eltham, Kent, she worked for a short time as an au pair in Paris. In May 1924 she applied to the Congrégation de Sainte-Clotilde in Paris and was accepted as a novice. Six months later she took the veil and was given the new name Veronica. Returning to her former school at Eltham Park, she worked towards a bachelor's degree and a teaching diploma at Cambridge while living in the convent. She took final vows on 11 August 1930. In poor health she was transferred to a convent near Lausanne in Switzerland. In November 1935 she was expelled from her congregation after she had again shown indiscipline.

In 1947 she met Cardinal Suenens, with whom she began half a century of close collaboration in the service of the Church. In addition to her Catholic evangelicalism, Veronica had a Cambridge university education and a perfect command of Latin. This knowledge proved invaluable to Cardinal Suenens during the Second Vatican Council. Cardinal Suenens and Veronica also wrote many books. In all their writings we find the call to participate in the essential mission of the Church: evangelisation.

Veronica O'Brien played an important role in the wedding of King Baudouin of Belgium to Fabiola de Mora y Aragón in 1960. Over the years, the celibacy of the King who still lived in his father's house had become a matter of state. Cardinal Suenens discussed the matter with Veronica O'Brien. She met King Baudouin at the Palace of Laeken and, at his request, went to Spain to find the ideal candidate. After meeting Fabiola de Mora y Aragón on several occasions in Spain, Veronica organised a meeting between King Baudouin I and Fabiola de Mora y Aragón. Cardinal Suenens later recounted the circumstances of their meeting in a book about King Baudouin entitled "Le roi Baudouin, une vie qui vous parle" ("King Baudouin, a life that speaks to you").

She also became acquainted with the Charismatic Renewal, a Catholic movement inspired by Pentecostalism. In 1972, together with Yvette Dubois, she visited several university centres where this spiritual renewal was taking place. She took an active part in the growth of the Charismatic Renewal in Belgium, France and the United States and played an important role in the drafting of the doctrinal texts, the Malines Documents, which helped to root the charismatic enthusiasm in the Catholic tradition. She became a special consultant, first in Brussels, at the residence of Cardinal Suenens, and then in Rome, to the International Secretariat of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office (ICCRO, now ICCRS).