Scottish saint would help raise £¼m a year for poor, says priest

MORE than £250,000 a year could be raised by a campaign to create Scotland's first modern saint, the priest behind the plan said last night.

Father Ed Hone, who has raised thousands of pounds through innovative and sometimes controversial schemes, said that marketing Margaret Sinclair could be a lucrative source of funds for the poor and needy.

Ms Sinclair, a Scottish biscuit factory worker and trade unionist, used to worship at the Edinburgh church where Fr Ed is now based.

Efforts to have her canonised are already well advanced and, in March, Pope Benedict XVI said he would proceed with the beatification of Ms Sinclair if a miracle was officially ratified.

Fr Ed, known to some parishioners as "Father Cash", is part of a four-man team from the Redemptorists order currently based at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh's Cowgate. He said there was a huge global spin-off potential from DVDs, books and a "saint trail" based around Ms Sinclair.

In 1923, Ms Sinclair joined the Poor Claires convent in Notting Hill, London, where she was given the name Sister Mary Francis of the Five Wounds. Calls for her to be made a saint began almost immediately after her death from tuberculosis two years later.

Fr Ed's previous marketing ploys have included using the model of phone sex lines to set up standard-rate pre-recorded lines to advise Catholics on issues such as divorce and homosexuality.

He has also played a major role in the Redemptorists' lucrative global publishing empire and has leased land beside St Patrick's to Holiday Express Inn for £900,000 to help fund the church's £2.6 million renovation project.

He was also party to the discovery that a painting hanging in the living room of the home he shares with the other three priests was the lost masterpiece Mass in a Connemara Cabin by Aloysius O'Kelly, which is worth more than £500,000.

The Redemptorists, known as the "gypsy priests" because of their commitment to travelling with their mission, took over St Patrick's eight years ago.

Fr Ed said: "We want to get Margaret in the tourist guidebooks as much as Deacon Brodie or Greyfriars Bobby.

"By making her a saint, the church could raise hundreds of thousands of pounds through all sorts of ventures and tourism and plough the money into worthwhile causes. We see ourselves as a team who think creatively. We said, 'We've got that Margaret Sinclair pilgrimage, how can we maximise it?' We saw it as a huge opportunity to revive this place."

WHAT NEXT?

• THE first step to making someone a saint is an investigation into the candidate's life. The report goes to a bishop and then to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. With their approval, the subject is granted the title Venerable. Margaret Sinclair's piety was recognised by Pope Pius XII in 1942. She was declared Venerable in 1978.

• If subsequent investigations are satisfactory, the candidate can move on to beatification and be given the title Blessed.

• Two important miracles are required to be declared a saint. The Church places special weight on miracles after the individual has died. In March, Pope Benedict XVI told Cardinal Keith O'Brien "get your people to pray for a miracle" so he could proceed with beatification.

A hospital consultant in Ireland was willing to testify to a miracle after a Margaret Sinclair prayer card placed in an ailing baby's incubator appeared to help recovery, but the family shunned publicity.