Michael October - November

Little Nellie of Holy God (1903-1908

)

“That is the sign for which I was waiting.” said Pius X

Anne Marie Jacques

Ellen Organ, or Nellie, as her family called her, was

born on August 24, 1903, the youngest of four children.

At the time of her birth, her father, William Organ, was

a military man in the British Army occuying Ireland. The

family lived in the “married quarters” of a garrison in the

maritime town of Waterford. Her mother, Mary (Aherne)

Organ was a devout woman, light-hearted and gener-

ous. She taught her children to love God and prayed

the Rosary daily with them, teaching them to kiss the

Crucifix and the large “Our Father” beads reverently, a

practice which Nellie never forgot.

When Nellie was only three

years old, her mother died of

tuberculosis. At the time of her

death, the family was living on

Spike Island in Cork Harbour,

where her father had been trans-

ferred with his garrison. Poor Mr.

Organ was left with four mother-

less orphans and no one to care

for them. The parish priest of-

fered to find places where they

would be provided for and sent

Thomas, barely nine years old, to

the Christian Brothers and young

David to the Sisters of Mercy.

Mary and Nellie went to stay with

the Good Shepherd Sisters at

Sunday’s Well, Cork.

The Good Shepherd Sisters

soon realized that Nellie was not

well. Nellie and Mary were both

treated for whooping cough at

the Hospital of the Sisters of

Mercy. When they returned after

two months, Nellie still seemed

very frail and walked unsteadily,

even holding out her arms as

though she were afraid to fall. The little girl who slept

beside Nellie reported to the sisters that Nellie seemed

in pain and that she always cried for nearly half the

night. The sisters examined her and found that she was

suffering from a curved spine and crooked back from

having been dropped when only an infant. Consequent-

ly, she was moved to the infirmary where it was also

discovered that she was victim to the dreaded disease,

tuberculosis, which had proved fatal to her mother.

Miss Hall, a trained nurse and recent convert to

the Catholic Faith, was Nellie’s caregiver. Three-year-

old Nellie loved her dearly and one day told her,

“God

took my good mother from me, but he has given you to

me as my new mother.”

Nurse Hall lovingly cared for

little Nellie, often spending the whole night sitting by

her side. When this would happen, Nellie would slip her

tiny hand between the rails of her cot and affectionately

hold her “mother’s” hand until she fell into a fitful sleep.

Nurse Hall would also talk to Nellie about God, Jesus,

His Mother and the saints. She would even carry Nellie

in her arms to the chapel where they would go from sta-

tion to station, while she explained to her the Passion.

This always caused tears to well up in Nellie’s eyes and

she would exclaim,

Poor Holy God! Poor Holy God! ”

There was an altar in Nellie’s room, with a statue

of the Infant of Prague.

One day

she asked her nurse about the

statue and Miss Hall told her the

story of the birth of Jesus, about

his childhood and how He loved

everyone. Nellie listened with

enthusiasm; she was ecstatic

that the Holy God had once

been a little child like herself.

After that she would often carry

on little conversations with Him

and, prompted by the nuns,

began a novena asking Him to

make her well. To everyone’s

great surprise she did become

well enough to be able to take

walks in the garden while hold-

ing someone’s hand. Though

this lasted for only a very short

time, it gave her a great confi-

dence in the Child Jesus and

her conversations with Him be-

came more familiar.

One day when Nurse Hall

was ill, Nellie asked to have the

Infant of Prague placed on a

chair beside her bed. She then

went on to explain to the Little Jesus that her Nurse

was not well and told Him,

“Please make her better.”

She was not surprised at all when Miss Hall did make a

quick recovery, it was what she had asked for and she

never doubted that her

Little Child, Holy God

would do

this for her.

Nellie’s understanding of Jesus in the Holy Eucha-

rist was very unusual for a child of her age. She listened

intently to the simple explanations given by Miss Hall

on the Holy Sacrament in the tabernacle of the altar,

and in a very relieved tone whispered happily to her

nurse,

“Oh, I am so glad that Holy God is not squeezed

in that little house ! ”

It seems that this had been her

one concern! And when, for the first time, Miss Hall

carried Nellie to the chapel for Exposition of the Bless-

ed Sacrament, Nellie pointed to the monstrance and

smiled saying, “

Mother, there He is, there is Holy God

now.”

From that day on, by some interior warning, she

somehow always knew when there was Exposition of

the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel.

Nellie loved Jesus, her

Holy God,

very much and

wished to receive Him in Holy Communion in the

same way the sisters and nurses did. Being much too

young, she was always told that this was not yet pos-

sible. Nellie was a very determined little girl and she

decided instead to ask any one, who would be willing,

“to return to her quickly after Holy Mass and give her

a kiss.”

She felt that, in this way, she could at least

“give a kiss” to the Eucharistic Jesus still present in

each one of them. There was one young nurse who

found early morning Mass

too tiring and, oftentimes,

she would just not go. Nellie

always seemed to know on

which days this nurse had not

been to Mass and she would

scold her for not going to re-

ceive Holy God in Holy Com-

munion, for her own desire to

receive Our Lord in the Holy

Eucharist was increasing with

every new day.

By this time little Nellie,

only four years old, was wast-

ing away from the dreaded tu-

berculosis. She also suffered

from a bone disease known

as caries, which was causing

her jawbone to crumble away,

leaving a foul odor that was

at times unbearable to any-

one who came near to her.

Her mouth had to be syringed

frequently with disinfectants

and, though this hurt a great

deal, little Nellie never once resisted the treatments.

She would just lie motionless on her little cot holding

onto her crucifix. Her devotion to the Passion of Our

Lord was so great and she understood so well the idea

of uniting her suffering to that of Our Lord that when

the pain would become too excruciating, she would

look at her crucifix and whisper,

“Poor Holy God, Oh,

poor Holy God! ”

And every day her sufferings, her

prayers and especially her rosaries, which edified all

those who witnessed her praying them, were offered

for all those dear to her: the sisters and nurses, her lit-

tle companions, the Pope, the Bishop and the Church.

The day finally came when Fr. Bury, who had come

to preach a retreat for the sisters before Christmas,

became aware of Nellie’s great desire to receive Holy

Communion.

“What is the Blessed Eucharist ?”

asked her,

“It is Holy God,”

she replied without hesita-

tion. Fr. Bury sent a message to the bishop requesting

that a special permission be granted for this little one,

whose longing to receive Jesus was even greater than

her suffering. The bishop gave his consent and on De-

cember 6, 1907, at the age of four, Nellie made her

First Holy Communion. The sisters dressed her all in

white and carried her down to the chapel and placed

in a chair before the Sanctuary. Nellie was silent and

remained motionless with her head bowed in prayer.

When it came time for Fr. Bury to bring her Holy Com-

munion her eyes lit up. He later wrote of her,

“The

child literally hungered for her God, and received Him

in a transport of love.”

At that same moment the hor-

rific odor that had exhaled from her diseased jaw up

until then, left her and was never experienced again!

In spite of Nellie’s indescribable joy after her First

Holy Communion, her tuber-

culosis continued to progress

and her sufferings increased

to where her tiny frame was

exhausted. She no longer re-

tained any food; she was not

able to swallow even a spoon-

ful of broth. But through all

this she remained calm and

resigned. Her only nourish-

ment now seemed to be the

Holy Eucharist. On the mor-

ning of February 2, it was clear

that Nellie was coming to the

end of her life’s journey. Many

of the sisters came and knelt

around her bed. Nellie was

calm and her eyes seemed to

be gazing on something that

she was seeing at the foot

of her bed. She tried to raise

herself so as to draw nearer to

what she saw. Her lips moved

in prayer and her eyes filled

with tears. Then raising her

eyes she smiled as with perfect satisfaction. Nellie’s

soul flew home to her Holy God whom she had loved

so faithfully.

In 1908, upon hearing about the life of Little Nel-

lie Organ, Pope St. Pius X declared,

“There ! That is

the sign for which I was waiting.”

A few months later,

in 1910, he issued the decree

Quam Singulari

which

significantly lowered the age for receiving Holy Com-

munion for children from the age of 12 to around age

7. The Pope also asked the local Bishop of Cork, His

Excellency T.A. O’Callagan, O.P. for a relic of Nellie and

on June 4, 1912 Pope St. Pius X wrote to the Bishop:

“May God enrich with every blessing Father Prev-

ost (the promoter of her cause for beatification) and

all who recommend frequent Communion to young

boys and girls, proposing Nellie as their model.”

Anne Marie Jacques

Pope St. Pius X

MICHAEL October/November/December 2013