Editor's note on the text

Kathleen Kilbane died on 7th October 1947. Some time afterwards Bro. Conway wrote the present account of her life. He made at least six copies of it in his own handwriting. No two of these copies are identical.

One copy has a scribbled note, in pencil, at the front. It is in Bro. Conway's handwriting and says: ”Written on Xmas 1948". At one point in the text, however, there is a reference to St Maria Goretti, who is described as “the latest canonized girl-saint”. In fact, Maria Goretti was canonised 25 Iune 1950.

The text also refers to Kathleen's letters to Bro. Conway, but adds that "the child who wrote them is now dead for many years.”

So, the pencilled note may mean that the original story was written in late 1948, but that the copies now available were made some years later.

One text has a note at the end which says, "Received J Kilbane 26/ 6/ 53". The J Kilbane was Kathleen's uncle Johnnie, who became friendly with Bro. Conway after Kathleen's death. This text corrects several details of fact, probably due to information supplied by Johnnie, and is the only copy to have these corrections. This suggests that it may be the latest copy of those now available and that the other copies were made before lune 1953. However, other remarks (see endnotes below) suggest that some of the copies were made after 1953. One of the copies are exactly the same. Many of the changes are simply stylistic. In other cases the brother included or omitted various details. Occasionally the accounts are quite different.

I have used five texts for this booklet. With stylistic differences and minor changes I simply made a choice. With more significant differences I chose one text each time and added in the extra information from the other texts.

In the endnotes below I give, in inverted commas, variations found in one or other copy.

-Editor