Is Mary Alice Quinn Chicago’s ‘unofficial’ saint?

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The grave of Mary Alice Quinn photographed Friday afternoon September 30, 2011 at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth, Illinois. | Art Vassy~Sun-Times Media

Updated: December 2, 2011 8:00AM

Mary Alice Quinn was born Dec. 28, 1920, to Irish immigrants.

She suffered from a heart condition and apparently lived a short, pious life on Chicago’s South Side, where it is said she prayed daily to St. Therese of Liseaux, often referred to as “Little Flower.”

Even before she died at age 14 in 1935, there was talk of Mary Alice being a saint. Some Catholics believed she could cure the sick. Some believe she still is curing the sick.

“People still take this to heart,” said Edward Shanahan, a spirit reader and feeler, author and true believer.

Shanahan, a southwest suburban resident who is known in the Chicago area for his paranormal investigations, takes the Mary Alice Quinn story so seriously that he refused to talk about the “Miracle Child” during Halloween season.

“Her story isn’t a Halloween story,” he said. “It’s true, as are the personal experiences of many others who have come to the Miracle Child’s grave site, seeking and receiving healing miracles.”

The Catholic Church has instituted Nov. 1 as All Saints Day, a day to honor all saints, known and unknown. Shanahan agreed to tell his story in light of this holy day.

He believes the girl helped cure his granddaughter, who had been diagnosed with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, commonly referred to as the Bubble Boy disease.

The infant had been receiving daily injections of white blood cells when doctors determined she needed a bone marrow transplant, he said.

“They were worried the daily shots could cause bone cancer,” he said.

Shanahan went to Mary Alice Quinn’s grave and prayed on behalf of the child. Then he went to the hospital where the child was being kept in reverse isolation because she had a cold and fever. He said he held her in his arms, looked up at the ceiling and prayed.

“I offered up my life for hers,” he said.

Soon after, he recalled, his daughter was called to the hospital by a specialist. Blood tests revealed a complete surprise.

“The doctor told her they had no way to explain it but that my granddaughter was cured,” Shanahan said. “The only way they could explain was as a miracle.”

Today, his granddaughter is 11.

Shanahan isn’t the only one who believes the child can perform miracles. He claims to know a Franciscan brother in Joliet who refers to Mary Alice Quinn as “Chicago’s Unofficial Saint.”

Though the Archdiocese of Chicago assures the girl is not currently a candidate for sainthood, there is evidence that others believe she certainly is qualified.

On a recent Friday afternoon, this reporter and a photographer headed to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth, where Mary Alice is buried.

We found her grave, under the name Reilly, and were amazed at the number of blessings left at the site. Rosaries, scapulas, coins, candles, statues of the Virgin Mary. A spokesman for Catholic Cemeteries, which owns Holy Sepulchre, said the cemetery is cleaned and the trinkets cleared away each season. That means the items we saw had been placed there some time during early autumn.

Shanahan said people have been coming to the grave site, praying for a cure, for decades.

Some have claimed to smell roses while visiting the site, sometimes even in the dead of winter.

Ed Bara, who taught Chicago history at Andrew and Brother Rice high schools before his recent retirement, said Mary Alice Quinn reportedly said from her death bed that she would shower the world with roses.

According to legend, the smell is a sign of a miraculous cure. 

“From what I understand, if you are Irish and smell roses, although none are around, this is a good sign, a cure of a person’s ailments,” Bara said.

But not all agree. Bara said, “I have heard from Eastern Europeans that smelling roses, where none can be found, is a bad sign, indicating a death.”

Reinhold Hill, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Governors State University, said there are many phenomena in life that we can’t explain so we look for explanations and sometimes those explanations involve the supernatural.

Often such stories are shaped by religious or cultural beliefs at the time they began circulating.

Folklorists, he said, typically look for several elements when investigating an inexplicable story. Those include whether the tale is passed along orally, whether or not there are variations over time and if the source is anonymous.

The Mary Alice Quinn story seems to fit the bill, although today there are several Internet accounts of the tale.

For more information on Mary Alice Quinn, visit theunexplainedworld.com/miracle_child/index.html; graveyards.com; findagrave.com