Quinn, Edel (1907–1944)

Irish missionary. Intensely spiritual, Quinn had intended since early youth to join the enclosed order of the Poor Clares but was prevented by family finances and ill-health. In 1927 she joined the Legion of Mary, a Catholic lay voluntary organization, founded by Frank Duff (1884–1980) in 1921 and devoted to social care and religious prosletysm among Dublin's poor. Despite increasingly poor health, Quinn became the Legion's first missionary in Africa where in less than four years she founded missions in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Mauritius. Overwork and the return of tuberculosis hastened her early death.