Devotion: Writing Someone Else's Story to Find Your Own
Kate Clinch walked into a chapel as a non-believer and left with a novel, a calling, and a new understanding of what it means to survive. A conversation about faith, cancer, and the stories we don't know are ours.
Key Takeaways
- Kate Clinch experienced a profound spiritual awakening in a Sydney chapel that led her to write a historical novel about Eileen O'Connor, a disabled Australian woman currently being investigated for sainthood.
- A near-death experience prompted Kate to shift her priorities from working as a solo General Practitioner to becoming a full-time homeschooling mother and exploring mysticism.
- Facing a stomach cancer diagnosis, surgery, and chemotherapy forced Kate through a harrowing physical journey that ultimately helped her realize she couldn't tell Eileen's story without confronting her own.
- Kate's debut novel, 'Every Inch a Saint,' celebrates the inspirational life of a woman who defied illness, disability, and church opposition to establish a home nursing organization in 1913.
- This episode highlights how unexpected life shifts, grief, and survival can unexpectedly align to help us find our true calling and purpose.
There are moments that don't make sense until much later. And then there are moments that make total sense the instant they happen, even if you can't explain them to anyone else.
Kate Clinch sat in a small chapel in Sydney, a self-described non-believer, and felt something she had never felt before. Not a feeling she worked toward. Not a belief she talked herself into. Just a deep, quiet, unquestioned knowing. She was in the presence of a saint. She walked out with armfuls of biographies and a story she didn't yet know was also hers.
What followed was a decade of discovery. A historical novel about Eileen O'Connor, a disabled Australian woman who built a nursing organization from her sick bed and is currently being investigated for sainthood. A cancer diagnosis, stomach surgery, chemotherapy, and learning to eat and drink again. A slow, surprising realization that she couldn't tell Eileen's story without her own coming along for the ride. Kate came to this conversation as someone who spent years hiding behind her subject. She's leaving it as someone who finally understands why she was the one who had to write the book.
What You'll Hear
- How a stranger's offhand suggestion led Kate to a chapel that changed her life
- The near-death experience that quietly rearranged her sense of what mattered
- What a stomach cancer diagnosis took away, and what it somehow gave back
- Why she started making rosaries before she knew she'd need them
- The moment she realized she couldn't tell Eileen's story without telling her own
- What a century-old smile taught her about what actually changes the world
Guest Bio
Kate Clinch was a solo General Practitioner until a near death experience prompted a change in priorities, and she became a full-time mother homeschooling her children, with a developing interest in mysticism and the meaning of life. As her children became more independent, she started to write novels exploring those themes. Her first, unpublished novel longlisted for the 2020 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers in Australia. Her debut novel, Every Inch a Saint: a Novel about Eileen O'Connor, Australia's Second Saint-in-Waiting, was published in April 2026. It celebrates the inspirational life of a woman who defied the odds of illness and disability and the opposition of the church hierarchy to establish a home nursing organisation to care for the sick in Sydney's slums in 1913.
Find her at kateclinch.com.
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spiritual awakening, cancer survival story, historical fiction, faith without religion, near-death experience, writing as healing, calling and purpose, grief and motherhood, life after loss, following your instincts
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Kate Clinch?
Kate Clinch is a former solo General Practitioner turned author who wrote the debut novel 'Every Inch a Saint' about Australia's second saint-in-waiting, Eileen O'Connor.
What is the book 'Every Inch a Saint' about?
It is a historical novel about Eileen O'Connor, a disabled Australian woman who overcame severe illness and opposition from the church hierarchy to build a home nursing organization in Sydney's slums in 1913.
How did Kate Clinch become connected to Eileen O'Connor's story?
Following a stranger's offhand suggestion, Kate visited a chapel in Sydney where she felt an undeniable, deep knowing that changed the course of her life and inspired a decade of research and writing.
What personal challenges did Kate Clinch face while writing her novel?
During the writing process, Kate faced a cancer diagnosis, stomach surgery, chemotherapy, and the difficult journey of learning to eat and drink again, which deeply intertwined her own story with her subject's.
