Piero Piperno, 80, said that Mother Mary Richard Beauchamp Hambrough, known as Mother Riccarda, was a “sweet, kind and beautiful woman” who treated those who took refuge in her convent “as a mother”. The Vatican is examining Mother Riccarda’s “heroic virtues” as a precondition for beatification, the step before sainthood. She would be the first British female saint since 1970.
