Gwen Coniker

Mother, Foundress, Apostle of the Family

Gwen Billings was born in 1939 and married Jerome (Jerry) Coniker, with whom she would raise twelve children and eventually welcome more than sixty-five grandchildren. Her life was a testimony to the vocation of marriage lived with heroic generosity.

In 1971, the Coniker family moved to Fatima, Portugal, where Gwen deepened her devotion to Our Lady. That experience transformed her understanding of the family as a domestic church and set the stage for her life’s work.

In 1975, Gwen and Jerry co-founded the Apostolate for Family Consecration, dedicated to strengthening Catholic families through consecration, education, and community. The Apostolate grew into an international movement. In Bloomingdale, Ohio, Gwen built Catholic Familyland, a retreat center capable of housing more than 1,000 guests for family conferences and retreats.

She founded the Familyland Television Network to bring Catholic family programming into homes across the country, and established teaching centers in Mexico, Europe, Russia, Nigeria, and the Philippines. When a doctor warned that her eleventh pregnancy could kill her, Gwen refused to abort the child. Both mother and baby survived.

In 1999, Pope John Paul II named Gwen and Jerry as one of twenty couples chosen to advise the Pontifical Council for the Family, a recognition of their extraordinary contribution to the Church’s mission of strengthening the domestic church. Gwen died of cancer in 2002 in Bloomingdale, Ohio. Her cause for canonization was opened in June 2007 by the Bishop of Steubenville.

Timeline