Two weeks after a recently retired nun from Long Island, N.Y., disappeared while vacationing alone in Europe, more than 200 people gathered to pray for her at an evening service July 20 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, East Northport, where she lived.

While the event was promoted as a “prayer service for the safe return of Sister Eileen Christie,” most in attendance harbored thoughts that, given the amount of time she has been missing, they probably would not see her alive again.

Sister Eileen, 72, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, N.Y., has not been heard from since July 6, when she notified her nephew in Long Island via an email from her iPad that she had arrived at a hostel in the Alpine village of Hallstatt, Austria.

“In faith you don’t let go of hope and you believe in the power of prayer,” Sister Helen Kearney, president of the Sisters of St. Joseph. “Hope for her safely returning to us is harder to hold onto because of the length of time. At this point in time, the reality begins to become deeper for us.”

According to her family, Sister Eileen – who retired last year after serving for nearly five decades as a teacher in Catholic schools in the Diocese of Rockville Centre – enjoyed trips to Austria, Croatia and northern Italy. She had begun this year’s vacation in mid-June in Croatia and had a plane ticket to return to the U.S. in August.

“She’s been doing this for many summers,” said Bill Freda, her nephew. “If she could hike or swim, that was the perfect day for her.”