In April, O'Connor commences a journey to Europe as part of the Lourdes Centennial Pilgrimage. O'Connor's cousin Katie Semmes insists on paying for Flannery's trip, which signifies the only trip to foreign lands attempted by the author. This trip includes a personal audience with Pope Pius XII in Rome. O'Connor returns May 9 from her travels, and promptly resumes work on the first draft of The Violent Bear It Away.
O'Connor rewrites and expands the middle section of her second novel, The Violent Bear It Away. She begins writing "The Azalea Festival" and finishes "The Comforts of Home." O'Connor also receives an $8,000 grant from the Ford Foundation for literary accomplishments.
O'Connor's second novel, The Violent Bear It Away, is published by Farrar, Strauss and Cudahy on February 8 and receives mixed reviews. By September, this novel is also being published in England. She begins a story entitled "Parker's Back."
O'Connor works on the story "The Lame Shall Enter First," specifically after criticism from a colleague, Caroline Gordon. A Memoir of Mary Ann, for which O'Connor wrote the introduction, is published by Farrar, Strauss and Cudahy on December 7.
O'Connor's short story "Everything That Rises Must Converge" is honored in The Best American Short Stories of 1962 and wins the O. Henry Award the same year. O'Connor also receives the Georgia Writers Conference Literary Achievement Award. O'Connor's novel entitled Wise Blood is reissued by Farrar, Strauss and Cudahy of New York. She begins work on a new novel, tentatively titled Why Do the Heathen Rage?
O'Connor is awarded an honorary degree (Doctorate in Literature) by Smith College of Northampton, Massachusetts. O'Connor halts work upon Why Do the Heathen Rage? to better focus upon her short story "Revelation," which she completes. O'Connor begins experiencing increasing pan and fatigue which is attributed to both her lupus and extreme anemia. Upon undergoing iron treatment, O'Connor's joints show signs of improvement. However, shortly prior to Christmas, O'Connor collapses and spends over a week confined to her bed.
"Revelation" appears in Sewanee Review during the spring. O'Connor is also honored with the Henry Bellaman Foundation Award. In early February, doctors inform O'Connor her anemia is caused by a fibroid tumor. Despite the high risk of reactivating her currently dormant lupus, O'Connor accepts the decision to undergo surgery but insists the procedure be performed at the Baldwin County Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia. Despite her condition, O'Connor continues to revise "Revelation," hiding drafts under her pillow for fear of being denied the ability to modify them. After leaving the hospital, O'Connor grows weaker from post-surgery infections and reactivated lupus. Before being admitted to Piedmont Hospital of Atlanta, O'Connor chooses the title for her second short story collection, entitling it Everything That Rises Must Converge. Shortly thereafter, O'Connor learns her short story "Revelation" was awarded first prize in the O. Henry Awards. O'Connor is readmitted to Baldwin County Hospital at the end of July, where she falls into a coma by August 2. O'Connor passes due to kidney failure shortly after midnight August 3. She is buried next to her father in Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville, Georgia on August 4.
'Connor's second published short story collection, entitled Everything That Rises Must Converge, is released by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux in April. The O. Henry Awards officially awards the first prize story to O'Connor's story "Revelation."
O'Connor's old friends, Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, compile and edit some of the author's writings, entitling it Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose. This work is published by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux of New York.
The Fitzgerald family and O'Connor's editor, Robert Giroux, arrange for the publication of the expansive collection entitled The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor.
O'Connor's mother, Regina Cline O'Connor, donates O'Connor's works and letters to Georgia College in Milledgeville, Georgia.