Mary MacKillop

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Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ, born in 1842 and proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church in August 1909) was a nun known as St Mary of the Cross.

She was born in Melbourne but is best known for her work in South Australia. She was of Scottish descent but is best known for her Australian activities.

Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), a group of religious sisters that established a variety of schools and welfare organisations throughout Australia and New Zealand, with an emphasis on rural poor education. In the 1920s, MacKillop was proclaimed a saint, but Pope John Paul II beat her in January 1995.

During Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Sydney for World Youth Day 2008, the Catholic Church accepted a second miracle attributed to her intercession in December 2009.

During a public service in St Peter's Square at the Vatican on October 17, she was canonized.

She is the first Australian woman to be recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church.

Mary MacKillop is Brisbane's patron saint.

Early life and ministry

Helen MacKillop was born on January 15th, 1842, in what is now Melbourne's suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria (at the time part of a suburb named Newtown in New South Wales' then British colony) to Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. Although she went by "Mary" when she was baptized six weeks later, Maria Ellen was given the name Maria Ellen.

Before emigrating to Australia, MacKillop's parents lived in Roybridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland. Many people from both sides of the family tree emigrated before. MacKillop visited the village in the 1870s, where the local Catholic church, St Margaret's, now has a monument to her.

Alexander MacKillop, MacKillop's father, was born in Perthshire. He began his studies for the priesthood at the age of 12, and two years later attended the Scots College in Rome; he later studied at Blairs College in Kincardineshire, but only at the age of 29. In 1838, he immigrated to Australia and arrived in Sydney. Flora MacDonald, MacKillop's mother, was born in Fort William and died in Melbourne in 1840. On July 14, 1840, her father and mother married in Melbourne. MacKillop was the eldest of their eight children. Margaret ("Maggie"), John (1845–1867), Annie (1848–1928), Duncan (1850–1929), Donald (1853-1958), Alick (who died at the age of 11 months old) and Peter (1858–1878). Donald became a Jesuit priest and served among the Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory. Lexie is a member of the Good Shepherd Sisters in Melbourne.

MacKillop was educated at private schools and by her father. She received her First Holy Communion on August 15, 1850, at the age of nine. Alexander MacKillop's family was left homeless in February 1851 after having mortgaged the house and their income and travelled to Scotland for 17 months. Throughout his life, he was a loving father and husband but not as a gold prospector or a crook. As a result, the family was faced with a lot of difficulties.

MacKillop began working as a clerk in a Melbourne stationery store at the age of 16. In 1860, she took on a job as governess at her aunt and uncle's estate in Penola, South Australia, where she would look after their children and instruct them. She was also on the Cameron estate, helping the homeless as often as possible. This brought her into contact with Fr Julian Tenison-Woods, who had been the parish priest in the south east since his ordination to the priesthood in 1857 after finishing his studies at Sevenhill.

MacKillop spent two years with the Camerons before taking up teaching the children of Portland, Victoria, 1862. She continued teaching at the Portland academy and, after starting her own boarding school, Bay View House Seminary for Young Ladies, now Bayview College, in 1864, the rest of her family was welcomed.

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