Mary Mackillop Biography, Early Life & Career
Mary MacKillop, (born January 15, 1842-August 8, 1909) RSJ, also known as Mary of the Cross, was an Australian religious sister. She co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites) with Fr Julian Tenison-Woods, a religious sisters’ order that established a number of Catholic schools and welfare organisations throughout Australia and New Zealand, with a particular emphasis on rural education.
The process of naming MacKillop a saint began in the 1920s, and Pope John Paul II beatified her in January 1995. Pope Benedict XVI prayed at her tomb on his visit to Sydney for World Youth Day 2008, and in December 2009, the Catholic Church recognised a second miracle attributed to her intervention.
She was canonised on October 17, 2010, at a public ceremony in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. She was Australia’s first Catholic saint. Mary MacKillop is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Brisbane and Australia.
Mary MacKillop Early Life
Mary Helen MacKillop, daughter of Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald, was born on January 15, 1842, in what is now the Melbourne district of Fitzroy, Victoria.[Although she was still known as “Mary”, she was christened six weeks later as Maria Ellen. MacKillop was educated at private schools and by her father.
She received her first Holy Communion on August 15, 1850, when she was nine years old. Alexander MacKillop left his family in February 1851, having mortgaged the farm and their livelihood, and set off on a 17-month trek to Scotland. Throughout his life, he was a loyal father and husband, but he was not an excellent farmer or prospector. As a result, the family has faced several hardships.
Career
In 1860, she relocated to Penola, a tiny rural hamlet, to act as governess for her aunt and uncle’s children. There, MacKillop gave her relatives a basic education, which she later expanded to the town’s underprivileged youngsters. Father Julian Tenison Woods, a young priest, urged her to continue her work, reminding her that educating the poor was the best way to serve God.
In 1866, MacKillop and Woods formed Australia’s first order of nuns, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, as well as St. Joseph’s School in a converted stable in Penola, which provided free education to local children. In 1867, MacKillop made vows and became the first mother superior of the sisters. The following year, the sisters established schools in other Australian cities, as well as an orphanage and a sanctuary for women released from prison.
MacKillop planned the order to be self-governing and dedicated to teaching and charity. She and Woods, who wrote the order’s rules, insisted that the sisters accept a life of complete poverty and put their trust in Divine Providence.
Furthermore, her school at Penola and the other schools founded by her order provided secular as well as religious education to all students, regardless of religious affiliation, and accepted no government funding, remaining open to all and accepting only what tuition parents could afford during a time when the government still funded religious schools.
Some Australian priests and bishops were openly antagonistic to both the Josephites’ level of autonomy and MacKillop’s refusal to accept federal financing. She and the sisters were claimed to have sparked further outrage when MacKillop reported allegations of sexual abuse by an Irish priest in southern Australia; the priest was later repatriated to Ireland.
Bishop Laurence Sheil of Adelaide condemned MacKillop in 1871 for insubordination, maybe because his advisers misled him. The following year, on his deathbed, Sheil admitted that he might have been misled and reinstated MacKillop.
Conflicts with Australian church priests and bishops dominated MacKillop’s remaining career. Following a meeting with Pope Pius IX in 1873, she secured papal permission for the Josephite rule, with changes that reduced the sisters’ level of poverty. MacKillop extended the order’s educational and humanitarian activities, attracting new sisters.
In 1875, she was named as the order’s superior general. Despite her elevation, she continued to face resistance from a few of the priests and bishops, and the sisters’ work was limited in some locations. She was ousted as superior general in 1885, but was reinstated in 1899 and continued to lead the order until her death.
In June 1995, Pope John Paul II beatified MacKillop. Pope Benedict XVI declared MacKillop a saint in February 2010, after hearing the testimony of an Australian woman who claimed that her terminal disease had vanished after praying to MacKillop. She was canonised in October.
