Saint's of the Week

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Feast Day: Determination

Virtue: 31 July

Ignatius, born in 1491 at the royal Castle of Loyola, Spain, became a knight in the court of King Ferdinand V. Wounded in the siege of Pamplona, he lay ill in a castle where he picked up a book of Lives of the Saints and started to read.

When he left the castle, he went to confession. For almost a year, he lived in a cave on the banks of a river. He fasted, prayed and took care of the poor and the sick.

A man of thirty-five years of age, he entered a school in Barcelona, Spain. After being ordained a priest, he founded the Society of Jesus in Paris. Schools, preaching, retreats, missionary work—any work was to be their work, especially at a time when many were falling away from the Church. Many of his men became missionaries, and some taught the Indians in America.

For fifteen years, Ignatius directed the work of the society. Almost blind, he died at the age of sixty-five on July 31, 1556.

Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop

Feast Day: 8th August

Virtue: Knowledge

On January 15, 1842, Mary Mackillop was born of Scottish parents, Alexander Mackillop and Flora MacDonald in Fitzroy, Victoria.  A plaque in the footpath now marks the place of her birth in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Mary, the eldest of eight children, was well educated by her father, who spent some years studying for the priesthood in Rome but, through ill health, had returned to his native Scotland until 1835 when he migrated to Australia with his parents.  

From the age of sixteen, Mary earned her living and greatly supported her family, as a governess, as a clerk for Sands and Kenny (now Sands and MacDougall), and as a teacher at the Portland school.  At the time, Mary's family depended on her income, so she was not free to follow her dream. However, in 1866, greatly inspired and encouraged by Father Woods, Mary opened the first Saint Joseph's School in a disused stable in Penola. 

Young women came to join Mary, and so the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph was begun. In 1867, Mary was asked by Bishop Shiel to come to Adelaide to start a school. From there, the Sisters spread, in groups to small outback settlements and large cities around Australia, New Zealand, and now in Peru, Brazil and refugee camps of Uganda and Thailand. 

She also opened Orphanages, Providences to care for the homeless and destitute both young and old, and Refuges for ex-prisoners and ex-prostitutes who wished to make a fresh start in life. 

Throughout her life, Mary suffered from ill health. She died on August 8, 1909, in the convent in Mount Street, North Sydney where her tomb is now enshrined.