Religious Education

Feast of St. Mary Mackillop - Australia's first saint

Mary Helen MacKillop was born in Fitzroy, Victoria, on 15 January 1842. MacKillop's parents lived in Roy Bridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland, prior to emigrating to Australia. MacKillop's father, Alexander MacKillop, born in Perthshire, had been educated at The Scots College in Rome and at Blairs College in Kincardineshire, for the Catholic priesthood but at the age of 29 left just before he was due to be ordained. He migrated to Australia and arrived in Sydney in 1838. MacKillop's mother, Flora MacDonald, born in Fort William, had left Scotland and arrived in Melbourne in 1840. Her father and mother married in Melbourne on 14 July 1840. MacKillop was the eldest of their eight children. Her younger siblings were Margaret ("Maggie", 1843-1872), John (1845-1867), Annie (1848-1929), Alexandrina ("Lexie", 1850-1882), Donald (1853-1925), Alick (who died at 11 months old) and Peter (1857-1878). Donald would later become a Jesuit priest and work among the Aborigines in the Northern Territory. Lexie also became a nun.

MacKillop started work at the age of 14 as a clerk in Melbourne and later as a teacher in Portland. To provide for her needy family, in 1860 she took a job as governess at her aunt and uncle's property at Penola, South Australia where she was to look after their children and teach them. Already set on helping the poor whenever possible, she included the other farm children on the Cameron estate as well. This brought her into contact with Father Woods, who had been the parish priest in the south east since his ordination to the priesthood in 1857 after completing his studies at Sevenhill.

MacKillop stayed for two years with the Camerons of Penola before accepting a job teaching the Cameron children of Portland, Victoria in 1862. Later she taught at the Portland school and after opening her own boarding school, Bay View House Seminary for Young Ladies, now Bayview College, in 1864, was joined by the rest of her family.

Father Woods had been very concerned about the lack of education and particularly Catholic education in South Australia. In 1866, he invited MacKillop and her sisters Annie and Lexie to come to Penola and open a Catholic school. Woods was appointed director of education and became the founder, along with MacKillop, of a school they opened in a stable there. After renovations by their brother, the MacKillops started teaching more than fifty children. At this time MacKillop made a declaration of her dedication to God and began wearing black.

In 1867, MacKillop became the first sister and mother superior of the newly formed order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, and moved to the new convent in Grote Street, Adelaide. In the same year, at age 25, she adopted the religious name Sister Mary of the Cross. In Adelaide they founded a new school at the request of the bishop, Laurence Bonaventure Sheil. Dedicated to the education of the children of the poor, it was the first religious order to be founded by an Australian. The rules developed by Father Woods and MacKillop for the convent emphasised poverty, a dependence on divine providence, no ownership of personal belongings, faith that God would provide and willingness to go where needed. The rules were approved by Bishop Sheil. By the end of 1867, ten other nuns had joined the Josephites who had adopted a plain brown habit. The Josephite nuns became colloquially known as the Brown Joeys.

MacKillop died on 8 August 1909 in the Josephite convent in North Sydney. The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Moran, stated that: "I consider this day to have assisted at the deathbed of a Saint." She was laid to rest at the Gore Hill cemetery, a few kilometres up the Pacific Highway from North Sydney.

After MacKillop's burial, people continually took earth from around her grave. As a result, her remains were exhumed and transferred on 27 January 1914 to a vault before the altar of the Virgin Mary in the newly built memorial chapel in Mount Street, Sydney.

In 1925, the Mother Superior of the Sisters of St Joseph, Mother Laurence, began the process to have MacKillop declared a saint and Michael Kelly, Archbishop of Sydney, established a tribunal to carry the process forward. After several years of hearings, close examination of MacKillop's writings and a 23 year delay, the initial phase of investigations was completed in 1973. After further investigations, MacKillop's "heroic virtue" was declared in 1992. That same year, the church endorsed the belief that Veronica Hopson, apparently dying of leukaemia in 1961, was cured by praying for MacKillop's intercession; MacKillop was beatified on 19 January 1995 by Pope John Paul II. For the occasion of the beatification, the Croatian-Australian artist Charles Billich was commissioned to paint MacKillop's official commemorative.

On 19 December 2009, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued a papal decree formally recognising a second miracle, the complete and permanent cure of Kathleen Evans of inoperable lung and secondary brain cancer in the 1990s. Her canonisation was announced on 19 February 2010 and subsequently took place on 17 October 2010. This made her the first Australian saint.

Prayer of St. Mary Mackillop

Ever generous God,

You inspired Saint Mary MacKillop

To live her life faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ

and constant in bringing hope and encouragement

to those who were disheartened, lonely or needy.

With confidence in your generous providence

and through the intercession of Saint Mary MacKillop

We ask that you grant our request……………….

We ask that our faith and hope be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit

so that we too, like Mary MacKillop, may live with courage, trust and openness.

Ever generous God hear our prayer.

We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen.Mary MacKillop