Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop
Feast Day August 8th , and a Solemnity in Australia
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
Mary Helen MacKillop was born, the eldest of eight children to Scottish immigrants in Fitzroy, Victoria, Melbourne, on 15 January 1842. When baptised six weeks later she received the names Maria Ellen. Her parents had left Roy Bridge and Spean Bridge in Inverness-shire in the Scottish Highlands a few years earlier.
Her father, Alexander, decided to migrate to Australia and arrived in Sydney in 1838. Her mother Flora MacDonald left Scotland and arrived in Melbourne in 1840. They were married in Melbourne on 14 July 1840 and eventually had seven children.
In 1851, Alexander mortgaged his farm and made a trip to Scotland lasting some 17 months. Though a loving father and husband, he was often unemployed, so Mary had to take on responsibility early in life. She started work at the age of 14 as a clerk in Melbourne and later as a teacher and as a governess at her aunt and uncle’s place at Penola in Adelaide, South Australia.
While teaching at Portland, a Father Julian Woods invited Mary and her sisters Annie and Lexie to come to Penola and open a Catholic school there. In 1866, the school was opened in a stable .
In 1867, Mary took vows in the newly formed order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and moved to the new convent in Grote Street, Adelaide. Other young women came to join the first religious order to be founded by an Australian.
Father Woods and Mary wrote the rule . The sisters were to go wherever they were needed. The rules were approved by Bishop Sheil of Adelaide .
The bishops in Australia felt that the new congregation should be under the control of the local bishop . Mary did not . She went off to Rome and got approval for her Constitutions from Pope Leo XIII in 1888.
When she returned from Rome in January 1875, Mary still had to deal with episcopal opposition, but she was unanimously elected as Superior General of the order in 1875. She served in this position until removed by the Bishop of Sydney, Francis Patrick Moran. Despite all the trouble, the order expanded. By 1877, it operated more than 40 schools in and around Adelaide, with many others in Queensland and New South Wales. . But the opposition of bishops continued.
Some of the order sided with the bishops and this led to the centrally governed group called the “brown Josephites” and the diocesan groups were the “black Josephites”.
During the later years of her life Mary had many problems as her health deteriorated. She suffered from rheumatism and after a stroke in New Zealand in 1902, became paralysed on her right side. For seven years, she had to rely on a wheelchair to move around, but her speech and mental powers remained as good as ever. Even after suffering the stroke, the Sisters had enough confidence in her to re-elect her in 1905.
Mother Mary MacKillop died on 8th August 1909 in the Josephite convent in North Sydney. She was beatified in 1995 and was canonised on 17th October 2010.
Feast Day August 8th , and a Solemnity in Australia
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
Mary Helen MacKillop was born, the eldest of eight children to Scottish immigrants in Fitzroy, Victoria, Melbourne, on 15 January 1842. When baptised six weeks later she received the names Maria Ellen. Her parents had left Roy Bridge and Spean Bridge in Inverness-shire in the Scottish Highlands a few years earlier.
Her father, Alexander, decided to migrate to Australia and arrived in Sydney in 1838. Her mother Flora MacDonald left Scotland and arrived in Melbourne in 1840. They were married in Melbourne on 14 July 1840 and eventually had seven children.
In 1851, Alexander mortgaged his farm and made a trip to Scotland lasting some 17 months. Though a loving father and husband, he was often unemployed, so Mary had to take on responsibility early in life. She started work at the age of 14 as a clerk in Melbourne and later as a teacher and as a governess at her aunt and uncle’s place at Penola in Adelaide, South Australia.
While teaching at Portland, a Father Julian Woods invited Mary and her sisters Annie and Lexie to come to Penola and open a Catholic school there. In 1866, the school was opened in a stable .
In 1867, Mary took vows in the newly formed order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and moved to the new convent in Grote Street, Adelaide. Other young women came to join the first religious order to be founded by an Australian.
Father Woods and Mary wrote the rule . The sisters were to go wherever they were needed. The rules were approved by Bishop Sheil of Adelaide .
The bishops in Australia felt that the new congregation should be under the control of the local bishop . Mary did not . She went off to Rome and got approval for her Constitutions from Pope Leo XIII in 1888.
When she returned from Rome in January 1875, Mary still had to deal with episcopal opposition, but she was unanimously elected as Superior General of the order in 1875. She served in this position until removed by the Bishop of Sydney, Francis Patrick Moran. Despite all the trouble, the order expanded. By 1877, it operated more than 40 schools in and around Adelaide, with many others in Queensland and New South Wales. . But the opposition of bishops continued.
Some of the order sided with the bishops and this led to the centrally governed group called the “brown Josephites” and the diocesan groups were the “black Josephites”.
During the later years of her life Mary had many problems as her health deteriorated. She suffered from rheumatism and after a stroke in New Zealand in 1902, became paralysed on her right side. For seven years, she had to rely on a wheelchair to move around, but her speech and mental powers remained as good as ever. Even after suffering the stroke, the Sisters had enough confidence in her to re-elect her in 1905.
Mother Mary MacKillop died on 8th August 1909 in the Josephite convent in North Sydney. She was beatified in 1995 and was canonised on 17th October 2010.