Weekly Reflection

Yesterday was the Feast of Mary of the Cross. MacKillop will be the name of one of our new Houses at St Francis Catholic College in 2023.

Who was Mary MacKillop?

In 1842 Mary was born in Brunswick Street Fitzroy on 15 January and was baptised Maria Ellen MacKillop on 28 January.

At age 14 she became the primary breadwinner for her family. In 1861 she became governess to the children of her uncle, Alexander Cameron, at Penola in South Australia, where she met Father Julian Tenison Woods, who becomes her spiritual guide.

1863: Takes a job as a teacher at Portland Catholic Denominational School.

1866: Along with Father Woods, starts the first free Catholic school in Penola, at first in a stable and later in a more substantial stone building.

1867: Joins with Father Woods to form a new religious order of nuns, the Sisters of St Joseph, devoted to teaching the poor, with Mary as mother superior; opens a convent-cottage and a school in Adelaide; takes her religious vows on 15 August

1871: Bishop Laurence Sheil of Adelaide excommunicates Mary on 22 September for alleged insubordination; 47 sisters are expelled.

1872: Bishop Sheil removes the ex-communication order on February 23, nine days before he dies; the sisters are restored to their habits on March 19; an investigation vindicates Mary and the sisters; Father Woods is advised to relinquish direction of the sisters.

1873: Mary travels to Rome for a personal audience with Pope Pius IX, and obtains papal approval for the sisterhood but the 'Rule of Life' Father Woods set down is discarded and another is drawn up, causing a breach between Mary and Father Woods.

1874: Mary returns to Australia with 15 Irish postulants, following travels in Europe to visit schools.

1875: Mary is elected as the first superior general of the Sisters of St Joseph.

1883: The sisters expand to New Zealand with the establishment of their first foundation at Temuka on the South Island; Bishop Reynolds dismisses Mary in Adelaide over accusations she was an alcoholic (Mary drank brandy to relieve very severe menstrual pain), and she moves to Sydney.

1885: Cardinal Moran says Mary's election in 1881 is invalid and appoints Mother Bernard Walsh as leader.

1888: A decree from Rome declares the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart is an approved regular congregation, some alterations are made to habits and the sisters' rule.

1891: Mary suffers the first of many bouts of serious illness, as the order she founded has 300 sisters working in nine dioceses in Australia and New Zealand.

1899: Mary is elected as superior general once again, replacing Bernard Walsh.

1902: Mary suffers a stroke and travels to Rotorua in New Zealand.

1909: Mary dies on 8 August at Mount Street in North Sydney and is buried at Gore Hill Cemetery.

Road to sainthood

1914: Construction of a memorial chapel in North Sydney.

1918: Newly elected superior general, Mother Laurence O'Brien, raises the question of whether Mary MacKillop could be a candidate for beatification.

1926: Canonisation process begins; it was postponed in 1931 over claims she was an alcoholic and re-opened in 1951.

1995: Pope John Paul II beatifies Mary MacKillop at a ceremony in Sydney on 19 January.

2010: Canonised on 17 October in Rome.