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Mary, the eldest of eight children, was raised in the working-class Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.
At 16, Mary went out to work, to support her younger brothers and sisters. As he was leaving he told two of the sisters that he felt as if he had been administering at the death bed of a saint.
Mary was buried in Sydney's historic Gore Hill Cemetery.
But along the way, she managed to arouse the ire of some rather powerful churchmen. After a long wait official approval of the congregation—and how it was to be governed—came from Pope Leo XIII.
Despite her struggles with Church authorities, Mary MacKillop and her Sisters were able to offer social services that few, if any, government agencies in Australia could.
Penola. They taught in schools and orphanages and served unmarried mothers.
Money, actually the lack of it, was a constant worry. They worked among the aborigines. Meanwhile, Mary had the support of some local bishops as she and her Sisters went about their work. As a young woman she was drawn to religious life but could not find an existing order of Sisters that met her needs.
She was just 25 years old.
"Within four years of Mary becoming a sister there were 130 Sisters of Saint Joseph, which is incredible," Sister Foale said.
The Sisters of St Joseph was the first Catholic order founded by an Australian. Among these is Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney, a sacred space where pilgrims can find quiet in the Chapel and reflect at Mary’s tomb.
The Mary MacKillop Place Museum is hosting a special exhibition, “Fanning the Flame of Hope,” celebrating thirty years of milestones and memories.
They vowed to live in poverty, own no property and were committed to equality. Mary MacKillop embodied an active hope: rooted in God’s providence, sustained by faith, and expressed through compassion and service.
Let us pray:
St Mary MacKillop, Companion of Hope,
Teach us through your example to trust in God’s providence,
To walk with courage even when the path is unclear,
And to be light for others in times of darkness.
When I could not see my way, God kept my heart full of trust to make all come right.
Mary MacKillop 1885
Sr Monica Cavanagh
Congregational Leader
Mary MacKillop: Biography
Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne in 1842.
and I had to go and offer myself to aid him".
Sister Mary's biographer, Sister Marie Foale, says Mary and Father Woods had a very close relationship.
"I think they loved each other very deeply," she said.
"Father Woods was such a charismatic character that when he moved to Adelaide, according to Mary, many of the mothers of the town locked their doors when they saw Father Woods coming past, because they didn't want their daughters to be running off and joining the Josephites."
Together, Mary and Father Woods opened the first free Catholic school in Penola in 1866, at first in a converted stable and later in this more substantial stone building.
A year later the pair formed a new religious order of nuns - the Sisters of St Joseph - devoted to teaching the poor.
She died in 1909 at the age of 67. Visitors are also invited to take part in the Hope Walk Pilgrimage, a reflective journey through Mary MacKillop Place centred on the theme of hope.
Other Mary MacKillop Spirituality Ministry centres across Australia are offering experiences that connect us to Mary’s spirit and encourage us in our own journeys of faith and trust.
Author Christine Valters Paintner, in The Soul of a Pilgrim, reminds us that the Latin root of pilgrimage — peregrini — means “stranger.” Mary MacKillop’s letters reveal her gratitude for the strangers she met along her journeys, whose kindness reflected the face of a Provident God.
On her way to Rome in 1873, she wrote:
I am going to Rome, to the feet of the Holy Father, to implore his sanction for our Holy Rule and I go full of hope.
Mary MacKillop 1873
One touching encounter she describes as she journeys through Europe:
At Verona I had to wait five hours for my train… I met a good friend.
South Australia.
speak of the neglected state of the children in the parish... It’s not that she sought the limelight.