Feast day: 8 August
Mary MacKillop was born on 15 January 1842, in what is now the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria. At that time it was in part of an area called Newtown, in the then-British colony of New South Wales. Her parents were Alexander and Flora MacKillop. She continued to be known as “Mary” but was baptised Maria Ellen. The elder MacKillops had previously lived in Scotland before they emigrated to Australia. Mary MacKillop visited the village of Roybridge in 1870, where St Margaret’s Catholic church now has a shrine to her.
Her father, Alexander, was born in Perthshire. He began his studies for the priesthood at the age of twelve and two years later went to the Scots College in Rome. He also studied in Blairs College in Kincardineshire, but left at the age of 29, just before he was due to be ordained. He emigrated to Australia and arrived in Sydney in 1838. Mary’s mother, Flora MacDonald, was born in Fort William and arrived in Melbourne in 1840. She and Alexander were married in 1840. They had eight children, one of whom became a Jesuit and worked among the aborigines in the Northern Territory. Another sibling became a member of the Good Shepherd Sisters in Melbourne.
Mary was educated at a private school and by her father. She received her First Communion at the age of nine. In 1851, Alexander MacKillop left his family behind, having mortgaged the farm, and he made a trip back to Scotland which lasted seventeen months. He was a loving father but was unsuccessful both as a farmer and gold prospector. The family therefore suffered many hardships.
Mary started work at the age of sixteen as a clerk in a stationery store in Melbourne. In 1860 she took a job as a governess at the estate of her uncle and aunt in Penola, South Australia, to help provide for her family. She included the other farm children as well. This brought her into contact with Father Julian Tenison-Woods, who had been parish priest in the south-east since his ordination in 1857. Mary stayed on the estate for two years, after which she accepted a job teaching the children of Portland, Victoria. She opened her own boarding school, Bay View House Seminary for Young Ladies, now Bayview College. In 1864 she was joined by the rest of the family.
In 1866 Father Tennison Woods invited Mary and her sisters Annie and Lexie to come to Penola and open a Catholic school. He was appointed director of education and together with Mary founded a school in a stable. With the help of her brother, they renovated it and took in fifty pupils. Mary then made a dedication to God and started wearing black. On the Feast of the Presentation, several women joined Mary and her sisters. Mary took the name of Sister Mary of the Cross, and she and Lexie began wearing simple religious habits. The small group began to call themselves Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and they moved to a new house in Grote Street, Adelaide. There they founded a new school at the request of Bishop Sheil.
The rule of life, developed for the community by Father Woods and Mary MacKillop, emphasized poverty, a dependence on divine providence, no ownership of personal belongings and a willingness to go where needed. The rule of life was approved by the bishop. By the end of 1867 ten other women had joined the Josephites, who adopted a plain brown religious habit. Due to the colour of their attire, the Josephite Sisters became known as the “Brown Joeys.”
A school was opened at Yankalilla, South Australia, in 1867, in an attempt to provide education to the poor particularly in rural areas. By the end of 1869, more than 70 members of the Sisters of St Joseph were educating children at 21 schools in Adelaide and the country. The sisters also were involved with an orphanage, neglected children, girls in danger, a reformatory and a home for the aged and incurably ill.
In 1869, Mary and several other sisters travelled to Brisbane in order to establish the order in Queensland. The order expanded rapidly and by 1871 130 sisters were working in more than 40 schools and charitable institutions across South Australia and Queensland. Mary had a sharp disagreement with the Bishop of Brisbane over who should control the schools. Mary thought the order should, while the bishop insisted that the diocese would govern them. Eventually the sisters were forced to leave and other orders took over their work. However, when the diocese of Rockhampton was separated from the diocese of Brisbane in 1882, they were able to return to Queensland where they established a school in Clermont and other places within the new diocese. Mary received great support from the bishop of Armidale in New South Wales and many foundations were made during his episcopacy.
Bishop Sheil was absent from his diocese of Adelaide for long periods and suffered ill health. This led to a lack of leadership and disorder among clergy and laity. Mary heard disturbing reports of child sex abuse by a Father Keating. This was reported to Father Julian Woods, who approached the Vicar General in Adelaide. As a result Father Keating was sent back to Ireland. A fellow priest vowed revenge and as a result allegations were made against the Josephites of financial incompetence and also that Mary had a drink problem (she had been prescribed alcohol for a medical condition). Bishop Sheil was persuaded to change the constitution of the order which would have left the nuns homeless. Mary resisted and Bishop Sheil excommunicated her. Most of the Josephite schools were disbanded. Mary was forbidden to have contact with anyone in the church. She was given rent-free accommodation by a prominent Jewish merchant and was also sheltered by Jesuits. Bishop Sheil lifted the excommunication on Mary on his deathbed in 1872. She was later exonerated by an episcopal commission.
In 1873 Mary travelled to Rome, after the acquisition of the mother house in Kensington (South Australia) in 1872. She obtained approval for her Rule of Life and won the support of Pius IX. However, changes were made to it which resulted in a breach between Father Woods and Mary. This was healed before Father Woods died in 1889 but he was never again involved with the congregation.
It was decreed that the superior general and her council were in charge of the congregation, rather than the bishop, which was unusual. Also, the sisters lived in the community rather than in convents. Mary returned from Rome in 1875, having studied educational methods in Europe. She was unanimously elected Superior General in 1875. More difficulties arose when the order refused to accept government funding, would not teach instrumental music (which was regarded as essential by the church) and were unwilling to educate girls from affluent families. The local bishop refused to accept these structures and the sisters were forced to leave Bathurst and Queensland. The order continued, however, to expand. Mary was replaced as Superior General in 1883 by the Archbishop of Sydney, who appointed Mother Bernard. In 1885 Pope Leo XIII gave approval to the Josephites as a congregation with its headquarters in Sydney and the final approval was given by him in 1888.
In 1883 the order was established in New Zealand, where Mary stayed for a year. In 1889 the community was established in Victoria.
In 1886 she suffered a great tragedy when her mother, Flora MacKillop, was killed: she had been travelling from Melbourne to Sydney to visit Mary and another daughter (also a nun): the ship struck a reef, and Flora and 70 others died.
After the death of Mother Bernard, Mary was once more elected Superior General, a position she held to her death. In her later years her health deteriorated. She developed rheumatism, and after a stroke in New Zealand in 1902 she became paralysed on her right side. She had to rely on a wheelchair to move around, but her speech and mind were unaffected. She had always been a prolific letter writer and this continued as she learned to write with her left hand. Even after her stroke she was re-elected in 1905.
Mary Mackillop died on 8 August 1909 at the Josephite Convent in North Sydney. The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Moran, said: “I consider this day to have assisted at the deathbed of a saint.” She was laid to rest at the Gore Hill cemetery in North Sydney. She was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. Several places in Australia are named after her and there is also a Mary MacKillop rose. She was the first Australian to be canonised.
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.