St Mary MacKillop (1842–1909) first Australian saint
There
was great rejoicing both in Scotland and Australia on 17th October 2010
for the canonisation of the first Australian saint.
Mother Mary Mac
Killop (Mother Mary of the Cross), the daughter of Scottish
emigrants/immigrants to Australia, was canonised in Rome.
Daughter of Scottish immigrants
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.
Family and education
Her father, Alexander, had
studied in Rome for the Catholic priesthood but, at the age of 29, left
just before his ordination. He 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. Mary was well educated by her
mother. Her brother Donald later became a Jesuit priest and worked
among the aborigines in the Northern Territory and her sister Lexie
became a nun. Mary received her first communion at the unusually early
age of nine.
Early responsibility
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. She looked
after their children and taught them and included the other children as
well.
Founding of school and religious order
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 and after renovations by their
brother, the MacKillops started teaching more than fifty children. In
the same year, at age 25, Mary put on a simple black habit and took the
religious name Sister Mary of the Cross.
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart
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, where they founded a new school at the request of Bishop
Laurence Sheil. Other young women came to join the first religious order
to be founded by an Australian.
Controversy over the rule
Father Woods and Mary
wrote the rule. The emphasis was on poverty, dependence on divine
providence, and faith that God would provide. The sisters were to go
wherever they were needed. The rules were approved by Bishop Sheil of
Adelaide. By the end of 1867, ten other sisters had joined the
Josephites. They cared for the needy regardless of religion, race or
social status.
Resisting control by the bishops
The bishops in
Australia felt that the new congregation should be under the control of
the local bishop in each diocese, but Mary wanted a congregation that
would be centrally controlled so that the local bishop would not have a
say in the day to day running or in the appointments of
sisters. Difference over this led to Mary herself being excommunicated
by Bishop Sheil of Adelaide for insubordination and disobedience. Mary
took it all with patience and good humour. Five months later, shortly
before he died, the bishop admitted that he had been badly advised and
lifted the excommunication.
To Rome, Scotland and Ireland
Mary realised that
only papal approval would give her the independence she wanted. She out
for Rome in 1873 and explained her case to rome. She eventually got
approval for her Constitutions from Pope Leo XIII in 1888. Mary took the
opportunity of the trip to Europe to visit Scotland for three months
and then Ireland, where she recruited fifteen young Irish women wanting
to enter the congregation.
Return from Rome
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. After the appointment of Archbishop
Roger Vaughan of Sydney in 1877 life became a little easier for Mary and
her Sisters. But the opposition of bishops continued.
Brown and black Josephites
When Mary's
Constitutions for her order were approved, sisters who did not favour
the central model of government could remain Sisters of St Joseph
attached to a particular diocese under the authority of the local
bishop. The centrally governed group were called the "brown Josephites"
and the diocesan groups were the "black Josephites".
New Zealand
However, Bishop Reynolds of Adelaide
relieved Mary of her post and she went for a while to New Zealand. But
in 1899 she was re-elected unopposed as Mother Superior-General, a
position she held until her own death.
Health problems
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.
Death and canonisation
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.