Mary MacKillop

In 1866, in Penola, Mary MacKillop founded with Father Julian Tenison Woods the Institute of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the first religious order of Australian origin, whose members are called "Josephites." The congregation distinguished itself by its desire to provide free education even in remote rural regions and poor urban neighborhoods; the sisters opened schools, orphanages, and shelters (the "Providences") for the destitute, women, and abandoned children. Under the impetus of Mary MacKillop, the institute experienced rapid expansion throughout Australia and New Zealand. Her insistence on a centralized government for the congregation and its independence from certain diocesan authorities earned her sharp opposition: in September 1871, the Bishop of Adelaide, Laurence Sheil, pronounced a sentence of excommunication against her, which was lifted in February 1872, the bishop having recognized the injustice of the measure on his deathbed. Confirmed as Superior General, Mary MacKillop continued the educational and charitable work that remains the hallmark of the Sisters of Saint Joseph today.

Mary MacKillop's spirituality is rooted in an abandoned trust in Providence and in a concrete love for the poor, summarized by the maxim traditionally attributed to her: "Never see a need without doing something about it." Confronted with the misunderstanding of certain ecclesiastical authorities, the unjust excommunication of 1871, and then canonical investigations into her congregation, she demonstrated remarkable docility and an absence of resentment, recommending patience and forgiveness to her sisters. Her devotion to Saint Joseph and to the Cross, signified by her religious name, accompanied a life of prayer and detachment. During her lifetime, her dedication and humility already earned her the esteem of the faithful; upon her death in 1909, Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran is said to have declared that he had attended "the deathbed of a saint." This reputation for holiness, maintained by the Sisters of Saint Joseph and by the many beneficiaries of their works, led to the opening of her cause for beatification.

The cause of Mary MacKillop led to her beatification on January 19, 1995, celebrated by Pope John Paul II during his apostolic journey to Australia, during a mass at the Randwick Racecourse in Sydney; the Pope then hailed her as "the first Australian formally declared among the blessed of Heaven." The miracle accepted for the beatification was the healing of Veronica Hopson, who suffered from leukemia deemed fatal in 1961 and recovered after invoking the intercession of the foundress. On December 19, 2009, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized a second miracle: the complete and lasting healing of Kathleen Evans, who suffered from inoperable lung cancer with brain metastases in the 1990s. Pope Benedict XVI proceeded with her canonization on October 17, 2010, in Saint Peter's Square in Rome; Mary MacKillop thus became the first saint of Australia. Under the name of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, she is celebrated liturgically on August 8, the anniversary of her death.

As the first canonized saint of Australia, Mary MacKillop has become an iconic figure of Australian Catholicism and identity, extending even beyond religious circles. The congregation she founded, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, remains active in Australia, New Zealand, and several other countries, perpetuating her commitment to the education of the most disadvantaged and to social works. Her tomb and memorial are located at Mary MacKillop Place, a shrine situated in North Sydney, a place of pilgrimage that preserves her relics in the dedicated chapel. Numerous schools, parishes, and charitable institutions bear her name across Australia. Venerated as an intercessor for desperate causes and as a patron of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, she is invoked in connection with education and care for the poor. Her motto—to never see a need without doing something about it—continues to inspire many social and educational initiatives that claim her legacy.