Saint Mary of the Cross
| St Mary of the Cross MacKillop | |
|---|---|
Mother Mary of the Cross (1869)
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| Born |
15 January 1842 Newtown, New South Wales (now Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia) |
| Died | 8 August 1909 (aged 67) North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 19 January 1995, Sydney, New South Wales, by Pope John Paul II |
| Canonized | 17 October 2010, Vatican City, by Pope Benedict XVI |
| Major shrine | Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Feast | 8 August |
| Patronage | Australia,Brisbane,Knights of the Southern Cross |
Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ (15 January 1842 – 8 August 1909), now formally known as St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, was an Australian nun who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church. Of Scottish descent, she was born in Melbourne, but was best known for her activities in South Australia. Together with the Reverend Julian Tenison Woods, she founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australasia, with an emphasis on education for the rural poor.
With the process to have MacKillop declared a saint having begun in the 1920s, she was beatified in January 1995 by Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI prayed at her tomb during his visit to Sydney for World Youth Day 2008 and, in December 2009, approved the Catholic Church's recognition of a second miracle attributed to her intercession. She was canonised on 17 October 2010, during a public ceremony in St Peter's Square at the Vatican. She is the first and only Australian to be recognised by the Catholic Church as a saint.
Mary Helen MacKillop was born on 15 January 1842 in what is now the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria (at the time part of an area called Newtown in the then British colony of New South Wales), to Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. Although she continued to be known as "Mary", when she was baptised six weeks later she received the names Maria Ellen.
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