Mary Mackillop

Mary Mackillop

Mary Helen  Mackillop was born on January 15,1542 in Melbourne, Victoria.Her parents were born in the country Scotland and chose to live in Australia.She had 7 siblings named Margaret Mackillop, Alexandrina Mackillop, Annie Mackillop, Alick Mackillop, John Mackillop, Donald Mackillop and Peter Mackillop.

Mary Helen Mackillop cared for the people who had no one to look after them like , boys and girls who roam around streets and children who were less fortunate than her.

Mary wanted to help these  people, so she started work as a teacher in a little town called Penola in South Australia.

At Penola she met Father Julian Tenison Woods who also had the same idea to help the poor children who could not afford education. So in 1866 together, they were the first ones to start a St Joseph’s school. Annie and Alexandrina (Mary Mackillop’s sisters) became Josephites and taught at the school. Later on other younger women came to help this situation.

After Mary had accomplished starting schools in Penola, she was asked by Bishop Shiel to come to Adelaide to start a school. From Adelaide, the Josephite sisters developed to NZ  cities and now Peru, Brazil and refugee camps in Thailand. Mary and the early josephite sisters and other religious orders, had an intense influence on the development of Catholic Education, that we experience everyday in school.

Mary Mackillop also opened up orphanages judgements to care for the homeless and penniless, and also the safety for ex-prisoners and ex-prostitutes who asked for a fresh start.

Throughout Mary Mackillop’s life she suffered from an illness.She died on August 8 in 1909 in North Sydney.Since her accomplishment, she was known as Australia’s first saint.

By:Tino