The Life Of Our First Saint - Mary MacKillop

Read some of our great Mary MacKillop Reports:

1. Megan's Report

Blessed Mary MacKillop, a great woman who respected God. She had a hard life but she learned from that to care more about others.

Mary had a great friend, Fr Julian Tennison Woods. He helped her start a school in Penola, South Australia. Mary came across an old stable.
She remembered how Jesus was born in a stable, so she thought how great it would be to have a school in a stable. When she showed Julian Woods, he said “We can’t possibly start a school in that!” But all Mary said was “If Jesus could be born in a stable, we can start a school.” Julian Woods said “OK, we’ll do it here. We’ll start next week.” “What’s wrong with tomorrow” Mary said.

So they started the next day. They gathered some other sisters from the Josephites, and started teaching around 50 children. Mary’s school (St Joseph’s School) was the first free Catholic school in Australia. At that time, only rich family’s could afford to go to school. At St Joseph’s School, parents who couldn’t afford going to school, didn’t have to pay.

In 1871, Mary was excommunicated from the church, by Bishop Sheil. He was against Mary and the changes she had made in the church. But a few years later, when Bishop Sheil was dying, he said that he had made the wrong decision to excommunicate Mary and she could rejoin.

Mary then got some money from a friend and travelled to Rome to see the pope. She asked if she could reopen the school. The pope said yes, and then she travelled back home.
Her mother travelled to see Mary, but then there was a ship wreck, Mary’s mother passed away. Many other bad things happened to Mary. She had a stroke and no longer could work for the school. One of Mary’s 7 sisters, Annie, helped Mary when she had a stroke. Mary died on the 8th of August, 1909.

Mary is now known as a Saint in Australia. She has to make a one more miracle and has to be proved by a human for her to be a nation wide Saint. One of Mary’s miracles was to save a lady with a very bad disease from dying.

I think Mary is a great woman and deserves to be a saint!

2. Andrew U's Report


Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne on the 15th of January 1842. She was the eldest of 8 children. Mary’s parents, Alexander and flora were immigrants from Scotland. Mary was educated at a private school. Her dad was a very holy person, but he did not earn much money from his job. Mary started working at the age of fourteen as a clerk. She became a governess at Penola in South Australia where she met Father Julian Woods.

Mary and Father Julian Woods started a school. The school was for poor children. Mary started studying to become a nun. Once she had become a nun, she started an order of nuns called the sisters of the Josephites. By the end of 1869 more than seventy nuns were educating schools throughout the country. Mary and the nuns also started a boarding school and an orphanage. Mary and several other nuns traveled to Brisbane to start the order in Queensland. During this year Mary was wrongfully excommunicated by bishop Sheil as he did not agree with Mary’s ways.

In 1872 Bishop Sheil was on his deathbed when he told Fr Hughes to lift the disagreement about Mary MacKillop. Mary soon left to Rome to gain support for the Josephites and was successful. When she returned in 1875, she brought back supplies for her schools and learnt new ways to teach the children. By 1896 more than forty schools were in Adelaide and many others in Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand.

Mary died in August 1909. She is remembered as an intelligent and unselfish lady who gave poor children a chance to learn for a better future.


3. Olivia's Report

The Life of Mary MacKillop

Mary MacKillop is an inspiration to all of us, that we
can achieve anything if we believe. Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne on 15th January,
1842. Her father was a religious man and taught Mary a love of the church. Mary was the eldest of eight. She looked after the other children and as the family became poorer, she was always trying to earn extra money to keep dinner on the table. When Mary was sixteen, she worked as a shop assistant in Melbourne and when she was nineteen she was a governess for her uncle in Penola, South Australia.

Mary MacKillop first met Father Julian Woods in 1861. They discussed ideas on how to start a school. Their motto was “Never see a need without doing something about it”. Mary thought it was unfair that poor children weren’t given the opportunity to be educated. So she decided to start her own school. The school opened in March 1866.

On August 15, 1867 Mary MacKillop became Sister Mary of the Cross and began the order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. After many years there were many sisters working in schools in Australia and New Zealand.

Bishop Sheil the bishop of Adelaide was worried that Mary was going against the church so he excommunicated her from the church and disbanded the order of the Sisters. The bishop regretted what he had done and when he was on his deathbed, he ruled that Mary was no longer excommunicated. Mary and the sisters began their work again.

Mary MacKillop had many ups and downs for the remainder of her life. She died on August 8, 1909. Mary is now known as Blessed Mary MacKillop and with another miracle she will be
Australia’s first saint.

4. Andrew L's Report

Mary MacKillop


Mary MacKillop is well known to Australians and is going to be our first Saint.
Mary was born in 1842 in Melbourne in to a very poor family. She was the eldest of eight and had to work to get money and food for the family.

Mary started work when she was fourteen as a clerk. But to earn more money for her family she started teaching the poor and needy farm children on her aunt and uncles farm. There Mary met Father Julian Woods who had been there since he became a priest. Mary only stayed there for two years and then moved to several other teaching jobs before opening her own boarding school named Bayview house, here the rest of Marys family joined her.

Father Woods asked Mary and her sisters to open up a catholic school. In 1866 the school was opened up in a stable. They started out with over fifty children to teach. Mary wanted to become a nun but couldn’t find an order she liked. So in 1867 Mary with Father Woods became a nun in the newly formed Order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. It was dedicated to the education of the poor children and was the first religious order founded by an Australian; Mary was its first Mother Superior.

Over the next few years the order spread to South Australia and Queensland. There they opened schools, orphanages and homes for the aged and ill. The order of St Joseph took a vow of poverty, so Mary and the other sisters had to beg for money. The church didn’t like people begging and tried to stop her, but she refused and so she was excommunicated from the church. Mary was devastated but kept her faith, and she was accepted back the next year.

In 1872 she went to Rome to see the Pope who was very happy with what Mary was doing. On her return the Order grew and the Bishops eventually started to respect her work, and life became a little easier.

Mary died from a stroke in 1909 by which time there were St Joseph’s schools all over Australia.

5. Talise's Report

Mary MacKillop

Mary MacKillop was born on the 15th of January 1842. She lived and grew up with her family of 10 in Melbourne, Australia.

Mary’s family, the MacKillop’s, were a poor family due to her father, Alexander MacKillop, spending the family fortune. This caused the MacKillop family to go bankrupt. The family consisted of 8 children, Margaret, John, Annie, Lexie, Donald, Alick who died at 11 months old, Peter and Mary. Mary’s parents were Alexander Mackillop and Flora MacDonald.

She made her first communion on the 15th of August 1850 at the age of 9. Mary left home at 14. By the time Mary was 15 she had decided to be a nun. Mary gave all her money to her family as they were very poor. She wanted to devote her whole life in to helping sick and poor people. During her time in the covenant, Mary was excommunicated to due to not listening to the bishop’s wishes.

During Mary’s life she met Fr. Julian Tenison Woods who she joined with and found the Sisters of St Joseph.

Mary was educated at private schools & by her father at home. When her family became bankrupt they could not afford the private schools anymore.

Throughout Mary’s life she displayed gospel and Christian values. Some times she did this during her life were when she gave all that she had to the poor which helped them. As well as giving up all she had, Mary Mackillop also devoted her whole life to helping the poor. Mary’s motto was “Never see a need without doing something about it” She displayed her motto when she always helped the poor. She saw their need and helped them by building schools for unfortunate which extended their knowledge.

Mary may eventually be called a saint but the Catholic Church are currently trying to put together enough evidence to prove this.