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Saint Mary Mackillop. Photo by Unknown. .

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Isoroku Saint Mary Mackillop

Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ was an Australian religious sister who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, as St Mary of the Cross. Together with Julian Tenison-Woods, she founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), a congregation of religious sisters.

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 baptized six weeks later, she received the names Maria Ellen.

MacKillop died on 8 August 1909 at the Josephite convent in North Sydney. Here are the Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Saint Mary Mackillop.

1. Her parents were Scottish immigrants

Photograph of Saint Mary MacKillop, 1890. Photo by Unknown. .

Her parents, Flora and Alexander MacKillop, were Catholics from the Gaelic-speaking Braes of Lochaber in Inverness-shire, in the Scottish Highlands. Alexander was a former seminarian, who had studied in Rome to join the priesthood before abandoning this vocation and moving to Australia.

Within months of Mary鈥檚 birth, Flora and Alexander lost their house, their possessions and savings owing to poor investments. By April 1842, Alexander moved the family to a farm in Darebin Creek. Money worries became a constant part of Mary鈥檚 life and MacKillops suffered continual financial instability. They continued to rely on the good-will and support of relatives and friends.

2. She began supporting her family at a tender age

Mary was 14 when she went out to work to support her younger brothers and sisters. Her first job was as a governess for the L鈥橢strange family in Richmond. In 1859, while living in Richmond, Mary started work as a clerk at Sands, Kenny & Co stationers in Collins St before moving to her uncle鈥檚 farm in Penola, South Australia where she became a governess in 1860.

At the age of 22, to supplement her income so she could support her whole family, Mary opened her own boarding school in Portland. It was called Bay View House Seminary for Young Ladies, and Mary鈥檚 sisters Maggie and Lexie worked as supervisors. The school still exists as Bayview College.

3. Saint Mary was 25 when she started the Josephites

On 19 March, 1866, on the feast of St Joseph, Mary discarded her secular clothing and put on a simple black dress. She was the first of the Sisters of St Joseph, a new religious order devoted to teaching the poor and caring for vulnerable people.

They vowed to live in poverty, own no property and were committed to equality. Supported by Fr Woods, Mary opened the first St Joseph鈥檚 School in a disused stable in Penola, South Australia.

4. She made her vows as a sister in 1867

Stained glass window at Mary MacKillop shrine, Penola, South Australia. Photo by Pru.mitchelle.

On 15 August, 1867 Mary made her first religious vows as Sister Mary of the Cross. Fr Woods wrote a 鈥楻ule鈥� to direct their lives, emphasizing poverty and simplicity and independence so that the Sisters would be free to move across dioceses.

They adopted a plain brown religious habit. Due to the colour of their habits and their name, the Josephite sisters became colloquially known as the 鈥楤rown Joeys鈥�.

5. Her order grew very quickly

Many people believed in her course. Therefore, many young women came to join Mary and Fr Woods. By the end of 1869 there were 72 sisters teaching in 21 schools as well as an orphanage and a refuge for women in distress.

By August 1871, their number had swelled to 120 women and 40 schools, convents and four charitable institutions had been founded. At the time of her death, 750 women had entered the Order. The Sisters of St Joseph had opened 117 schools with a total of over 12,400 pupils.

6. She was once excommunicated from the Catholic church

Ongoing tensions over the issue of central control led to MacKillop being excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 1871 by Adelaide Bishop Laurence Sheil.

During the excommunication, the Josephites were not disbanded, but most of their schools were closed. Because Mary MacKillop was forbidden to have contact with anyone in the Church, she relied on the support of prominent Jewish merchant Emanuel Solomon who gave her a house in Flinders Street, Adelaide, rent-free.

7. Saint Mary was a whistleblower

Sculpture 鈥淪aint Mary of the Cross Mackillop鈥�. Photo by Dietmar Rabich. Wikimedia Commons.

Mary MacKillop was instrumental in exposing sexual abuse of minors by an Irish priest at Kapunda, north of Adelaide. Documents reveal that her whistleblowing was in part what led to Bishop Sheil excommunicating Mary MacKillop for alleged insubordination.

8. Saint Mary never accepted funding from the government

The Josephites refused to accept government funding for their schools. They also refused to teach instrumental music (then considered an essential part of education) and were unwilling to educate girls from more affluent families.

This structure resulted in the sisters being forced to leave Bathurst in 1876 and Queensland by 1880 due to the local bishops鈥� refusal to accept this working structure.

9. Saint Mary was known to be kind

According to the official Vatican Decree for her canonization: 鈥樷�� the most striking thing about her was her kindness. She was a great believer in encouragement, urging people to be kind and united.

In everything she said or did, she showed respect and love for those around her, making no distinction between the rich, the high-born, and the influential on the one hand, and the lowly, the jailbirds, and the outcasts of society.鈥�

10. She was accused falsely of being an alcoholic

Mary MacKillop holding a copy of her Life Vows, 1869. Photo by Unknown. .

Prior to her excommunication, a group sought to discredit the Josephites. As well as allegations of financial incompetence, rumors were also spread that Mary MacKillop had a drinking problem. MacKillop is said to have battled dysmenorrhea for many years and self-medicated by drinking brandy.

Her canonization process began in 1926, but was delayed in 1931 because the Vatican could not produce a key document exonerating Mary from these accusations. In 1951, twenty years later, a cardinal was able to procure the missing document and the process could continue.