Mary MacKillop's Significant Contributions towards Establishing the Catholic Church in Colonial Australia'
-
Period: to
Mary Makillop's life
-
Mary Mackillop's birth
She was born -
Communion
Celebrates her first Holy Communion on August 15. -
Spiritual guide
Becomes governess to the children of her uncle, Alexander Cameron, at Penola in South Australia, where she meets Father Julian Tenison Woods, who becomes her spiritual guide. -
Her first job
Takes a job as a teacher at Portland Catholic Denominational School. -
First Free Catholic School
Along with Father Woods, starts the first free Catholic school in Penola, at first in a stable and later in a more substantial stone building. -
Nun order
Joins with Father Woods to form a new religious order of nuns, the Sisters of St Joseph, devoted to teaching the poor, with Mary as mother superior; opens a convent-cottage and a school in Adelaide; takes her religious vows on August 15. -
Opens school in Queensland
Takes her final vows on December 8; and leaves for Queensland to open schools there. -
Irish helpers
Mary returns to Australia with 15 Irish postulations, following travels in Europe to visit schools. -
General Superior
Mary is elected as the first superior general of the Sisters of St Joseph. -
Mary Mackillop's death
Mary suffered a stroke in 1902 and was an invalid until her death on August 8, 1909. -
Miracle
Mary MacKillop's first miracle, the 1961 cure of leukemia in another woman, -
She became a Saint.
In February 2010, after evaluating the testimony of an Australian woman who claimed that her terminal cancer had disappeared after she called upon MacKillop in prayer, Pope Benedict XVI recognized MacKillop as a saint. She was canonized that October.
