Sydney, Australia, Aug 6, 2009 / 00:23 am
Catholic Australians are planning to mark the August 8 feast day of Blessed Mary MacKillop and the 100th anniversary of her death with Masses and various other celebrations in honor of the co-foundress of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Australia.
Mary MacKillop was born to a Scottish immigrant family in Australia in 1842. The eldest of eight children, from the age of 16 Mary helped to support her family by working as a governess.
Mary met a priest named Fr. Julian Tenison Woods, who asked her to help with the religious education of children in the Outback. Later, in 1866, she opened the first Saint Joseph's School in a vacant stable in Penola. Young women came to join Mary, and so the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph was begun. The congregation later spread to the large cities in Australia, and is now also present in New Zealand, Peru, Brazil, Uganda and Thailand.
Pope John Paul II formally beatified the holy woman, known as Mary of the Cross, in a Mass at Randwick Racecourse during his 1995 visit to Australia.