Mary MacKillop was a young Australian woman who dedicated her life to teaching. With Fr Tenison Woods, Mary reached out to the children of poor people in Penola in South Australia. Mary founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1866. These women continue Mary’s ministry of teaching.

Several of our Catholic schools in Tasmania have had Sisters of St Joseph ministering in them. Mary set up schools in Australia and New Zealand as well as houses to help young and elderly women. 

Mary is Australia’s first official saint. She was canonised as Saint Mary of the Cross at a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican on 17th October 2010.

In his general audience talk Thursday, June 28th, Pope Francis called St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, “an extraordinary religious sister” who dedicated her life to “the intellectual and religious formation of the poor in rural Australia.” The Pope said that an essential part of St Mary MacKillop’s zeal for sharing the Gospel was her dedication to caring for the poor and marginalised. “This is very important,” he said. Along “the path to holiness, which is the Christian path, the poor and the marginalised are the protagonists , and a person cannot move forward in holiness if he or she does not also devote himself or herself to them in one way or another.