Australia’s First Saint?

Australia’s First Saint?

Today marks the death of Blessed Mary McKillop, who is on her way to becoming Ausatralia’s first canonized saint. The following is adapted from saints.spqn,com:

Born to Scottish immigrants who came to Australia, wanted to enter religious life but she became a teacher to help support her family. Mary and her sister moved to Penola, South Australia, where she met Father Julian Tennison Woods. Together they opened a free Catholic school for the poor. In 1866, they co-founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, Australia’s first religious order. They soon had seventeen schools under her care. Mary’s independence and social ideas concerned Church authorities, and she was ordered by her bishop, who believed some exagerrated stories about the educator, to surrender control of the schools and her Order. She refused, and was excommunicated in 1871. Mary was crushed, but never blamed Church officials; she prayed that some good would come from the action, and she suffered through it. In 1872 her bishop, having determined the baseless nature of the accusations, apologized, and returned Mary to full communion. She travelled through England, Ireland and Scotland to seek funds for her schools. In 1875, she became Superior-general of her Order.Her order continues its good work today with hundreds of Sisters in Australia, New Zealand, and Peru.

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