Saint Mary MacKillop

Catholic Saint

st.Mary MacKillop-First native Australian to be beatified

Feast Day : August 8

Also known as: Mary of the Cross

Mary Helen MacKillop was born in 1842 in Melbourne to a family of Scottish ancestry. She founded the Sisters of St. Joseph and of the Sacred Heart, dedicated to educating children. She took the name Mary of the Cross in 1873. In 1875 she was elected mother general of her congregation. She had difficulty obtaining papal approval, but finally secured it from Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878–1903) in 1888. By the time of Mary’s death on August 8, 1909, there were 1,000 women in the congregation.