Mary Mackillop

Mary mackillop

INTRODUCTION/HISTORY
Mary Mackilliop was born in Australia she was born on 15 January 1842 in Fitzroy, Melbourne, the eldest of eight children. Mary was attending at private schools but her father who had studied for the priesthood at Rome. To help her family Mary became in turn a shopgirl, a governess, and at Portland a teacher in the Catholic Denominational School of a small boarding school for girls. As she grew to womanhood Mary was probably influenced by an early friend of the family, Father Patrick Geoghegan, and began to love for a strictly penitential form of religious life.
Concluding she would have to go to Europe to go ahead with her plan, she put herself under the direction of Father Julian Tenison-Woods who, as parish priest of Penola in South Australia sometimes visiting Melbourne and Portland, wanted to found a religious society, 'The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart' they were set to live in poverty and dedicate themselves to educating poor children. By then she started spelling her surname ‘MacKillop’. The Sisterhood had spread over to Adelaide and other parts of South Australia, and increased quickly in membership but ran into difficult times. Tenison-Woods had become director of Catholic schools and conflicted with some of the others over educational matters. One priest who had influence over the bishop declared publicly he would ruin the director through the Sisterhood. The result of this was that Mary was excommunicated by Bishop Sheil on 22 September 1871; most of the schools were closed and the Sisterhood almost disbanded. The excommunication was removed on 21 February 1872 by order of the bishop In 1873 at Rome, Mary accomplished papal approval of the Sisterhood but the Rule of Life laid down by Tenison-Woods and apporved by the bishop on 17 December 1868 was discarded and another drawn up.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CATHOLIC AUSTRALIAN STORY
Mary Mackillop her self had opened a large number of schools for the poor and un whealthy children living in Australia. In so this job, Mary had fought the establishment and the Church hierarchy. Mary Mackillop had inspired other similar minded women to take up teaching positions and to join her order of nuns. Mary Mackillop’s very most recent contribution (this being a very very long time after she had passed away) is to have been made the first beatified Australian, and first Australian saint. Her school is the oldest established by the Sisters of St Joseph in the Wollongong Diocese and Mary Mackillop Lane, which runs alongside the school, was named to honour the current saint’s contribution. he Sisters of St Joseph was the first Catholic order founded by an Australian. The sisters vowed to live in poverty, own no property and were committed to equality. These were central to the order's rule.As well as schools, Mary MacKillop and the sisters founded hospitals and orphanages, as well as providing shelters for the homeless, former prostitutes and unmarried mothers. And they raised all of the money themselves - mostly by begging.

VALUES
Three values that Mary Mackillop fulfils has to be
One – LOVE : She Has love for the poor, for her fellow sisters of st joseph , she shows love for her society family and all around her.
Two – KINDNESS : Kindness runs through Mary Mackillop as she is kind from her heart to society in the way that she gave up her house and her bed to put herself in a poverty condition and dedicating her life to religion and building schools for the poor and poor educated
Three – FAITH : Mary Mackillop is faithful to God od her community

REVIEW AND IMPACT
The continuing impact that Mary Mackillop has had on society today is that she has inspired many more women and men to start up schools and inspired teachers to continue to teach and teach the children of todays society. She has inspired people to travel to under developed countried and provide an education to the children over in those under privileged countries and putting themselves into a poverty situation as Mary Mackillop and the St Joseph sisters did.
Mary Mackillop has also inspired other sister groups to be formed in todays society and other women to commit to religion in their life weather if its just attending church every Sunday or once a week or even becoming a nun or a religious education teacher.