Mary MacKillop - Virtual Museum Report

Saint Mary of the Cross

Mary Helen MacKillop was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne on 15 January 1842. She was educated at private schools and by her father. Mary started work at the age of fourteen as a clerk in Melbourne and later to provide for her needy family.


In 1867 Mary became the first Sister, and Mother Superior, of the newly formed Order of the Sisters of St Joseph. By the end of 1869 more than seventy Sisters were educating children at twenty-one schools in Adelaide and the country. Mary and her Josephites were also involved with an orphanage. By 1877 it operated more than forty schools in and around Adelaide, with many others in Queensland and New South Wales.

On 17 October 2010 Mary MacKillop was declared a saint by Pope Benedict XVIand is now known as Saint Mary of the Cross.

By Olivia