Mary MacKillop Story
By Rocio and Aadirai
Mary MacKillop was born on the 15th of January in 1842.
Her parents were from Scotland, her mother, Flora and her father, Alexander MacKillop. They had 8 children and Mary was the oldest sibling out of all of them. Mary was well educated by her father, but Mary and her family were really poor and didn’t have a home, and they were separated a lot since they were poor.
When Mary was 18 she moved to Penola in South Australia, Where she became a governess to her uncle and aunty’s children, The Camerons. Mary had a dream to educate 4 children. In 1867 she became the first sister of Saint Joseph and wore a black dress. A school opened in Penola in an old stable and she decided to teach children there. Soon young women were inspired by Mary and became sisters with her. They opened schools for the poor and the children in the outback settlement. Mary also opened an orphanage, while the sisters were visiting people in jail.
Her dream was for everyone to be kind. She usually said “Never see a need without doing something about it.” She said this to the sisters and the children. Throughout her life she was misunderstood. Bishop Sheil mistakenly thought Mary was disobedient. Bishop Sheil expelled Mary from the church and also expelled 47 sisters. This hurt Mary very much. Later on, Bishop Sheil realised the mistake he made for expelling Mary, so he welcomed her back to the church. Bishop Roynold told Mary to move to Italy.
Mary suffered from rheumatism, so her right side got paralyzed, she couldn’t walk, she couldn’t stand, but she could talk. A few days later she had to rely on a wheelchair. But the sisters kept on working hard.
Mary died at Mount Street at North Sydney on the 8th of August 1909. After her death, the sisters did a wonderful thing that Mary started.
No comments:
Post a Comment