First Australian saint – Mary Helen MacKillop

Mary Helen MacKillop was born in 1842 in Australia to a family of Scottish origin. She had to work hard at an early age to support her poor family and she found a job as a governess for children. Her talents became known and soon other children from the area were also confided to her care. She was very attracted to teaching poor children and began a collaboration with a priest, Father Julian Tennison Woods, and together they established a school for poor children. Thereafter they founded the Congregation of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the first religious congregation founded in Australia.

The sisters who joined the congregation travelled to all parts of the continent and established schools, orphanages and welfare organizations for the needy. Not everyone accepted the congregation with joy and some actively opposed Mary Helen and her sisters. After a smear campaign, the bishop even excommunicated her but he later recognized his error and reinstated her. In `1874, she travelled to Rome to receive approbation for the constitutions of her congregation. The congregation continued to flourish and Mary Helen died in 1909 at the age of 67.

While she was still alive many recognized her saintliness. Even the secular press praised her for her great love of the poor. The process to recognize her as a saint began shortly after her death, in 1925. In 1995, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her blessed on his visit to Australia. Now the Pope will recognize her as a saint and a model for Catholic everywhere.

In the same ceremony, the Pope will canonize:
-          Brother Andre (1845-1937), a monk from Canada who was recognized as a healer and a man of prayer
-          Blessed Stanislao Soltys (1433-1489), a Polish religious of the Order of Canons Regular Lateranense;
-          Blessed Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola (1845- 1912), the Spanish founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus;
-          Blessed Giulia Salzano Heart (1846-1929), the Italian founder of the Sisters Catechists of the Sacred;
-          Blessed Battista da Varano (1458-1524), an Italian Poor Clare nun.