Unveiling of Saint Mary MacKillop statue

Friday 10 August 2012

ARCHBISHOP Denis Hart will unveil a statue of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, in the gardens of St Patrick's Cathedral this coming Sunday, 12 August at 10:30am.

This week Australia celebrated the feast day of St Mary MacKillop our first Australian saint and one of our most important historical figures.

St Mary's Feast Day has been celebrated annually on the anniversary of her death, more than 100 years ago, on 8 August 1909, since Pope Benedict XVI pronounced her a saint  in 2010.

She founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1866 and a number of schools and welfare institutions in Australia and around the world to educate and support the poorest children and families.

On 17th October 2010 Mary MacKillop was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI at St Peter’s Square at the Vatican for performing two miracles – in 1961 she cured a woman of leukaemia and in the 1990s Kathleen Evans was cured of inoperable lung and secondary brain cancer.

Her life’s philosophy was to ‘never see a need without doing something about it’ today there are 850 Sisters living and ministering throughout Australia, New Zealand, Peru, East Timor, Scotland and Brazil providing education and support to the poorest communities.

Read more about St Mary MacKillop's Life