Mary Mackillop was born on 15th January 1842 to Alexander and Flora Mackillop, and was the eldest child in the family. Both her parents were very religious people, her father having even studied for the priesthood. At the age of 14, she worked as a nursery governess and a store clerk to help her poverty stricken family. At 15 she decided she wanted to be a nun She later went on to become a teacher at Portland school and was well known for praying and asking god for help. She felt a call to a religious life, but wanted to keep working with children and the poor in particular, but was unable to find a order of sisters that had similar values. She left for Penola along with her sister, where she met Father Woods who had been attempting to start a religious order of nuns to help teach poor children in the region. Mary and Father Woods helped each other to set up the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1866, which was australias first religious order. They planned to help educate poor children in remote areas and soon had 17 schools in operation. 5 years later, Bishop Sheil decided to take control of the sisters work. When Mary refused to do so, she was excommunicated from the church. However the year after the Bishop decided to reverse the decision and let mary back into the church and also have control of the order. She left for Rome to visit the Pope in 1873 who approved of the sisterhoods work in Australia. She also traveled around England, Ireland and Scotland to seek funds and supplies for her schools. She also returned with more nuns to help teach at the schools. In 1875 she was elected superior general of the order and continued to travel around Australia visiting poor people as well as trying to improve their living conditions, as well as help the aboriginals in similar ways. However she died on the 8th august 1909 at Sydney following a stroke. She has since been beatified on the 19th of January 1995 by pope john paul II.
