Mary goes to Ireland
To celebrate 150 years since Mary MacKillop embarked on her first overseas journey (March 1873 – December 1874), the Sisters of Saint Joseph share reflections and details from Mary’s travels to and from Europe – sourced from Mary’s letters and Congregational Archives. This is the final journey in the series. Mary MacKillop went to Rome […]
Mary MacKillop received revised Constitutions in Rome – 150th Anniversary
We commemorate the 150th anniversary of when Mary MacKillop received the revised Constitutions of the Institute (Sisters of Saint Joseph) in Rome on 21 April 1874. In October 1867, Fr Julian Tenison Woods drafted the original Rules of the Institute of St Joseph, with the subtitle, for the Catholic Education of Poor Children. This was […]
Mary MacKillop, Patron of our Diocese of Port Pirie
In the Diocese of Port Pirie in South Australia, there’s a beautiful well-kept graveyard, some seven kilometres out of Port Augusta, with the stunning Flinders Ranges as its backdrop. In good times the roses bloom and the kangaroos keep the lawn mowed and the grave-sites company. But on the area’s outer edge are the older […]
JJAMM 2024
JJAMM (Joseph, Julian And Mary MacKillop) is a gathering of student leaders from Josephite secondary schools around Australia and New Zealand. Learning, laughter, and leadership. The three core ingredients necessary to complete the JJAMM recipe. The JJAMM team was blessed to welcome twenty-five Josephite schools across Australia and New Zealand for a four-day leadership retreat […]
Baptism of Mary MacKillop
In 1839, Rev P. Geoghegan arrived in the colony of Victoria as its first priest. In less than ten weeks, he had erected a wooden church where “friends used to meet Sunday after Sunday to exchange the news of the old world, or to help on some work in aid of faith or Fatherland.” [1] […]
130th Anniversary of Mary MacKillop’s first visit to Aotearoa New Zealand
Mary MacKillop’s first visit in Aotearoa New Zealand began from her arrival on 25 January 1894 and concluded on 8 March 1895. The itinerary of Mary’s visit, ascertained from correspondence compiled by Sister Anne Marie Power, shows that some places were visited more than once. Twenty-eight years on from the founding of the Congregation in […]
Beatification of Mary MacKillop Anniversary
The Beatification of Mary MacKillop took place on 19 January 1995. To commemorate the anniversary of Mary MacKillop’s Beatification, Sr Eleanor Capper shares her experience of that memorable day. My first impression goes back to the morning prayer held in St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney before the beatification, when Pope John Paul II came to officiate […]
Mary MacKillop: Gifted and Graced
No doubt 15 January 1842 was a day of celebration for Flora MacKillop (nee MacDonald) and Alexander MacKillop and their extended family on the birth of their first daughter in Merino Cottage, Fitzroy, Melbourne. Mary MacKillop’s parents were Highland Scots, Alexander MacKillop arriving in Sydney in January 1838 and Flora MacDonald in April 1840. Father […]
Christmas now, with Mary MacKillop
Christmas is near. With such joy, we celebrate the birth of a Child, a reminder that we are all children of a lavishly loving God who, in Jesus, chose to have no boundaries between divinity and humanity! Following Jesus, Mary MacKillop lived in a way that held no boundaries around her love for God and […]
30th Anniversary of Reinterment of Mary MacKillop in the New Shrine
Mary MacKillop’s new tomb 1993. The date, 20 December 1993, is etched in my memory not only because it was my mother’s 77th birthday but also because I was witness to an exuberant outpouring of excitement, adoration and awe.
We are but travellers here
“We are but travellers here!” These words of St Mary MacKillop tell the story of those who have walked through the doors of St Joseph’s House of Studies in Lyneham since it opened in 1969. This House, once a home for Sisters of Saint Joseph in training, was reopened in June 2020 as MacKillop House, […]
In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop at Kincumber
Recently, I had the privilege of meeting a group of parishioners from Morpeth (in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese) and lead them on a pilgrimage In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop at St Joseph’s Spirituality and Education Centre, Kincumber South situated on the Central Coast of New South Wales. The Sisters of Saint Joseph have maintained a […]