Saint Mary MacKillop, 1842–1909
August 8

Saint Mary MacKillop is the first person to become a Saint from Australia. She was a teacher. She rode horses a long way into the desert, called the Australian Outback, to teach children. She taught the children of farmers and miners. She also used to teach the native Australians, called Aborigines. When she was made a Saint, many Aborigines came to the ceremony in Italy. They wore face paint, danced traditional dances, and played special musical instruments called didgeridoos during the Mass. It was their way of showing how much they loved Saint Mary. Saint Mary loved them, too.

Discuss: What is your favorite part about going to Mass?

Saint Mary MacKillop is the patron of the city of Brisbane, Australia and of the Knights of the Southern Cross. Her order was named the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Because of their brown habits and their name, the sisters were sometimes called the “Brown Joeys.” The order worked in New Zealand and Peru, as well as in Australia.

An Australian pink rose named after her: the Mary MacKillop Rose. In 2008, Saint Mary was also featured on an Australian one-dollar coin as an “inspirational Australian.”

Activity
Australia Map
Visual/Spatial, Verbal/Linguistic

Find a map of Australia and review it with your child. Point out the parts of the country that are labeled.

• Provide your child with a blank sheet of paper and some colored pens, pencils, or markers. Ask him/her to draw the outer border of the country.
• Have her/him label the drawing "Australia."
• Invite your child to look at the map you provided and label the Outback on his/her drawing.
• Have her/him draw horses out to the side of the map; this was Saint Mary’s mode of transportation.
• Discuss the distance Saint Mary traveled and the hardship she must have experienced. If possible, research online the differences between different modes of transportation.
• Have your child speculate how many hours it would have taken Saint Mary to get from one point to another. Talk about the kinds of supplies she would have needed to carry with her, and the determination or commitment to the faith that she must have had.