Saint Mary of the Cross (Mary MacKillop)

Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ (15 January 1842 – 8 August 1909), now formally known as St Mary of the Cross, was the first child of Alexander and Flora MacKillop, who lived in Roybridge, Lochaber prior to emigrating to Australia where Mary was born. Together with the Reverend Julian Tenison Woods, she founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), and established many schools and welfare institutions throughout Australasia, with an emphasis on education for the rural poor. In the 1870s Saint Mary visited Roybridge where the local Catholic church, St Margaret’s, now has a shrine to her. She was canonised in Rome on 17 October 2010, the first Australian to be so recognised by the Church.