Mary MacKillop- A woman of Courage

A Woman of Courage

Mary MacKillop had to face many difficult situations and choices in her life. As the eldest child in the family she had to take care of her brothers and sisters. Her father was not able to keep a job so often the family had to rely on relatives for somewhere to live and find food. When Mary was sixteen she went to work as a clerk in Melbourne so that the family would have money to live on. This taught Mary how to face life’s challenges with hope.

Mary also had a lot of sorrow in her life. Her brother John died after falling from a horse, her grandfather drowned in a flood; her mother was drowned in a shipwreck when she was coming to see Mary in Sydney.

Mary also suffered from poor health. She often wrote that she was too sick to get out of bed. This did not stop her from doing God’s work.

She suffered at the hands of some of the Bishops who did not like the way she lived as a Sister of St Joseph or in some cases the way she taught in her schools.