mary mackillop

MARY MACKILLOP
(1842 – 1909)



Mary MacKillop was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia on 15 January 1942. She was the eldest of eight children to her parents, Alexander and Flora MacKillop. Being the eldest she held the responsibility of looking after her family and helping her parents.


Her parents migrated to Australia in the late 1930’s where they met and married a short time later. Mary’s father was educated in Rome for the priesthood but left before his ordination and Mary’s mother was brought up in Scotland.

Due to the circumstances of the time her father found himself unable to maintain his family. This meant poverty and privation for them and a constant moving from place to place in search of a livelihood. They relied on relatives to get by. Both parents educated their children in their own home.

Mary started work at the age of fourteen as a clerk in Melbourne and later a teacher in Portland. By the time she was fifteen Mary had decided she was goi...