Mother Mary MacKillop: To Be Sainted
By Priyanka, Gaea News NetworkFriday, February 19, 2010
VATICAN CITY (GaeaTimes.com)- Pope Benedict has announced today that Mother Mary MacKillop will be canonized on 17th October 2010 as a saint. This comes as a good news for Australians who will have their first saint. Mother Mary MacKillop who was born in a poor Melbourne family went on to become a nun and devoted her whole life serving the poor. This decision comes after a lady recently declared that she has been cured of Cancer by praying to the Mother who died in the year 1909.
The church recognizes a person as a saint only if he or she has performed any miracle. Mother Mary Mackillop, according to reports has been credited of performing two miracles. The first was recognized by Pope John Paul II. The next miracle was reported by Kathleen Evans who said that she had gone to many doctors for treatment, but they turned her down saying that the disease is incurable. At the end she started praying to the Mother. Now she claims that she is cured of cancer. In her lifetime, however, Mother Mary Mackillop had to face many hardships. She started her life as a governess and then was influenced by Father Julian Tenison Woods who brought her into the path of serving poor children and teaching the need of religion in life.
Mother Mary MacKillop wanted to spread knowledge among poor children and in her lifetime the Sisters of St Joseph had opened many schools. After the news of her being canonized as a saint spread, the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that it is a tribute to the Vatican Church and also to the late Mother Mary MacKillop, whose work in the field of education remains unsurpassed.
