Mary mackillop biography video

Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne in 1842. Her parents, Flora and Alexander MacKillop, were Catholic immigrants from Scotland. Mary, the eldest of eight children, was raised in the working-class Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.

At 16, Mary went out to work, to support her younger brothers and sisters.

Two years later she took a job as a governess on her uncle's farm in the small country town of Penola in South Australia.

Mary mackillop biography video

Here Mary met the man who would change her life forever, Father Julian Tenison Woods.

Father Woods, a charming and eccentric priest, shared Mary's dream of educating the poor. He became her mentor and spiritual guide.

Mary later wrote: "I heard the Pastor...

speak of the neglected state of the children in the parish... and I had to go and offer myself to aid him".

Sister Mary's biographer, Sister Marie Foale, says Mary and Father Woods had a very close relationship.

"I think they loved each other very deep