The first Australian candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), known in the convent as Mother Mary of the Cross, was the foundress of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart.

Mary MacKillop, the eldest of eight children of Scottish immigrants Alexander and Flora MacKillop, was born in Melbourne, Australia, on January 15, 1842. She had an unsettled childhood. Her father dabbled in politics and business and experienced mixed fortune. The family often moved, and formal schooling was disrupted. When aged 14 she worked as a nursery governess and later with the stationers Sands and Kenny.

In 1860 Mary left Melbourne for the small isolated town of Penola in South Australia to act as governess for the two daughters of her father's sister, Margaret Cameron. In Penola she met the local priest, Julian Tenison Woods. This was to change her life.

Australia had been settled originally...