On August 8 the Church in Australia keeps the solemnity of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop (1842–1909), the anniversary of her death in North Sydney. She is Australia's first and only canonised Catholic saint.
At Penola she co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart with Fr Julian Tenison Woods on 19 March 1866, the feast of St Joseph, opening the first Josephite school — a converted stable — for over thirty poor rural children. On 21 November 1866, the feast of the Presentation, she received a Rule from Woods and took the religious name "Sister Mary of the Cross."
Declared Venerable on 13 June 1992, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II at Randwick, Sydney, on 19 January 1995, and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in St Peter's Square on 17 October 2010. At her canonisation she was proclaimed "Mary of the Cross (Mary Helen) MacKillop (1842–1909), Virgin, Foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart."
The feast binds to Penola, the founding place, in the Archdiocese of Adelaide. The heritage precinct — the Woods–MacKillop Schoolhouse, the Interpretive Centre, and the Memorial Chapel — marks where the Josephite mission began.
