Fed: Timeline of Mary MacKillop's journey towards sainthood

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2009
Fed: Timeline of Mary MacKillop's journey towards sainthood

SYDNEY, Dec 19 AAP - Timeline of Mary MacKillop's journey towards sainthood:

1842 - Born in Fitzroy, Melbourne, on January 15.

1866 - Sets up the first St Joseph's School in a disused stable in Penola, South Australia.

- Establishes the Sisters of St Joseph and spends her life opening orphanages and refuges
for the needy.

1909 - Dies in convent in Mount St, North Sydney, on August 8, aged 67.

1926 - Process for her canonisation begins within the Catholic Church, before being
suspended in 1931 and continued in 1951.

1995 - Beatified by Pope John Paul II in Sydney on January 19, after the Vatican accepts
she was responsible for the cure of a woman with terminal leukaemia in 1961.

2006 - Family of Sophie Delezio, who recovered from two horrific car accidents, credit
her recovery to prayers to Mother Mary.

2008 - In April, documents about Mother Mary's cure of a woman with inoperable cancer
in the mid-1990s are given to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which oversees
the canonisation process, for consideration as her second miracle.

- In July, Pope Benedict XVI visits Mother Mary's shrine during World Youth Day and
tells the Sisters of St Joseph Mary she will be canonised as soon as a second miracle
is proved.

2009 - In March, Irishman David Keohane, who was beaten in a Sydney, wakes from an
eight-month coma on St Patrick's Day. His family attributes his recovery to months of
prayer to Mother Mary.

- In July, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visits Pope Benedict XVI and the pair discuss Mother Mary.

- In December, Pope Benedict XVI approves her second miracle. Mother Mary's canonisation
will be set down for approval at a Solemn Consistory, a meeting expected in March. There,
the decision to canonise will be formally made and the date of the canonisation ceremony
in Rome will be announced by the Pope.

Source: Official websites of Archdiocese of Sydney and Sisters of St Joseph (http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au
and http://www.sosj.org.au/)

AAP sg/hn/evt/ao

KEYWORD: MACKILLOP TIMELINE

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