MacKillop’s last letters launched

By Anthony Barich
A third volume of Blessed Mary MacKillop’s letters just published by her Order reveals the homesickness, illness and even arguments experienced by her Sisters when establishing the congregation in New Zealand up until her death in 1909.

Mary MacKillop on a mission – to her last breath, published by the
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart congregation which the nun
co-founded in South Australia in 1866, showed her as a “warm human
being, a trusted friend and a figure of authority who stands up to
others when necessary”, said the book’s editor Sr Sheila McCreanor, the
Order’s secretary general. It was launched on 12 March at Mary MacKillop
Place in North Sydney, the congregation’s headquarters where Blessed
MacKillop – whom Pope Benedict XVI will canonise in Rome on 17 October –
was based from 1883 when Bishop Christopher Reynolds of Adelaide
established a commission of inquiry into her Order.
In an interview on 12 March with The Record, Sr McCreanor said it was
“particularly inspiring” how she continued to write to her sisters in
New Zealand to reassure and foster leadership in them despite her own
sufferings – both physical and emotional from the persecution she received from clergy and Bishops.
Her physical pain would have been due to the fact that she was “constantly on the go,” often in very cold conditions, said Sr McCreanor, who is also a sociologist and educator. Blessed MacKillop made four visits to New Zealand that are mentioned in the new book – “which is no mean feat considering they travelled by steam boat, and by horse and carriage or trains across land”, Sr McCreanor said.
“They wouldn’t have had good food. They were as poor as the people they were working among, so they had to make do with what was available; medical assistance wasn’t as great as now, so people did what they could to cope,” Sr McCreanor said.
Blessed MacKillop suffered a stroke in 1902, after which time she “could not walk much”, Sr McCreanor said, and gained weight significantly, as photos from her later years reveal in the book.
She experienced significant menstrual pain, rheumatism, and what Sr McCreanor suspects may have been undiagnosed Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease judging by the ailments detailed thoroughly in her letters.
“She tried to keep up contact with her sisters, whose numbers were always growing, but it came at a personal cost to herself,” Sr McCreanor said.
However, a letter from a Dr James Isbister to Sr La Merci Mahony dated 20 March 1905 revealed Blessed MacKillop was dealing well with her ailments.
“Considering the original nature of the disease, she is now remarkably well both bodily and mentally. The paralysis of the arm and the weakened power of the leg are both permanent and will not improve. Her mental condition is quite clear and there is no trace of blurring of her intellectual faculties – these are as bright as ever,” the doctor said.
“It is remarkable how clear and concise is her train of thought. At times she is emotional. There is always the possibility of another haemorrhage in the brain and this is ever present. Excitement and worry are not good for her.”
After New Zealand missionary Marist Fr Louis Fauvel wrote to Blessed MacKillop many times “begging” her to send him sisters to help educate the local poor children in Temuka in New Zealand’s South Island, Bishop Reynolds sent three sisters from Adelaide.
They were to be led by Sr Calasanctius Howley, whom Reynolds deemed “particularly troublesome” as she had been a staunch supporter of Mary in her difficulties with the Bishop, said Sr McCreanor.
Blessed MacKillop also had to “dispel gossip” amongst her sisters in New Zealand, Sr McCreanor said, as sisters were spreading rumours that she had not re-appointed Sr Raymond Smyth as Provincial after a leadership meeting in Sydney.
In a letter to Sr Raymond dated 9 December 1896, Blessed MacKillop said: “Have you really made up your mind not to write to me, and can it be that you are influenced by an unworthy motive, such as ‘Mother Mary did not wish me to return here as Provincial’.
“Oh Sister, even if it were true, I thought too highly of you to think you capable of resenting that. You were the very last I thought capable of seeking high office … Be your feelings towards me as they may, I regard you as my Sister and loved child, and write now to wish you all and your community a very happy Xmas.”