Why do the josephites wear brown

As well as being educated at private schools, Mary was also taught by her father who had studied for the Priesthood in Rome. With Alexander unable to support the family, Mary became the principal breadwinner, working variously as a shop girl, governess, teacher and boarding house proprietoress. Unable to find any teachers for Penola, Father Woods fixed on the establishment of a new religious order, the Sisters of St. Joseph, to run the school. Mary felt a calling to join and after teaching in Portland, Victoria, she returned to Penola in to found the Order, becoming the first member and Superior with the approval of Bishop Laurence Sheil.

Father Woods drew up the rule of life for the Order, which stated that its members be ordinary women living in small groups amongst the people, with no visible means of support, teaching poor children and managing charitable institutions for destitute and socially disadvantaged women and children.

With a major purpose being the provision of education and religious succour to the children of the isolated, the poor and the disadvantaged, part of the Sisters of St. Unfortunately, however, the clergy were not all supportive of the radical new order. Pressure rose in certain quarters for Mary to be excommunicated from the church for alleged insubordination and this Bishop Sheil did in September Five months later and just nine days before he died however, the Bishop rescinded her sentence in February and reinstated the Order.

The following year, Mary travelled to Rome to seek papal approval for the Sisters of St. Joseph, and after a new constitution, officials gave it tentative endorsement. Definitive approbation came in Unfortunately though, Father Woods found the changes unacceptable and a permanent rift developed between the pair.

Banished from Adelaide in for alleged drunkenness and financial mismanagement, Mary moved to Sydney. She was deposed as leader of the Order in but carried on bravely until her re-election in Mary and her Josephites worked tirelessly, establishing several hundred schools throughout Australia and New Zealand; and at one time there were well over two thousands nuns staffing these — an incredible achievement in an era before fast, reliable transport or communication.

Despite suffering physical debility and being confined to a wheelchair following a paralytic stroke in , Mary retained all of her mental faculties and remained active in the Order as Mother Mary of the Cross right up until her death in August She is buried in St.

In , Mother Mary was put forward as a candidate for beatification and canonisation, and the following year the Cause was formally introduced. She was the first, and is currently still the only canonised Australian Roman Catholic saint. The Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph currently consists of around nuns living and working throughout Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Peru.

Fabric, design, manufacture and condition:. Mannequin clothed in the full regalia of a Sister of the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Mounted inside an enclosed glass case, a Mary MacKillop Toile is also displayed.

Telling the story of St. Mary MacKillop in 31 line drawings, the toile is printed in a charcoal colour on white fabric. Commissioned in to commemorate the beatification of Mother Mary MacKillop, it was designed by renowned artist Pamela Griffiths who was also responsible for the Bi-Centennial Toile in The religious habit consists of four parts — the dress, veil, headdress and belt with beads and crucifix.

The dress is brown in colour, long sleeved, pleated front and back on a yoke. It is gathered onto a waistband and features the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart emblem or monogram in blue across the front. The veil is a rectangular piece of brown fabric folded into a pleat with a piece of stiffened board inserted to keep it back from the face. The headdress consists of three pieces of white fabric - a pique dimity pinned in place to cover the throat and sides of the face; a rectangular coif tied just above and behind the ears and covering the forehead; a guimp which covers the upper breast and shoulders and is tied at the back of the neck and fastened at the back of the habits.

Father Woods thought about an order of Australian nuns, unhampered by formal convent structures, who could move to remote areas and provide schooling. He saw in Mary MacKillop someone who could help him achieve his dream.

On March 19, , the feast of St. Joseph, she discarded her secular clothing and put on a simple religious habit. She was the first of the Sisters of St. The first school was established in Penola in an old stable. Soon other young women joined her. Father Woods composed a Rule to direct their lives, emphasizing poverty and simplicity. By the end of there were 72 sisters teaching in 21 schools as well as an orphanage and a refuge for women in distress.

Word spread to other parts of Australia, and Mary was asked to send sisters to begin schools. However, not everyone accepted this new type of religious community with its emphasis on helping the most needy in society. The sisters were denounced to Bishop Sheil in Adelaide, who responded by changing the Rule and putting himself in charge.

Mary protested his interference. On September 22, , the bishop imposed on Mary a sentence of excommunication—excluding her from the sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Mary's response to this was one of calm acceptance and firm trust in God. Five months later, on February 23, , only six days before he died, Bishop Sheil removed the excommunication and admitted his mistake in listening to bad advice. The dispute about central government or control by each diocesan bishop continued for many years. The sisters were frequently the target of suspicion and opposition and were sometimes accused of incompetence as teachers.

The first congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph was established in a number of gold rush towns in the Bathurst area in , following a direct approach by Bishop Matthew Quinn to Sister MacKillop. By however, Sister MacKillop had withdrawn the Sisters, dissatisfied with Bishop Quinn's views on authority within the diocese.

The Institute of the Sisters of St Joseph set up operations in Queensland around the same time, but withdrew in In late the Sisters of St Joseph returned to New South Wales, in the Sydney Archdiocese and in the Armidale Diocese, to help maintain the Catholic education system, which was threatened by the withdrawal of government funding to religious schools under the Public Instruction Act. It was a shelter for neglected and destitute children, old women and vulnerable young girls and also was a Novitiate, for training nuns and the Provincialate office.

She built a substantial convent, which still stands. In Armidale was named as a separate province from Sydney. In , they were named Armidale-Lismore and Sydney-Goulburn.