Mary MacKillop The process to have MacKillop declared a saint began in the 1920s, and she was beatified in January 1995 by Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI prayed at her tomb during his visit to Sydney for World Youth Day 2008 and in December 2009 approved the Catholic Church's recognition of a second miracle attributed to her intercession. She was canonised on 17 October 2010, during a public ceremony in St Peter's Square at the Vatican. She is the first Australian to be recognised by the Catholic Church as a saint. Mary Helen MacKillop was born on 15 January 1842
Cathedral of Saint Mary (St. Cloud, Minnesota) Cathedral of Saint Mary (St. Cloud, Minnesota) The Cathedral of St. Mary is the cathedral church for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud located in St. Cloud, Minnesota, United States. The St. Cloud Diocese serves Central Minnesota and a Catholic population of about 150,000. Saint Mary's Parish was founded in 1855 by the Rev. Francis Xavier Pierz. He celebrated the first Mass in the parish on May 21 in the home of John and Catherina Schwarz. Property was bought for $500 and plans were made for a wood-frame church and a school. In 1856 a Benedictine monk from Saint