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
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana St. Mary's also expanded. In April 1850, twenty men from the village had left for California in search of gold. Despite this, by 1851, Sister of Providence Sister Saint Francis Xavier wrote, "Now we have quite a little country town... We have in the village a post office, two little inns, three or four stores, wheelwrights, coopers, carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, cabinet makers, etc." A post office was established under the name St. Mary's in 1846. It was renamed to Saint Mary Of The Woods in 1912, and is still currently in operation. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, often called St.