Among six people canonized by Pope Benedict last Sunday were Australia's first declared saint, Mary MacKillop, and Canada's beloved Brother André Bessette.
Mary MacKillop (1842–1909) co-founded an order of nuns dedicated to teaching the poor and aborigines of Australia. She had moved from Melbourne to Penola where, in 1867, she founded a school and took vows as a nun. In 1871 she was excommunicated. Several factors were behind it; one of them was resentment that sisters of her order had exposed a pedophile priest. The bishop who excommunicated her lifted the excommunication several months later, on his deathbed. Miraculous cures of women with cancer made possible first her beatification and now her canonization. Here are links to some articles for further information. The first is from Huffington Post. Then we have Reuters and the inevitable wiki.
Brother André Bessette (1845-–1937) had little formal education and was orphaned at an early age. After several years working at various manual occupations in Québec and New England, he joined the Congregation of the Holy Cross (the order that runs Notre Dame University in Indiana). He became porter (doorkeeper) of Notre Dame College in Montréal and soon became renowned for apparently miraculous healings which took place around him. His desire was to construct an oratory in honor of St. Joseph an the slope of Mount Royal, and he was able to accomplish it. He was widely known and respected not only for the healings, but also for his evident personal holiness and for his wise counsel to many who sought his advice. The Oratory of St. Joseph is a landmark in Montréal. For further information, check out these links, the first from wiki, and the second from Catholic Online.
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The cancer curing miracles were apparently from beyond the grave. o_O But cancer sometimes disappears by itself anyway, on the rarest of occasions, and not just for Catholics or the like. :P
Sadly the emphasis in the Australian media has been on these supposed miracles, and not on the amazing work she dedicated herself to doing in her lifetime.
I think the miracles are useful to reassure us that there is life after death and that these individuals are in a good place with God. But certainly what they actually did during their lives is far more important, both in itself and as an example of something good that we might even be able to emulate in some small way, or at least admire — and appreciate if we see something similar in our own day.
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