BLESSED Mary MacKillop’s presence was felt during a pilgrimage last Sunday to places of special significance to the Josephite order’s early days in Brisbane.
More than 50 people from throughout Brisbane attended the pilgrimage which started outside Mary Immaculate Church in Annerley and finished at St Joseph’s primary school, Kangaroo Point.
One of the pilgrimage organisers Josephite Sister Margaret McKenna said Mary MacKillop would “most likely” have travelled along Ipswich Road past the pilgrimage starting point in days gone by.
“Blessed Mary would no doubt have travelled along this road by Cobb and Co coach on her way to the Josephite convent and school at Helidon,” Sr McKenna said.
“One beautiful old house opposite the Annerley church has a plaque dated in the 1860s, and Mary MacKillop was in Queensland in the 1870s.”
Sr McKenna said the group showed particular interest in the stop at St Mary’s at South Brisbane where the order’s first school once stood in what was now the church’s car park on the corner of Merivale and Peel Streets.
“Blessed Mary was head teacher of St Mary’s and also visited other nearby Josephite schools at places like Caxton Street, Petrie Terrace and Woolloongabba as a form of quality control,” she said.
“We said a pilgrim’s prayer at this location and also prayed for the people of St Mary’s parish.”
Other high points on the pilgrimage came with prayers at St Stephen’s Chapel where the holy woman once worshipped and a social gathering at Kangaroo Point where the first St Joseph’s School was set up in 1871.
A similar pilgrimage consisting mainly of retired Josephite Sisters was held yesterday (August 7).
Sr McKenna said, given the success of the pilgrimage, further similar events were planned although most likely not until the very hectic period in the lead-up to Blessed Mary MacKillop’s canonisation in Rome in October was over.
