Flora MacKillop

Flora MacKillop was the mother of Saint Mary MacKillop.

Flora was born in Scotland and, when age 24, she and her parents and siblings migrated to Melbourne.

The family was met at the wharf by Alexander MacKillop, also from Scotland, and within three months he and Flora were married.

The MacKillops had four sons and four daughters, none of whom was to marry. Mary was their eldest child.

Flora was a woman of faith. She taught her children to trust God and to see God’s Will in all that happened in their lives.

By 1866, then aged 24 and having determined she wanted to live a penitential form of religious life, Mary founded a religious society, 'The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart', its members vowing to live in poverty and dedicating themselves to educating poor children. In March 1875 she was elected Superior-General of the Sisterhood.

In 1883 the headquarters of the Sisterhood transferred to Sydney.

In May 1886, Flora was travelling on a steamer, the Ly-ee-Moon, from Melbourne to Sydney to help the Sisters at a fete, when the ship ran aground on rocks below Green Cape Lighthouse. It rapidly broke up and sank. 71 of the 86 passengers and crew, including Flora, lost their lives.

Flora’s body was retrieved three days later by those on board a government pilot steamer and was taken to Eden where it was lovingly laid out by the women of Eden in a room at the Pier Hotel.

Mary’s cousin, John, then travelled to Eden to identify the body which was later taken to Sydney for burial in a grave beside those of Sisters of St Joseph.

When retrieved, Flora’s body had been largely unmarked and the only item still on her body was a scapular (a religious necklace) identifying her as Catholic. Mary saw this as a sign from God and, as thanks to the Eden community for their care of her mother’s body, she decided to send several Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart to Eden to establish a school.

In August 1891, three sisters arrived to open the school and convent. Initially two composite classes were conducted at either end of a Church that had been built in the 1860s. A convent, large enough to cater for a small number of boarders, was built next to the Church.

Mother Mary was to make two visits to the school - the first in March/April 1899 and the second in August 1901.

The Eden school operated until 2013, when it became part of Lumen Christi College at Pambula Beach that now provides a Catholic education to students from Kindergarten to Year 12.