What ‘‘miracles’’ led to Mary MacKillop’s sainthood?
The quest for Mary MacKillop’s sainthood began in 1925. Verification of the first ‘‘miracle’’ attributed to her intercession — the healing of a woman with terminal leukaemia in 1961 — led to her beatification by Pope John Paul II in 1995. He bestowed the title ‘‘Blessed’’ upon her, bringing her a step closer to sainthood. The second ‘‘miracle’’ attributed to MacKillop’s intervention occurred during the 1990s. A Sydney grandmother, Kathleen Evans, was ‘‘cured’’ of inoperable brain and lung cancer after consistently praying to MacKillop. She is still alive, having recovered from her illness 13 years ago. A third ‘‘held-in-reserve’’ miracle verified by the Vatican (the Papal government in Rome) was based on a claim that MacKillop had appeared in the home of a terminally ill nine-year-old boy, Jack Simpson, who then began a slow recovery from cancer and multiple sclerosis.
