A portrait of Australia's first Catholic saint, Mary MacKillop, stands out in a Townsville Vinnies window display of mannequins depicting a family supporting the local Cowboys Rugby League team.
Another large portrait of Mary MacKillop below beams down on Townsville's busy Ross River Road from atop a school. For a long time , our Shipping Reporter drew attention to the fact that the portrait was faded , even seemed to have feral plants growing around it. He chided the local media and the faithful for allowing this to happen , until it was replaced .
And just recently , she was the special subject of a contestant on ABC television's zany Hard Quiz , who was excommunicated by the devilish presenter , Tom Gleeson , when she failed to win .
Foot and Beauty Note : At the same time as Mary MacKillop was cheering on the Cowboys in the window , also on sale in the shop was a book containing many letters about her life , which included being excommunicated in l871 by a bishop. Strangely , also sighted was what could have been an item from a dressing table vanity set which looked like a powder bowl with a nun on the lid...surely not Mary?
(Saint. Rugby. Nun.)
