Caroline Chisholm was a prophetic voice in colonial Australia. Her concerns in the 1840s-1860s are issues that still concern church and society today, not only in Australia but universally. The principles she identified are as valid today as they were in her own time. Hers was a prophetic voice in her ability to understand and articulate an enduring Christian vision in a colonial society that was facing new and radical challenges. Much of her life and work embodied a view of the lay vocation which the Church did not articulate until a century after her death.
The 1960s and 70s saw a public discussion of Caroline’s merits as an Australian saint. The discussion began in the pages of the Bulletin magazine and continued within the Church. A century earlier, her holiness was declared by French historian Jules Michelet:
Australia has a saint, an English woman without wealth and without assistance who has done more for the new world than all the emigration societies and the British Government together – a simple woman who succeeded in her aims by force of character and vigour of soul.