Pope Benedict XVI formally recognized Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop, at a ceremony in front of St Peter’s Basilica yesterday.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski were among the tens of thousands of spectators at the ceremony, where five other saints from Canada, Italy, Poland and Spain were also announced.
“It’s a very good feeling ... Please God it will strengthen us, it will help us, it will encourage us,” Cardinal George Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, told reporters ahead of the ceremony.
Photo: Reuters
Rudd paid tribute to MacKillop as “an extraordinary Australian woman.”
Eight thousand Australians, including hundreds of nuns from the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the order that MacKillop helped establish, traveled across the world to attend the historic event, officials said.
The canonization of MacKillop (1842-1909) has been preceded by a series of events in Rome including an open-air Aboriginal song and dance show at the Vatican museum on Friday which featured Australian wine and didgeridoo music.
MacKillop was an inspirational nun and teacher who fell out with Australian church authorities and was briefly excommunicated in 1871 in a fight over control of her order and after she denounced a pedophile priest.
“I think her life and work is such a dramatic story of conquering adversity that it has a resonance far and wide,” said Tim Fischer, Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See and a former deputy prime minister.
Nationwide celebrations were also planned in Australia for yesterday’s canonization, with MacKillop’s former hometown of Penola expecting up to 20,000 worshippers and special masses across the country.
A part-religious, part-nationalist, part-media frenzy has seized Australia ahead of the canonization, with MacKillop the musical playing to sold-out shows and a nightly projection of her image on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
MacKillop already has stamps and pop songs created in her honor, along with merchandise including bumper stickers that are selling briskly. Her fans have also set up a Facebook page and a Twitter account to commemorate her.
Canonization is the end point of a long process of documentation and research into the life of would-be saints by Vatican authorities that often lasts several years and must include at least two proven miracles.
The five others named saints included Brother Andre (1845-1937), a monk from a humble family in the Canadian province of Quebec credited with healing powers that were initially dismissed by senior clergy.
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