Video | Australia embraces first saint

A religious journey that began when 24-year-old MacKillop opened a school for the poor in a converted stable in Penola, South Australia, in 1866 reached its climax with the bestowal of the church's greatest honour in an outdoor mass for 50,000 people under a glorious clear sky in the heart of the Vatican.

As Australian and Aboriginal flags fluttered around the enormous square, the gold-robed Pope lauded MacKillop for her "courageous and saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer", saying that she had inspired and helped countless Australians.

"She dedicated herself as a young woman to the education of the poor in the difficult and demanding terrain of rural Australia, inspiring other women to join her in the first women's community of religious sisters of that country," the Pope said in his homily.

"She attended to the needs of each young person entrusted to her, without regard for station or wealth, providing both intellectual and spiritual formation.

"Through her intercession, may her followers today continue to serve God and the church with faith and humility."

Lake Macquarie grandmother Kathleen Evans, whose 1993 recovery from cancer was deemed by the church to be a miracle attributable to MacKillop, presented the Pope with a newly holy "relic" in the form of a cross carved from red gum from Penola and encasing strands of the new saint's hair.

In St Peter's Square, Sydney woman Mounira Jabbour wept as she listened to the Pope, saying it was "a dream come true to see Mary become a saint".

Ms Jabbour, 54, from Earlswood, and her son James, 26, were in the square before dawn as the first people to stake out positions for the ritual.

"The Pope looked gorgeous. I have been crying because I am so happy and so blessed to be here."

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd called it "a great day for all Australians".

Anthony Rush, a graphic designer from East Brunswick in Melbourne, who travelled to Rome with his family, said the pageantry "was probably a bit much for the sort of down-to-earth woman she was, but I suppose it is fitting for the occasion".

Mr Rush's 14-year-old daughter, Madeleine, said the spectacle had been "just as exciting" as the AFL Grand Final replay "but it is still different and very special".

Sixteen-year-old Callum Ryan, the captain of McKillop House at St Ignatius College, Riverview, in Sydney, said the occasion was "just fantastic".

Callum, who attended with nine other students and 25 supporters from the school, said it was "amazing to be here and see it live".

"The scale of everything is just incredible.

"The Pope was about 15m from us. All the Australians were pretty rowdy early on but then they quietened down at the right time."

A 3m-high portrait of MacKillop was draped across the front of Catholicism's greatest church, St Peter's Basilica, alongside those of five other new Catholic saints as five cardinals, 23 bishops and 20 other clerics joined the Pope.

The other new saints came from Italy, Spain, Poland and Canada, but the media and public interest in the ceremony was dominated by Australians because of MacKillop's status as the nation's first saint.

Almost 150 nuns from MacKillop's order were in the crowd for what Cardinal George Pell said was one of the great moments in the history of the Catholic Church in Australia. Cardinal Pell said the canonisation could give new energy and excitement to the church in Australia and would serve as a reminder to the church hierarchy that senior clerics could easily make mistakes.

Throughout her career, MacKillop was often obstructed and opposed by priests and bishops, even being excommunicated or thrown out of the church for five months in 1871.

One hundred and one years after her death, the Pope completed the recognition of her saintly status by declaring MacKillop and the five other clergy members being canonised should be "definitively declared saints and included in the book of saints (and) devoutly honoured . . . in all the church".

The most senior cardinal assisting him in the ceremony, the Archbishop of Montreal, Jean-Claude Turcotte, gave a response in which he became the first person to formally use MacKillop's new title, Saint Mary of the Cross.

Sister Maria Casey, the official advocate of MacKillop's cause, knelt before the Pope and he held her hands as she thanked him for the elevation of MacKillop.

The gospel reading in the mass was read twice, once in Greek and once in Latin, to signify the Pope's decision applies to the universal church as it covers both its eastern and western wings.