New Australian Saint - Mary MacKillop

Celebrations have begun in Rome and Australia after the announcement of Australia's first Roman Catholic saint, Sister Mary MacKillop.

Pope Benedict the 16th has announced the canonisation at a meeting of cardinals at the Vatican. The official ceremony will be held on the October 17.

It has taken nearly a century, but Australia is to get its first saint at last: Mary MacKillop, a 19th-century nun who spent her life helping impoverished children, and whose rebellious streak saw her briefly excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, Tim Fischer, says her work laid the foundations for education of the disadvantaged in many country areas.