On Sunday I journeyed with three friends to St. Peter's Square to witness the canonization of six saints, including Mary Mackillop, Australia's first saint.
Maria, Brad and Larry
Caravita, our church in the historic center,
was a center for picking up our pilgrim packs.
The packs included a guide to places in Rome that were important to Mary Mackillop, a booklet with her biography, a bottle of water, a rain pancho, and our pilgrim scarves.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square for the canonization Mass. (In addition to Mary Mackillop (1842-1909), Pope Benedict XVI also canonized the French Canadian Andre Bessette (1845-1937), Stanislaw Soltys (1433-1489) from Poland, Juana Cipitria Barriola (1845-1912) of Spain, and two Italians, Giulia Salzano (1846-1929) and Camilla Battista Varano (1458-1524).
St. Peter's Square was literally a sea of people. We we in front of a group from Scotland, beaming because of the Scottish heritage of Mary Mackillop, and behind a group of Australians of Lebanese descent.
Proud Australian Flags!
This cross contains a relic of Mary Mackillop and was presented to the pope during the canonization. (It was at Caravita a couple of weeks earlier, pictured here with Sister Maria Casey, a member of Mackillop's religious order who was the procurator for Mary Macillop's cause for sainthood, and Tim Fischer, the Austalian Ambassador to the Holy See.
AS they say in Oz, "Good on ya, Larry!"
ReplyDeleteLarry,it would have been fun to be in Rome for this event. I am going to have to find a book on this new Australian saint:) Any celebrations in Rome for All Saints Day?
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