Cheers as nun made Australia's first saint

Speaking in Latin on the steps of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, Benedict solemnly read out the names of the six new saints, declaring each one worthy of veneration in all the Catholic Church.

"Let us be drawn by these shining examples, let us be guided by their teachings," Benedict said in his homily, delivered in English, French, Italian, Polish and Spanish to reflect the languages spoken by the church's newest saints.

A cheer had broken out in the crowd when Mary MacKillop's name was announced earlier in the Mass, evidence of the significant turnout of flag-toting Australians celebrating the humble nun who was briefly excommunicated in part because her religious order exposed a paedophile priest.

Even more MacKillop admirers – an estimated 10,000 – converged at the Sydney chapel where she is buried and at Sydney's Catholic cathedral, where a wooden cross made from floorboards taken from the first school that MacKillop established was placed on the steps.

Thousands of others in Australia spent their Sunday evenings watching live broadcasts of the Vatican ceremony on television in homes and on large outdoor screens in Sydney, in Melbourne where she was born, as well as in Penola where she established her first school.

Quebec's flag was also out in force in St Peter's Square in support of Brother Andre Bessette, a Canadian brother who legend says healed thousands of sick who prayed with him.

Also canonised were Stanislaw Kazimiercyzk, a Pole; Italian nuns Giulia Salzano and Battista Camilla da Varano; and Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola of Spain.