It was a special day for Rotorua's Catholic community yesterday when the founder of the city's first Catholic school was made a saint.
The canonisation of Mother Mary MacKillop was held at the Vatican last night. She will now be known as St Mary of the Cross.
Some of the first people
in the world to celebrate the occasion were members of Rotorua's St Mary's and St Michael's churches.
The churches' joint parish council chairman, Joe Kilkelly, said it was an occasion the whole community could celebrate.
On Saturday a blessing ceremony was held at the graveside of Sister Anselm, the only Josephite Sister (the same order as St Mary) to have been buried in Rotorua.
At midday yesterday a marble statue of the Virgin Mary was unveiled at John Paul College. Rotorua's former MacKillop College, which merged with Edmund Rice college to become John Paul college, was named after St Mary, to whom the new statue was dedicated.
Mr Kilkelly said "a good crowd" made up of people of all ages celebrated the canonisation of Mary MacKillop at the weekend.
He said thousands of Rotorua people would have benefited from the saint's work after attending Catholic schools in the city.
"It's important for us in that she established Catholic education in Rotorua."
A special mass was also held at St Michael's Church last night where a piece of her original coffin was on display, along with her photograph.
Mr Kilkelly said parishioners were joined by the Reverend Tom Poata and members of the St Faith's Church congregation at the masswhich showed the strong links between the two churches.
It is understood Mother Mary's first miracle occurred in the 1950s when a woman recovered after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her second miracle, decreed by the Vatican last year, involved the healing of a woman with inoperable cancer during the mid-1990s after she prayed to Mother Mary.
Rotorua's Ioane Tefono, Bishop Denis Browne, Bridie Anderson, Bev Simpkins and Sister Carina, a Josephite Sister, were at the Vatican for the canonisation.
The sainthood means people can pray to her to intercede on their behalf and ask God for what they need.
