On 17th October, Mary Mackillop will become the country's first saint. This little shrine is in the church in the suburb of Waratah.

A message from the Prime Minister refers to Mary as ...a courageous woman of willing spirit and deep faith, who from a modest background and with few resources, changed...lives...education and social justice (were foremost concerns).

While I might struggle with some of the spiritual aspects surrounding sainthood, I have due respect for her life well lived, and enjoy the commemoration, reactionary and counter-cultural as it is and how it flies in the face of sceptics, rationalists and most of all unromantics.