The countdown is on for more than 8,000 Australians preparing to travel to Rome to witness the canonisation of Mary MacKillop.
One of the excited Australian Catholics attending the ceremony will be taking a leap of faith of another kind on her way to Rome.
Never having travelled out of Australia or even on a plane before Beverley Carmichael may be nervous, but she has refused to miss the occasion of her role model becoming a Saint.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"[I am] Very nervous, very happy, very nervous at the fact that I've never been on a plane, so I don't know what it looks like inside," Carmichael said.
Despite the travel arrangements Carmichael is excited at enjoying the moment with her husband whom she met after 18 years of being a nun.
"I can not tell you how excited I am, I think my husband has Mary mania,” Carmichael told SBS news.
Erin Cassidy, a student at the Australian Catholic University, will be singing with the Vatican choir.
"You always dream of about these sorts of things happening, but when I got an email saying the ACU had been invited to take part of this by the sisters of St Joseph, I almost fell off my chair," he told SBS.
Meanwhile at the Vatican, final preparations are underway with the first of 1,200 bottles of wine from South Australia arriving for the big day.
With 8,000 Aussies about to witness history, expect a big party in Mary MacKillop's honour.
