Australia may claim the Blessed Mary MacKillop as its first saint, but she is just as eligible to be Arrowtown's first saint, Fr Tony Harrison says.
Melbourne-born Mother Mary, who died in 1909, aged 67, is known as the founder of the Sisters of St Joseph, an order dedicated to helping the poor in rural areas.
Mother Mary was beatified by the late Pope John Paul II in 1995 and is due to be canonised on October 17.
Mother Mary worked in Arrowtown from October 1897 and the southernmost foundation of the Josephites lasted half a century, the biography of Mary MacKillop, written by Fr Paul Gardiner stated.
A Hertford St miners cottage, built circa 1870, was converted to a convent in 1898 while she was living in the village.
Once established, she brought the sisters to Port Chalmers, where they took over running a small Catholic school.
The cottage reverted to a classroom, then a garage and storeroom, before it was restored to its 1898 period in 1993, in preparation for her beatification.
St Joseph's Catholic Parish, encompassing Queenstown, Arrowtown and Garston, plans to celebrate on the weekend of November 6 and 7.
Fr Harrison said this week while details were still being finalised, representatives from the Sisters of St Joseph were invited to attend the celebration.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, the Most Rev Colin Campbell, was expected to preside at Mass on the Sunday.
"We're working towards some kind of celebration which all members of the community can feel free to be involved," Fr Harrison said.
"She is the first Australian to be made a saint and the first person who lived and worked in New Zealand was made a saint."
St Patrick's Church, in Arrowtown, near Mother Mary's cottage, received $15,000 towards carpeting the church and the cost of installing interpretation panels outside the church and the cottage, in the latest funding round from the Central Lakes Trust.
