In the country's largest city, Sydney, at the 19th century nun's former convent, MacKillop House, the crowds arrived relentlessly to mark the occasion from the early hours of the morning.
It was a hot day. By noon, one could have very literally described the temperature as sweltering, made worse by hundreds of bodies surging onwards in order to cover every square inch of the property before the official ceremony began its broadcast live from Rome in the late afternoon.
The same crowd pushed its way through the church, along the perimeter of the white marbled tomb of the imminent saint and then ultimately back outdoors to a selection of other buildings on the site.
I found myself in this surging human wave. Within minutes it seemed it had taken me into the property's gift and souvenir shop. Suddenly, the 'wave' had become a swirling whirlpool of, ironically, greed and panic.
Hands, fingers and faces were being pushed out into shelves lining the walls of what was nothing more than a cramped rectangular studio room.
Languages from around the world were rising up into the stagnant air above... Italian, Korean, Chinese, Hindi...
But then, a truly pitiful scene unfolded - only metres away. While inspecting the souvenirs, a nun - dressed clearly as a nun in full habit - was physically pushed out of the way by a middle-aged woman accompanied by presumably her elderly mother.
I'd missed witnessing this horrendous incident by a matter of moments, but all the same, in those moments, had been separated from the parties involved by even more souvenir hunters.
This so-called 'Christian' was clearly unwilling to spend another minute at the shelves in what was effectively a race to spend and spend big on souvenirs.
I pondered the irony of saving a minute at the price of an eternity in Hell.
And all for the achingly desperate rush to buy a bit of plastic to commemorate a woman who spent her life helping the desperately poor and spreading the mottos "We must teach more by example than by word" and "We are all but travellers here."
Regardless of faith, this trend of bulldozing fellow 'travellers' in our path - especially on this city's overly congested roads - is something that sometimes stings my mind at odd times of the day.
Where are these people rushing to?
Usually the shops... supermarkets... Satan's spa house for all I care. They're more than likely only going to find more queues at their destination - Hell included.
Pushing your way through life to save a few minutes is not only poor manners but also risky business.
One should decide early if the reward is indeed worth the rush.
