WHEN Ballarat's Sr Dominic Foley first entered a Sisters of St Joseph convent more than 60 years ago, there were still sisters alive who had known Mother Mary MacKillop."I heard from them what a compassionate, loving and courageous woman she was,'' Sr Dominic recalled this week.It was those qualities, among others, that had driven the cause for Mother Mary of the Cross to be declared a saint.Earlier this week, the Catholic Church confirmed a second miracle attributed to the intercession of Mary MacKillop had been approved, meaning she will soon be officially recognised as a saint.On hearing of the news, Sr Dominic, 85, said she was delighted and very excited. "This is a wonderful Christmas present to us,'' she said.She said she hoped Mary's imminent canonisation would cause more people to learn about Mary MacKillop's extraordinary life."If her life were known, I think it would make a difference to young women." "She was a spiritual woman only in her 20s. She lived under very difficult circumstances, but she knew what she felt God wanted her to do and nothing stopped her from doing it."Before Sr Dominic joined the Josephite order in January 1946, she said she had read about the life of Mary MacKillop.She learnt how Mother Mary, with the help of English priest Fr Julian Tenison Woods, began the order in little more than a shack in the South Australian town of Penola in the 1860s.Sr Dominic said Mary's character and desire to help the least fortunate influenced her decision to pursue her vocation with the Josephites. "I was drawn to Mary MacKillop's order of the sisters because she was Australian, from a struggling family, and was fired with the love of God which she shared with those particularly in the outback areas of Australia.""Everyone was a friend, no matter what his status in life."After she began her own training at the order's Hawthorn East province house, Sr Dominic trained as a teacher in North Sydney. In the convent chapel she would pray at Mary Mackillop's tomb, where many pilgrims gathered this week. Later, she trod the same path as Mary, working as a teacher and principal in mostly rural schools across Victoria's four Catholic dioceses. "I have loved the children and the people." She has been in Ballarat since 1981, working at the Catholic Education Office and Australian Catholic University.