Brazil's first saint canonised

More than 1 million flag-waving Brazilians today flocked to an open air mass in Sao Paulo to watch Pope Benedict XVI canonise the country's first homegrown saint.

Antonio de Sant'anna Galvao, a Franciscan monk born in the interior of Sao Paulo in 1739, is credited with performing 5,000 miracles.

He was famous for distributing miniscule rice paper "pills", which followers believed helped induce miraculous cures.

Flanked by 400 Brazilian bishops wearing white robes, the Pope praised "Frei Galvao" for his dedication to the "poor and ill" of what is today the world's largest Catholic nation.

The pontiff's five-day visit to Brazil has so far been marked by a focus on sexual ethics and the church's opposition to abortion.

The Brazilian health minister, Jose Gomes Temporao, was reported to have been ordered to refrain from further inflaming the controversy over abortion during the Pope's visit.

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