The election of Pope Francis in the middle of March appears to have been a lucky precedent for Australian even if the country's representative in the conclave, Cardinal George Pell was not even considered a papabili. On the last week of the month, which coincides with the Catholic Holy Week, a second Australian makes the first step towards sainthood.

Sister Mary Glowrey, who went to Guntur, India at the age of 33 in 1920 as a missionary with the Society of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and founded the Catholic Health Association, will be declared a Servant of God in India, the initial step to become a Catholic saint.

She was born in Victoria in 1887, studied medicine and worked in the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and Saint Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne as well as had a private practice. Sister Glowrey later founded the Catholic Women's League (CWL) of Victoria and in Wagga Wagga.

The announcement of her declaration as Servant of God on Wednesday, March 27, will be made by Bishop Gail Bali at the Chrism Mass in the Diocese of Guntur in India.

The campaign to have her canonised started to gather at a slow pace in India and Australia in the past 10 years, said Anna Krohn, national bioethics convenor of the CWL of Australia.

The first Australian saint who was canonised in 2010 was another nun, Sister Mary MacKillop, who once was excommunicated.