It was a day for the umbrella and the colonnade. With the rain pouring down incessantly in the Vatican yesterday, pilgrims and VIPs alike had one major concern - how to keep dry.
For the pilgrims, that meant standing around in the colonnades which flank St Peter's Square. For the VIPs, it meant resorting to a good umbrella.
In its infinite wisdom, the Holy See opted not to use the nearby Paul VI hall, where everyone could have been hunky-dory dry, but insisted instead on staging yesterday's four canonisations as planned - in a very soggy St Peter's Square.
President Mary McAleese perhaps spoke for many when addressing guests at a lunch in her honour in the Residenza Paulo VI, just off St Peter's Square: "Right now, it is very good to be in any place where two or three are gathered together, and not under an umbrella in the pouring rain."
For all that, though, there were plenty who stuck out the 2¼-hour service, pouring rain or no pouring rain.
Dubliner Anthony Fay, whose family has lived in Mount Argus for four generations, took a philosophical view: "I wasn't thinking about a waterproof when I was coming here - after all, it is Rome in June. Initially, the rain was disappointing, but after a while you get on with it, you know the rain is not going to stop."
Mr Fay, accompanying his elderly mother, who was in a wheelchair, pointed out that the rain could not take from the importance of the day: "It is a great day for the people of Kimmage and Crumlin who for all those years had faith in Father Charles. Now they can see it rewarded. During the ceremony, I was thinking of my father, of my grandparents who were associated with Mount Argus and who would have heard about him.
"I was also thinking about my relatives in the North of Ireland, in Newry, who had great faith in him and used to come down to Dublin for his relic, right through the Troubles. They had great faith in him and thankfully, through those 30-odd years, my cousins managed not to get involved, to stay out of the Troubles. I think it was their mother's and father's prayers to Father Charles and their hope in him that enabled their sons not to go through some of the negative experiences others went through."
Mrs Fay, too, felt that the recognition afforded to Blessed Charles of Mount Argus was long overdue. "From the time you could walk, that is where your first steps went to, down to Blessed Charles," she said. "The sick came from all over the area and he was very kind to people. He was part of our childhood, he was like another pal to us."
As they were leaving St Peter's Square the Fays admitted that they were looking forward to getting out of the rain. They were also hoping that the weather would brighten up since they planned to remain in Rome for the rest of the week.