Pope Francis has declared that Mary Aikenhead lived a life of heroic virtue, a move which makes her eligible to be promoted towards sainthood.
The Corkwoman founded the Religious Sisters of Charity of Ireland in 1815.
Her 445 sisters continue to work in education and healthcare in Ireland and in seven other countries on four continents.
They have always been committed to serving poor people and became the first women to found a hospital in Ireland when they established Dublin's Saint Vincent's in 1834.
The declaration means that Aikenhead is eligible to be considered for promotion to the status of blessed, which normally requires the Vatican authorities to attribute a miracle to her intercession.
Welcoming her founder's promotion by Pope Francis, Sr Mary Christian, Congregational Leader of the Religious Sisters of Charity, said Aikenhead was a woman ahead of her time.
"All around her she saw the plight of people who were poor and suffering."
"When Mary Aikenhead set up her Congregation 200 years ago, there were just over 100 sisters in Ireland, all of whom lived as enclosed contemplatives behind convent walls.
"Mary applied to Rome for permission for her sisters to take a fourth vow of 'Service of the Poor', enabling them to visit poor people in their own homes; those who were sick and hungry and cold and penniless and no one to turn to.
"With the support of Archbishop Daniel Murray of Dublin, she received the necessary training for Religious Life in the Bar Convent, York and opened her first Convent in North William St in Dublin.
"She and her sisters became the first women religious to visit prisoners in Kilmainham Gaol.
"She opened her first Catholic school for poor children in Gardiner Street, Dublin, in 1830."
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who is patron of her cause for canonisation, said he was delighted with the announcement.
He said Aikenhead was a member of an extraordinary group of Catholic women of their time, whose legacy continued today in education and in healthcare.
