Far from the comfort of her privileged childhood in Sydney, Dr Catherine Hamlin devoted her life to helping African women overcome debilitating birth injuries.

For 60 years, Dr Hamlin lived in Ethiopia, where she and her husband, New Zealander Dr Reg Hamlin, established clinics to help the nation’s desperately poor women overcome obstetric fistulas suffered in childbirth.

Her biographer, John Little, described her as a “marvel” and quoted The New York Times, which wrote “Dr Hamlin is the new Mother Teresa of our age.”

Dr Hamlin, often described as a living saint, died on Wednesday at her home in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, aged 96.