ROME -- Clarissa Coker dreams of becoming a saint and she thinks Opus Dei will help her attain her goal.

"We are all striving to be saints," said Ms. Coker, a 36-year-old pharmacist, from Lagos, Nigeria. She was up on her tiptoes to get a peek at Pope John Paul on a giant television screen as he declared the founder of the controversial Roman Catholic movement a saint in a ceremony at St. Peter's Square yesterday.

"When you think of sainthood, you think of extraordinary things," said Ms. Coker, dressed in a flowing traditional Yoruba gold and purple dress. "But in Opus Dei, you can do ordinary work and do it well and offer it to God."

Ms. Coker was one of 800 Nigerian Opus Dei followers who joined an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 of the faithful who overflowed the square into adjoining streets to witness the canonization of Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the Spanish priest who founded Opus Dei and died in 1975.

St. Escriva founded Opus Dei (God's Work) in 1928. An arch-conservative, he preached that Catholics could achieve sainthood by leading ordinary lives and practising holiness in everything they did. Although elements of the church have been cool to the movement because of its secrecy over the years, John Paul has been supportive, helping fast-track the canonization only 28 years after the new saint's death.

The powerful group, which now claims more than 80,000 members around the world, has been criticized by Catholics who claim it uses cult-like techniques to limit their personal freedom and encourages the practice of self-mortification, including fasting and flagellation.

"I think it's a black day for the Catholic Church, because Escriva and his organization are not honest and straightforward," said Dianne DiNicola, a founder of the Opus Dei Awareness Network, which provides support and outreach for families adversely affected by the group. "His organization deceives and manipulates."

Ms. DiNicola, from Pittsfield, Mass., helped found the group a decade ago after her daughter spent three years as a celibate member of the organization, having being recruited as a 19-year-old student at Boston College.

She said her daughter was deprived of her personal freedom while living in an Opus Dei residence and was told to keep her distance from her family.

"She became alienated from us. There was a personality change. She became very nervous and would break off relationships."

In addition to a strict regime of prayer, her daughter was forced to sleep on a wooden board and practise mortification.

"She wore a cilice [haircloth] around her thigh for a couple of hours every day, except on feast days. It's like a barbed wire that wraps around your thigh," said Ms. DiNicola. "You bleed from it."

Ms. DiNicola's daughter received psychological help after her departure from Opus Dei, and has since married and had two children. Her Catholic faith is "intact," but she continues to speak out about Opus Dei's harmful practices, her mother said.

Mike, a 34-year-old teacher who came to Rome with 50 students from a Opus-Dei-run high school in Hong Kong, said he sees self-mortification as part of his commitment to the movement and to God.

"It's identification with the cross of Christ," he said. "This practice has been in the church since the beginning of time until today. It's a way of controlling the impulses of the body because the body has a tendency to sin.

"It helps get you the grace of God and helps me atone for my sins."

Mike, who declined to reveal his full name, said he gives his salary to Opus Dei and lives a life of "apostolic celibacy" even though he is not ordained as a priest.

"If you're married, you have a commitment that you need to fulfull. When we are free of that commitment, we still care for our own family, which is Opus Dei," he continued.

Yoli Singson from Toronto is known as a "co-operator," a supporter, but not a full member, of the movement. She was one of about 800 Canadians who attended the canonization.

"Opus Dei is what keeps us going," she said.

"The teachings are practical and very simple to practise."

The throng was dominated by well-dressed pilgrims from Latin America and Spain, St. Escriva's native land. Prominent members of Opus Dei include the current Spanish Defence Minister and leading judges and businessmen.

Rafael Die, a 35-year-old dentist, and his wife, Isabel, were part of a group of 2,000 Opus Dei members from Valencia who flew into Rome for an overnight stay to witness the canonization.

"It's a way to go to heaven," he said, explaining the effort.