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Suppose you were playing a game of Trivial Pursuit: Church History Edition and were asked the question, “How many saints
are there?” What would you say? Before reading further, jot down your estimate.
The correct answer is “about ten thousand,” which is the number of saints recorded in the most recent official
listing. Congratulations if your estimate came close.
In a literal sense, all of these saints are “canonized,” because their names have been added to a “canon”
or list. However, most of them have not been canonized. as the church currently understands it. That is, about ninety-five
percent of them have not graduated from the modern saint-making process. Canonization authorized by the pope and administered
by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, an office in the papal government, is only a few centuries old. So rigorous
are the contemporary procedures for determining sainthood that some historians observe that many saints of earlier times that
we dearly love might not have made it through successfully.
The church’s way of identifying saints evolved over the centuries. The process, which erupted spontaneously in the
early church, came to involve some form of popular acclamation in local Christian communities and official recognition by
the bishop. Gradually the church added methods of investigation and verification of the virtue of a potential saint’s
life and finally brought the process under the pope’s control in order to insure its integrity.
For the first four centuries the Christian communities recognized as saints only martyrs, the men and women who shed their
blood for the faith. Eternal life and the communion of saints were living doctrines for the early Christians, and so they
believed that at death a martyr was instantly born into everlasting life and could be approached as an intercessor.
Typically, a popular cult honoring a martyr developed in a local church. People visited the saint’s tomb to pray for
aid. Some experienced miracles that validated the saint’s presence in heaven. Someone wrote the martyr’s story
to preserve the memory of one who in death conformed perfectly to Christ. The community celebrated the anniversary of the
martyr’s new birth with Mass at his or her tomb. Sometimes a wealthy patron built a chapel or church at the tomb, which
often became a center of spiritual renewal in the region.
In the early fourth century the Emperor Constantine established Christianity as the religion of Rome, and persecutions ceased.
As the number of martyrs declined, Christians began to recognize as saints women and men who conformed to Christ in every
way except for death. The church called these saints “confessors” because they confessed their loyalty to Christ
and were willing to die for him if given the opportunity. Gradually over the next six centuries this model of sainthood expanded
to include monks, virgins, missionaries, bishops, defenders of the faith, lay theologians, kings and queens, widows, and founders
of religious communities.
From the fourth century through the Middle Ages bishops everywhere endeavored to bring saint-making under their pastoral care.
They wanted to ensure that the cult of saints did not detract from the worship of God.. They also sought to assure that the
community only recognized worthy men and women as saints.
The procedures that bishops used for identifying saints varied, but shared some common elements. Bishops scrutinized the potential
saint’s cult, looked for indications of his holiness, investigated his miracles, and often required a written account
that described his life and virtue. When a bishop was assured of the candidate’s holiness, he took steps that signaled
his recognition of the saint. He moved the saint’s remains to a burial place in his cathedral, added her name to the
local church’s canon or list of people worthy of veneration, and established on the liturgical calendar a date for celebrating
the anniversary of her birth into the heavenly kingdom. However, no matter how diligently a bishop worked to govern saint
making, often the swell of popular opinion displaced his efforts. His flock might acclaim a saint so enthusiastically that
he had to acquiesce and accept their decision.
The pope did not get involved in the process until the late tenth century. In 993 Pope John XV, at the request of Bishop Ulrich
of Augsburg’s successor, canonized Ulrich after examining his life and miracles. However, it took seven more centuries
before popes exercised exclusive control of the canonization of saints. These landmark decisions began to bring saint-making
under papal authority:
1170: Pope Alexander III decreed that local churches could not venerate a saint without the approval of the pope;
1234: Pope Gregory IX promulgated legislation that gave the pope absolute jurisdiction over the canonization process throughout
the universal church;
1309-1377: the popes resident at Avignon, France, standardized the procedures for scrutinizing saints’ lives. Using
a judicial model that survived into the twentieth-century, they put candidates through a legal trial in which a procurator
promoted their cause and a “Promoter of the Faith,” popularly known as “the Devil’s Advocate,”
opposed it.
However, these efforts were not entirely successful. From the 1200s to the 1500s, especially in Northern Europe, where papal
authority was not always recognized, villages and towns continued to acclaim their saints and bishops canonized them. Not
until the sixteenth century did the popes secure practical control over canonization, which was occasioned by the Protestant
Reformation’s total rejection of saints and relics. These events put the popes in complete charge of saint-making:
1545-1563: The Council of Trent affirmed the veneration of saints and promoted reform of the canonization process;
1588: Pope Sixtus V established the Congregation of Rites in the papal curia and made it responsible for overseeing the making
of saints;
1623-1644: During his papacy Pope Urban VIII defined the procedures that would govern canonization and so finally established
total papal control over saint-making.
For the next four centuries the popes employed a complex system to evaluate the causes of saints. Observers have described
it as the most rigorous investigative and judicial process in the world. Following is an outline of its main features.
Fifty years after a candidate died, a bishop could establish a tribunal to investigate the life of the saint, from this point
called a “Servant of God.” The tribunal gathered evidence and interviewed witnesses to determine the validity
of a Servant of God’s reputation for holiness or his martyrdom.
The bishop reported the results of the inquiry to the Congregation of Rites in Rome, which initiated a judicial inquiry that
resembled a grand jury. A “postulator” and a defense lawyer presented a case for a fuller examination of the Servant
of God’s life, and the Devil’s Advocate proposed objections to it. This written exchange was often repeated numerous
times over many years before a cause could move forward. Finally the postulator developed a summary of the debate, called
a positio.
If the Congregation of Rites approved this document, it authorized a trial to determine if the Servant of God’s sanctity
or martyrdom was based on fact. The Devil’s Advocate sent new questions back to the local bishop, requiring him to explore
in greater detail the Servant of God’s virtue or martyrdom. Upon receipt of the bishop’s report, the postulator
prepared another document summarizing the evidence and including the objections of the Devil’s Advocate. The postulator
and Devil’s Advocate discussed this document in a series of meetings with representatives of the congregation, the final
one including the pope. If the assembly judged that the Servant of God died a martyr or lived a virtuous life to a heroic
degree, he or she was declared Venerable.
In order for a Servant of God to be beatified and canonized, the Church required the authentication of her virtue or martyrdom
by some divine sign. The local bishop looked for miracles—almost always physical healings—that God worked exclusively
as a result of the saint’s intercession. At Rome medical specialists and theological consulters subjected the bishop’s
report of these signs to an exacting review based on the highest scientific standards. If they determined that God had granted
a favor through the Servant of God’s intercession, the pope certified the miracle.
For beatification of a saint, the church required two such miracles for causes based on heroic virtue (but none at all for
causes based on martyrdom because for a martyr shedding of blood was verification enough to beatify her.) When the condition
was met, the pope promulgated a brief which declared that the Servant of God was to be venerated as a “blessed.”
Beatification allowed a limited public veneration of the saint within a diocese, geographic region, or religious order.
A blessed’s cause for canonization lay dormant until the Church validated two more signs that God granted solely through
his intercession. At this stage two miracles were also required of martyrs. Once the medical specialists and theologians had
certified the two miracles, the pope issued a bull of canonization declaring that the saint must be venerated throughout the
universal church. The causes of many blesseds has stalled for many years in the absence of additional divine signs.
In 1983 Pope John Paul II initiated a radical reform of the modern saint-making procedures. Recognizing Vatican II’s
principle of collegiality, he gave the local bishop more responsibility for the process. And because he wanted to base the
determination of sanctity on a historical-critical examination of the saint’s life, he eliminated some of the judicial
elements of the process, including the defense attorneys, the Devil’s Advocate, and the trial itself. Here’s how
the current process works:
The local bishop conducts an investigation of the candidate’s life, virtue and/or martyrdom. He appoints officials
to gather the testimony of eyewitnesses to verify the saint’s reputation for holiness. More importantly, he delegates
historians to explore thoroughly the life and background of the candidate. And he arranges for censors to assure the orthodoxy
of the saint’s written works, a determination formerly performed in Rome. When the bishop concludes that the saint’s
cause is viable, he sends a report to the Vatican office now called the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Once the congregation accepts a cause, it appoints a postulator, who now performs an administrative rather than a judicial
role, and a “relator,” who assumes responsibility for preparing a positio, a document that is now supposed to
present a convincing case for the candidate’s beatification and canonization. The relator delegates a scholar trained
in history and theology, usually from the candidate’s own diocese, to write a biography of the saint. The biography
must candidly and critically describe the saint’s life, virtues, and/or martyrdom and must also include any evidence
that may discredit him.
The historical and theological consulters of the congregation review the relator’s positio. If they approve it, they
pass it to the congregation’s bishops and cardinals for their consideration. If they judge that the candidate is worthy,
they forward the cause to the pope.
The congregation also pursues the validation of the saint’s miracles as it had done in the past. However, the reform
reduced the number of miracles necessary. For causes based on virtue, the Church now requires one miracle for beatification
and another for canonization. For causes based on martyrdom, as before no miracle is required for beatification, but one divine
sign must occur by a martyr’s intercession for canonization.
After the congregation prepares all the reports and holds all the meetings, the final decision to beatify or, if appropriate,
to canonize a Servant of God rests with the pope. When the pope officially recognizes a candidate as a blessed or as a saint,
he schedules a gala celebration either at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome or sometimes in the diocese where the saint resided.
I may have told you more than you ever wanted to know about the human side of the saint making process. But if you would
like to know more you should read Kenneth Woodward’s excellent book, Making Saints (New York: Touchstone Books, 1996),
upon which I based this article.
© Copyright 2007 by Bert Ghezzi
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