Good Question: What Does It Take To Become A Saint?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- On Thursday we celebrate St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. On Tuesday, we learned Mother Teresa will be canonized in September. Experts think as many as 10,000 people have been officially recognized by the Catholic Church as saints.
So, what does it take to become a saint? Good Question.
Johan Van Parys heads up liturgy and sacred arts at the Basilica of St. Mary. He says the Catholic Church doesn't actually make saints, it just recognizes them.
"In order to be saint, a person needs to lead a beautiful life according to the scripture. Somebody who embodies, throughout their life, the gospel of Jesus Christ," Van Parys said. "It's wanting to do the good works. It's not something that you perform, it's almost something that you are."
The process of canonization dates back to the 16th century. Before then, it was far more automatic. The process can only begins after a person has died, usually five years after they've passed.
There are several different phases than can take years. Mother Teresa's was among the shortest at four years.
First, a Bishop starts the process.
"So the bishop collects all of the information about this person to really illustrate that the person led a heroic Christian life," Van Parys said.
A Bishop of the Diocese is petitioned to start the process of determining whether someone has led a saintly life.
The bishop collects the information and sends it to a special office in Rome. That office, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, researches the case by reading writings and conducting interviews to determine if someone is venerable.
"What we do by saying this person is a saint -- we say that the person is actually in heaven," Van Parys said. "People are interviewed, writings are read -- it's a really involved process."
Then comes the confirming of the miracles.
"To go from venerable to saint, you need to go through the process of being blessed," van Parys said. "In order to be blessed, you have to have a miracle assigned to you."
Often these miracles are medical.
For example, officials confirmed Pope John Paul II's miracle of curing the brain aneurysms of woman from Costa Rica. She said the Pope's vision appeared to her while she was partially paralyzed in her bed. Following that, she said she was cured. Doctors later said her cure could not be explained by medicine.
"We ask the saint to intervene for us with God, so that God actually may do the healing or the miracle," Van Parys said.
There must be two proven miracles before a Pope can approve that person be canonized.
Once the pope recognizes those miracles, that person can be canonized.
Often, we hear about the more dramatic saints, like Pope John Paul II, but everyday people can become saints. For example -- a married couple who lives out the gospel in unassuming ways could get sainthood from the church.
