Father Kenneth Doyle

Father Kenneth Doyle








Q. I have read that miracles are required before someone can be proclaimed a saint. Can you tell me more about the process and perhaps give me some examples of miracles for saints recently canonized? (Roanoke, Virginia)

A. The process for canonization has been developed by the church over time — with increasing rigor. The first Christian saints were martyred for their faith in persecutions during the church’s earliest centuries.

Later, Christians started to recognize as saints those who had lived virtuous lives even though they had not been put to death for their beliefs, and church leaders realized the need for a more formal authentication. (In the 12th century, Pope Alexander III wrote to the King of Sweden castigating the Swedish people for venerating an imbibing monk who had been killed in a drunken brawl.)

The current steps toward canonization provide for one miracle to be documented for beatification and another one for canonization. Miracles obtained through someone’s intercession are regarded as proof that the person is in heaven and able to intervene with the Lord. The general procedures for canonization were outlined by St. John Paul II in an apostolic constitution issued in 1983.

The pope, as the church’s supreme legislator, can and occasionally does dispense from the requirement on miracles, especially when the deceased is universally recognized for holiness. (This was done for Pope John XXIII when he was canonized in 2014.) Reported cures are scrutinized thoroughly by a panel of medical experts who must conclude that there is no natural explanation to explain the recovery of health.

When St. John Paul II was canonized (also in 2014), a guest at the ceremony was a woman from Costa Rica who had recovered inexplicably from a brain aneurysm after praying to that deceased pontiff. In September 2016, St. Teresa of Kolkata was canonized after a Brazilian man with multiple brain tumors was healed when loved ones pleaded to Mother Teresa on his behalf.


