Canonization miracles

A cause of canonization begins in the diocese where the person died. The bishop appoints a postulator, gathers writings and testimony, and examines whether the candidate lived a life of heroic virtue or died as a martyr. If the Holy See accepts the opening, the person is given the title Servant of God.

The local investigation can take years. Witnesses are interviewed under oath, writings are reviewed, and any evidence of scandal or contradiction is examined. A cause can be stopped at this stage if the life does not support the reputation for holiness.

If the evidence supports it, the postulator prepares a position paper summarising the candidate's life and virtues. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints, now the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, examines the case. Historical and theological consultors vote on whether the candidate practised the theological and cardinal virtues to a heroic degree.

A positive vote leads to a decree on the heroicity of virtue, and the Pope confers the title Venerable. This is a judgment about the whole life, not about any miracle. A martyr may be declared Venerable on the evidence of martyrdom rather than on a general examination of virtue.

A martyr is someone killed in hatred of the faith. The Church examines both the fact of death and the motive, asking whether the killer acted specifically because of the victim's Christian identity. A decree of martyrdity can lead to beatification without the usual miracle requirement.

This is not a judgment about the political circumstances of the death alone. A person killed during persecution is not automatically a martyr in the canonical sense. The Church must establish the odium fidei, the hatred of the faith, as the cause.

For beatification of a confessor, one miracle is required. For canonization, a second is required. The alleged cure is submitted by the postulator with complete medical records.

A medical board reviews the case. Its members are physicians of various specialities, and they are not required to be Catholic. They answer one question: can the recovery be explained by current medical knowledge? If they find a plausible explanation, the case stops there.

The standards are documentary and strict. The diagnosis must be certain, the prognosis poor, the cure complete and lasting, and the treatment given must not account for it. Spontaneous remission, misdiagnosis, incomplete records, or a long and gradual improvement normally disqualify a case.

If the medical board finds no explanation, the file passes to theological consultors. They ask a different question: is the recovery reasonably attributable to the invoked intercession? Normally this requires that the person praying asked specifically for the candidate's help, not merely for prayers in general.

Theological approval is followed by a review by the bishops and cardinals of the Dicastery. They vote, and if the vote is favourable the case is presented to the Pope.

The Pope alone issues the decree. For beatification he authorizes the cult in a limited way; for canonization he inscribes the name in the catalogue of saints and authorises universal public cult.

This is the most important distinction on the page. The medical board only says it cannot explain the case. That is a negative judgment about science, not a positive judgment about God. The theologians then ask whether it is reasonable to link the unexplained recovery to the invoked saint.

Even then, the Church is making a judgment about one case, not establishing a scientific law. It is not saying that this saint always heals, or that the same illness will always be healed through this saint's prayer, or that medicine should be set aside.

If a cure is later explained by advancing science, the canonization is not undone. The decree was made on the evidence available at the time. The Church does not claim infallibility for every detail of the investigation, though canonization itself is held to be an infallible declaration that the person is in heaven.

Most submitted cures fail. The reasons are ordinary: records are incomplete, the diagnosis was uncertain, the cure was partial, the prayed-for saint was not specified, or a natural explanation became available. The slowness protects both the candidate and the faithful.

A false miracle would be a scandal. A rejected cure is not a scandal. It is the Church refusing to claim more than it can defend, which is itself an act of honesty.

The Church's confidence in the saints rests on the communion of the living and the dead in Christ, not on any mechanism of intercession.

If you are praying for a cure, continue your medical care. The Church never asks anyone to refuse treatment in order to prove faith. If your prayer is not answered with a physical healing, that is not a verdict on your faith or on the saint you asked.

If you are drawn to a particular saint, let it be because of how they lived, not because of a claimed power. Holiness is the reason the Church honours them, and holiness is what they are meant to help us toward.