How To Become A Canonized Saint

Sainthood - is it for me?

What is it that God wants of us? What is closest to His heart? What dream does he dream for us?  

God's fondest wish for us is to be with Him in heaven forever. He wants to share the perfect happiness that we mortals cannot even begin to understand how very wonderful it is!  That is why we are on earth.  Okay, then the question becomes if God is so gungho for us to be with Him in heaven then why did He place us on earth?  Well, go back to the very beginning. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Paradise, which I've always thought of as kind of an earthly type of heaven where everything was perfect. He put us there because he wanted to see if we would want to be in relationship with Him by our own free will.  Well, we know how that turned out.  Using our free will we turned away from Him and he immediately planned and began to implement our return to relationship through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. 

The people who have died in God's friendship and live with Him in heaven are called saints. The media latches on to the Church's formal recognition of certain people as having lived heroic Christian lives through canonization. The last one you may have heard of was the canonization of Father Junipero Serra, the missionary that helped bring Christianity to California. There are literally thousands of canonized saints that have been enrolled by the Church.  But does that mean that only those that the Church recognizes and has canonized are in heaven? Certainly not!  Besides the thousands of canonized saints there are untold millions of people, men and women just like you and I that have lived holy lives and are with God in heaven. The point here is that there is nothing more glorious than a soul entering heaven to be with God forever and nothing so sad and forlorn as a soul that through a life wasted on rejecting the Father's friendship ending up in a place without God.   I believe that we will be welcomed with great joy into heaven by Jesus and the Saints, all of them!  

Okay, let's say you are the type of person that only wants the best/ None of this anonymous sainthood for you. You want the full treatment and full recognition of the Church that you lived a life worthy of being emulated by the faithful.  How do you go about it? Well, I could spend some time discussing canon law but I won't. Here in layman's terms is a rather whimsical view of how get your life recognized as being saintly.

The Canonization Process – Very Simplified

So, you want to be a canonized saint.  Make 

sure you put this document with your will so that your heirs will know what to do.  The most important thing is that you be dead, so take care of that first.  Then make sure your heirs do the following:

1.       WAIT FIVE YEARS.  Candidate has to have been dead for five years.  This is to allow time for “cooler heads to prevail. It allows more objectivity. 

.       GET YOUR FRIENDS TOGETHER. The cause is started in the diocese where the candidate lived.  A promoter group, for example the parish, religious congregation, or pious association asks the bishop to open an investigation. The bishop asks Rome who sends a letter of “nulla osta” or “no impediment” and a tribunal is formed.

.      PRESENT THE FACTS and WRITE ‘EM UP and GET ‘EM TO ROME. The tribunal calls witnesses to recount the facts of the candidates life and how the candidate exercised Christian virtue especially; prudence, justice, temperance, faith, hope and charity. Documents are gathered and sent to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.  If the Candidate has made it this far, he (she) is entitled to the title “Servant of God.”

       WIN THE ELECTION. The documents and evidence are examined in Rome by nine theologians. If the Servant of God gets at least five votes the congregation presents the results of the Pope who will give his approval (or not) and authorizes a public decree which is publicly read and distributed.

.       PERFORM A MIRACLE. For beatification a miracle, verified after his (her) death is necessary. This miracle is investigated and if it is shown to be a miracle, a decree is read. The candidate is now called “Blessed.”

   PERFORM AN ENCORE. For final canonization another miracle occurring AFTER his beatification.  It is investigated as was the virtues and first miracle were and the matter is sent to the Pope who can make the final decision if the Blessed candidate is to acquire the title of Saint.  

There you have it!  It is a simple and straight forward process and you will really get to  know who your friends are if they stick it out.  Oh, I almost forgot - you should make some provision to pay the expenses involved in the process.  Here is what you should allow for:  

For decoration of the Basilica, lights, architectural designs, labor, and superintendence — 

Lire 152,840.58 

Procession, Pontifical Mass, preparation of altars in Basilica —  Lire 8,114.58 

Cost of gifts presented to Holy Father —  

Lire 1,438.87 

Hangings, Sacred Vestments, etc.

Lire 12,990.60 

Recompense for services and money loaned — 

Lire  3,525.07 

To the Vatican Chapter as perquisites for decorations and candles Lire 18,000.00 

Propine and Competenza    (unforeseen expenses)                            Lire 16,936.00      

Other incidental and unforeseen expenses —  

Lire   4,468,40 

Total Lire 221,601.05

Total US 1913 Dollars        $42,816.87

Lawyers and Documents     $20,000.00

Total US$                            $62,816.87                                                                                               

Grand total in 1913 US$    $62,816.87   which is approximately 

$209,601.05 in 2010 dollars.

Let's remember, too, that prices may have gone up since 1913!

This whole process can and in some cases has literally taken hundreds of years.  The church is very careful who she canonizes as a saint.  There are a lot of rules that are not mentioned here, for example a "devil's advocate is appointed who brings out the less savory incidents of your life, if he can find any. 

This may be irreverent but I think of canonized saints as those that made the All Star team, and are people we should imitate and respect.  Remember too, that for every canonized saint there are thousands of millions of saints that for whatever reason did not go through this process.  The total number of saints in heaven is known to God alone.  I hope you will be the first human to count them all when you get to heaven.

The Cornerstone of Faith

In the time of Jesus as you know there were two parties in the Temple, The Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees were the conservatives of the temple. They also represented the rich people of the time and had more seats in the Great Sanhedrin than their rivals.   They believed only in the written word of God and disavowed Oral Tradition. They did not believe in the afterlife and said that the soul died when the body died.  They therefore denied that the body would be resurrected on the last day.   Generally the High Priest was taken from this caste.  They were more concerned with politics and not so much with religion.  When the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. they ceased to exist.

The Pharisees on the other hand were more middle class and were more respected by the people.  They believed in both the Word of God and in Oral Tradition, spiritual life, and angels.  They also believed that God did have control of life and had a hand in history.  After the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. they were the first to make peace with the Romans. So we can see that battle lines were drawn even in the ancient times and importantly in the time that Jesus was on earth. 

We Catholics believe in the Bible.  The Bible is revered, taught and loved by Catholics.  If you don't know the Bible it is very hard if not downright impossible to know Jesus. If a person were to attend Mass daily eventually he would hear most of the Bible proclaimed to him over the course of four years.  As a matter of fact there are some denominations that use the same readings as the Catholics do on a weekly basis.  

The "reformers" decided that Scripture Alone should be the basis of Christian life. This sounds like a really good idea.  That the words of Scripture, the inerrant, infallible Word of God should be the guide of the followers of Christ is a great idea.  Unfortunately, it does not work and it never did.  The issue with Sola Scriptura first of all is that it is not taught in the Bible.  Another issue we have is that what about those poor people in the first century church?  The only written scripture was what we call the Old Testament.  The teachings of the Apostles were handed down orally until they were eventually written down.  The next problem we have with Sola Scriptura is that the Bible does not list which books are supposed to be in it and which books are not.  The Church under the inspiration and protection of the Holy Spirit made the decision as to which books belonged in the Bible.  They decided, for example, that the the Gospel of Matthew was inspired and belonged in the Bible while the Gospel of Thomas was not.  

One principle of Sola Scriptura is that the Bible can be interpreted by everyone and they will interpret it truly. Since the 1500's we have seen what fruit this has grown because of Sola Scriptura.  The Christian Church once one as Jesus prayed it to be was torn asunder. Today there are thousands of denominations each believing a separate version of "the truth." 

I thank God that I have the Catholic Church that is able to tell me just what scripture means. I can be one hundred percent sure that the Church's interpretation is true. 

But just what is Sacred Tradition?  Sacred Tradition cannot be confused with mere human tradition.  Sacred Tradition begins with the Bible and all that the Bible teaches. That is kind of ironic, isn't it?  Sacred Tradition is the handing down from one generation to the next the teachings of the Church.  But doesn't the Bible specifically condemn traditions?  Here are some examples of traditions (note lower case "t".) 

-Christmas Tree

- Rosary 

- Priestly Celibacy

- Lighting votive candles 

- Statues

- Stained Glass Windows

Notice that the above are traditions that do not represent doctrine of the Church. Each of the above could be changed.  For example, it is not a requirement of the Church for her members to pray the Rosary. Priestly Celibacy is a discipline of the Church and there is no reason why the Pope, if he wanted to, could not dispense with it.  A Catholic Church is still a Catholic Church no matter if it has votive lights, statues, or stained glass windows.  All of these things are traditional in the human sense. 

Sacred Tradition, on the other hand is Doctrine of the Church. It can be identified because it is the beliefs handed down by the Apostles.  The Bible itself is part of the Sacred Tradition of the Church.  In the first century the teachings of Jesus were carefully passed down from one generation to the next. The Bible as we know it today did not exist, only the books of the Old Testament existed in writing.  So it was not possible for most of the people in the first century to follow Sola Scriptura, as it did not exist. Paul in 1 Cor. 11:2 says "I commend you because you remember me in everything and and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you."

Okay, but lets get into the chapter and verse that Fundamentalists and Evangelicals use to defend their condemnation of the Catholic Church. "So by these traditions of yours you have made God's laws ineffectual.  You hypocrites, it was true prophesy that Isaiah made of you, when he said, "This people does me honor with its lips, but its heart is far from me. Their worship is in vain, for the doctrines they teach are the traditions of men. " (Matthew 15 6-9) 

Jesus was not condemning Sacred Tradition here, but if you take the text in context, he was condemning the tradition of the Pharisees dedicating their possessions to the temple so they could avoid having to use them to support their aging parents, violating the fourth commandment that states we are to honor our mother and father.  (Exodus 20:12)  

Why do we have a Church?  Why did Jesus feel the need to start one?  He knew that his return was going to take some time.  He knew that his Apostles would be called home to heaven.  Sacred Tradition is nothing more or less that the handing down of the teachings of the Apostles by the Church who is protected by the Holy Spirit from teaching error.  

Finally, if you ask any Protestant what the pillar of faith for a Christian is he will no doubt tell you that it is the Bible.  This is not correct. The Bible itself does not make this claim. As a matter of fact in 1 Timothy 3:15 we learn that the Church is the pillar and foundation of truth.  I just wonder how my Protestant friends can gloss over this declaration.

Remember, I am challenging the Protestant World to convert this cradle Catholic.  Challenge any and all of Catholic beliefs.  Prove to me unequivocally any one piece of Catholic Doctrine wrong and I will convert to the Protestant denomination you recommend. 

May the light of Christ lead you home to His most Sacred Heart where you will find mercy and rest.