← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
How Do People Become Saints? (Fr. Mike Explains the Canonization Process)
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How does someone become a saint? What steps and criteria does the Catholic Church follow in the canonization process? Fr. Mike unpacks the journey to sainthood and reminds us that holiness begins with one simple thing, saying “yes” to God.
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To be the kind of person who dies saying no to God is the only real tragedy in life. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. And this is a sense of presents. There is this upcoming canonization of these two bros here, Giorgio Frassati, and the other is Carlo Acutis. Right now they are both declared blessed. They're beatified, but they're going to be declared saints. It's one of those situations where you're like, why do people so captivated by these two? I think one of the reasons is because they were kind of recent. They're relatively recent saints. They're also relatively young saints. And so there's something about this that says, wait, is sainthood possible? Yes, by God's grace. A saint is someone who says yes to God and just never stops saying yes. It's not a person who's perfect. It's not a person who does heroic things. It's the kind of person who just says yes to God in his grace and then never stops saying yes. After they sin, they say yes to God's grace again. After they fall, they see yes to God's grace again. After they see skip prayer, they say yes to God's grace again. A saint is someone who says yes to God and then just never stop saying yes. But Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Fasadi, they're going to be capital S T, period, saints. What's the process for that? Great question, Camper. A couple things to keep in mind is the church doesn't like, make saints. It simply declares a person to be a saint. What's that mean? It declares that they lived a life of heroic virtue and that by God's grace, they are in heaven and, and they're interceding for us here on earth. The first step is being declared a servant of God. It doesn't happen until like five years after a person's death. It can be waived in some cases, but right now it's about five years roughly. And any person can request, any person or organization or diocese whatever can request to have a person's life be investigated. But only a bishop can actually put forth the case. If that case is put forth and they're accepted immediately, that person is a servant of God. Servant of God, whoever. We have a guy. We have a guy. We have a priest in our diocese named Monsignor Bu. Don't be scared. It's B U h, Monsignor Bu. He was a pretty remarkable priest in our diocese. Founded a bunch of parishes all over the upper north northeast corner of Minnesota. And our bishop has put forth his case. So if it's accepted, he's declared, you know, servant of God. Now, this stage involves investigating a person's life and basically saying, were they faithful or is there evidence, as I mentioned before, of heroic virtue? Like, did they live life consistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church? There's a bunch of people like that, like Monsignor Boo. Father Emile Capon is one. Dorothy Day is one of those people that's the servant of God. That's that first step. The second step is when they're declared venerable. This is where the church really looks for heroic virtue in the person's life. Their life is investigated by the Vatican. And I believe this is the state. The stage where they have the devil's advocate, right? The devil's advocate is the one who's like, okay, wait, you say all these people have reported that this person had heroic virtue? Let's really find out. I don't think it's called that anymore. It's called something else. They'll put it there. But they're trying to find out, has this person really lived a life of heroic virtue. Now, if approved by the Pope and founds out that, yes, they are, then they're declared venerable. Think of it like this. Think of it as like making it to the semifinals. So, like, you've. You've passed a couple of these stages, you're in the playoffs, you've made it. You made it pretty far. And there's people who are vulnerable. Fulton Sheen, he's an example of someone whose case was accepted. He was servant of God. Fulton Sheen, he's been investigated by the Vatican and made it past that stage. And now he's Venerable Fulton Sheen. Now, after this stage, the third step is this is if there's a miracle that is attested and verified to have belonged to the intercession of this person who is deceased, then they're declared blood blessed. That's called the process of beatification. Now, this is only in the case of those who are not martyrs. Listen, you died for the Lord. You're good. You don't need any miracles. But for those of us who are not martyrs need at least one miracle to be called blessed. So these are people like Blessed Carlo Acutis or blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Blessed Chiara Bodanno, or Blessed Solanus. Casey, These are people who have one miracle attributed and verified to their intercession. Now, the final stage, you make it to the final round. The big boss round is canonization is where a person is declared a saint. Again, for non martyrs, you need two miracles attested and verified to your intercession. Once that happens, the person is declared by the Pope to be a canonized saint. And the whole universal church can appeal to them for their intercession and have a devotion towards Those people, like St. John Paul the Great or like Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, like those kind of more recent saints across the world. Across the world. The whole universal church can say, okay, they're one of our own. Now, why would the Church do this? Number one is the Church wants to remind us that holiness is possible. That's one of the reasons people love Carlo Acutis and love Pier Giorgio Frassati. These are ordinary guys that God did something extraordinary with. All they did was say yes. So Church wants to remind us that holiness is possible for everyone. Not only is it possible for everyone, but it's what God wants, everyone. Now, that doesn't mean that you have to be canonized, right? You have to go through the whole process, but to get to the end of your life and have not been the kind of person who says yes to the Lord and keeps saying yes. To not be the kind of person whose God's grace transforms to be the kind of person who dies. Saying no to God is the only real tragedy in life. The canonization process reminds us that every person is called to be a saint. People just like us. God is made into saints. Secondly, because we believe in this thing called the communion of saints, that means that those who have died in Christ are actually alive. And we can rely upon their intercession. We can rely upon their prayers. We can ask for their prayers. Just like St. James says, the prayer of a righteous person is powerful. Who's more righteous than those who are in heaven who are still alive because they're with the Lord, but they're righteous. Therefore, we ask for their prayers. Just like you would ask, you know, your holy grandma or the holiest person you know, hey, would you pray for me? We ask the holiest people we know of, in this case Carlocutis, Pier Giorgio Frazati, for their prayers as well. Last thing, keep in mind that whatever state in life, whatever temperament you have, whatever personality you have, whatever kind of thing God has called you to, he's called you above everything else, to be a saint. You might say things like all these things that disqualify you. Like, I'm not a priest, I'm not a nun, I'm not a missionary. Like, I don't have these great miracles to my name that's okay. The Lord wants you to be a saint in your life, in your neighborhood, in your situation, in your circumstances, with your personality, even. He wants you to be a saint with your wounds and your weaknesses that he has been allowed to enter into so that his glory can even shine through your wounds, that his glory and power can even be manifest in your weakness. This is the great, great, great grace. You don't have to be perfect to be a saint. You just have to say yes. Because God wants you to be a saint. So just say yes and then keep saying yes. Anyways, from all of us here to Saints presents. My name is Father Mike. God bless St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pierce Jo Fasadi. Pray for us.