How does someone become a saint?

Someone becomes a saint, in the full sense, by dying in God's friendship and entering heaven. The Church does not make saints. What she does, through a long legal and theological process called a cause, is recognize a few of them by name and declare that they may be honored by the whole Church.

That process has four steps, each with its own title: Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed and Saint. It usually takes decades, it requires proof of a heroic Christian life or of martyrdom, and in most cases it requires two miracles. The final declaration, the canonization, belongs to the Pope alone.

What does it mean to become a saint?

A saint is anyone who is with God in heaven. Canonization does not add holiness to that person. It is the Church's public declaration that this particular person lived a holy life, is with God, and can be held up to every Catholic as a model and an intercessor.

The Catechism puts it precisely. By canonizing, the Church solemnly declares that certain faithful "practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace." In doing so, "the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors" (CCC 828).

The key verb is "recognizes." The great majority of saints will never be canonized. They are the parents, neighbors and coworkers whom no one investigated. The Church honors all of them together on November 1, which our post on All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day explains.

Canonized saints matter because they are known. Their lives are documented, their writings are checked, and their example is concrete. That is why the Church can say with confidence that a given person is in heaven and can be asked to pray for us. The Catechism describes what they do there: "They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us" (CCC 956).

Who decides that someone is a saint?

The Pope decides. The groundwork is done first by a local bishop and then by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome, which studies each case. But the final judgment belongs only to the Pope, "who alone has the right to declare that public cult may be given by the Church to Servants of God."

That sentence comes from Divinus Perfectionis Magister, the 1983 apostolic constitution in which John Paul II set out the current process (Divinus Perfectionis Magister 15). The office in Rome that prepares the causes is today called the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. According to the 2022 reform of the Roman Curia, it "treats all that pertains to causes of beatification and canonization" (Praedicate Evangelium, art. 98).

It was not always this formal. The first Christians honored the martyrs spontaneously. The Second Vatican Council recalls that the Church "has always believed" that the apostles and martyrs "are closely joined with us in Christ," and that later she added "those who had more closely imitated Christ's virginity and poverty" (Lumen Gentium 50). Over the centuries, Rome took over the review of causes. In 1588 Pope Sixtus V entrusted them to the Congregation of Sacred Rites, and the procedure was refined until John Paul II simplified it in 1983 (Divinus Perfectionis Magister).

How does a cause for sainthood begin?

A cause begins in the diocese where the person died. A group of faithful, a religious order or a diocese asks the bishop to open it, normally no sooner than five years after the death. The bishop first checks that a genuine reputation for holiness exists. Once the cause opens, the person is called a Servant of God.

The five-year rule is written into the Dicastery's instruction Sanctorum Mater: the request "may be presented to the Bishop no sooner than five years after the death of the Servant of God." Before accepting it, the bishop "must verify whether, in that period of time, an authentic reputation of holiness or of martyrdom and of intercessory power has developed among the People of God" (Sanctorum Mater, art. 25). The wait is a safeguard. Enthusiasm after a death can fade, and a real reputation for holiness should outlast it.

The same instruction defines the title: the Catholic "whose cause of beatification and canonization has been initiated is called Servant of God" (Sanctorum Mater, art. 4).

The diocesan inquiry is thorough. A postulator, a kind of advocate for the cause, gathers information about the person's life. Theological censors read everything the person published to make sure it contains "nothing contrary to faith and good morals." Others collect letters, diaries and documents, and witnesses are formally examined. Any alleged miracle is examined in a separate inquiry (Divinus Perfectionis Magister, I.2).

What does it mean to be declared Venerable?

A Servant of God becomes Venerable when the Pope approves a decree stating that the person lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree, or died as a martyr. Venerable is not yet a declaration that the person is in heaven. It is a judgment about how the person lived.

This judgment is made in Rome. A relator of the Dicastery, working with an outside collaborator, prepares a long study called the Positio "according to the rules of critical hagiography" (Divinus Perfectionis Magister 13). The study has to be honest. The norms for the inquiry say plainly: "Nor should anything be omitted which seems to be contrary or less favorable to the cause" (Maiorem Hac Dilectionem, art. 6).

Theologians then vote on the cause, followed by the cardinals and bishops of the Dicastery. If they find the evidence convincing, the case goes to the Pope. With his approval, as the US bishops' conference explains, "a decree is issued stating that the person lived a virtuous life," and the person receives the title Venerable (USCCB, How the Church Recognizes Saints).

"Heroic" does not mean sinless. It means faith, hope and charity lived steadily, beyond the ordinary, over years. Saints went to confession too.

Why does the Church require miracles?

A miracle is the sign the Church asks from God himself. Investigators can establish how a person lived, but they cannot see into heaven. A healing that medicine cannot explain, obtained through prayer to that person, is taken as God's confirmation that the person is with him and intercedes for us.

For beatification, which gives the title Blessed, one miracle is normally required. It must be verified "through an examination by a team of medical experts and theologians." The USCCB names the three traditional standards for a healing: it must be complete, instantaneous and durable (USCCB, How the Church Recognizes Saints). The Dicastery keeps a board of physicians for exactly this purpose (Divinus Perfectionis Magister 12 and 14).

Martyrs are the exception. The Catechism calls martyrdom "the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith" (CCC 2473), and the Pope can beatify a martyr without a miracle. For canonization, however, "a proven miracle is required, even for martyrs" (USCCB, How the Church Recognizes Saints).

In 2017 Pope Francis added a third path besides heroic virtue and martyrdom. He called it "the offer of life": a free decision to give one's life for others out of charity, ending in an early death. It is "a new cause for the beatification and canonization procedure, distinct from the causes based on martyrdom and on the heroism of virtues," and it too requires a miracle for beatification (Maiorem Hac Dilectionem, arts. 1 and 2).

What happens at a canonization?

After a second verified miracle attributed to the Blessed's intercession, the Pope canonizes the Blessed, often during a Mass in St. Peter's Square. From that moment the saint may be honored by the whole Church and is remembered in the liturgy.

The second miracle goes through the same medical and theological review as the first. "Once the person is declared a saint, he or she is worthy of universal veneration by the Church" (USCCB, How the Church Recognizes Saints). The Church then keeps the saint's memory in her calendar, where, as the Catechism says, "she proclaims the Paschal mystery in those 'who have suffered and have been glorified with Christ'" (CCC 1173).

A recent example shows the whole arc. On September 7, 2025, Pope Leo XIV canonized Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, whom he described as "a young man from the early 20th century and a teenager from our own day, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him." He named the ordinary means of their holiness: "daily Mass, prayer, and especially Eucharistic Adoration," along with frequent Confession (Leo XIV, Homily of 7 September 2025). Our post on the Eucharist explains why adoration sits at the center of so many saints' lives.

Speed varies widely. Benedict XVI beatified John Paul II in 2011, six years after his funeral, saying he had wanted the cause "to move forward with reasonable haste," though "with all due respect for the Church's canonical norms" (Benedict XVI, Homily of 1 May 2011). Other causes take centuries.

Can anyone become a saint?

Yes. Every baptized person is called to holiness, and becoming a saint is the goal of an ordinary Christian life, not an honor reserved for a few. Canonization is rare. Holiness is meant for everyone, in marriage, at work and in the family.

The Catechism, quoting the Council, says: "All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity" (CCC 2013). Saint Paul says the same thing more briefly: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Pope Francis put it in concrete terms: "We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves" (Gaudete et Exsultate 14).

The canonized saints are there to help with that. The Letter to the Hebrews pictures them as spectators at a race: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1). Choosing one of them as a companion is a good place to start, and our guide on how to choose a patron saint shows how.

Most of us will not reach heaven already perfect. The Church teaches that those who die in God's grace but still need purification pass through purgatory, and she prays for them. Our post on how to pray for the dead explains that prayer. The canonized saints are simply the ones whose arrival the Church can announce with certainty.