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Theo Second Sem

The 5 steps to sainthood are: 1) A local bishop investigates the candidate's life and writings. 2) The Congregation for the Causes of Saints decides whether to accept or reject the application and conducts their own investigation. 3) If approved, the candidate can be declared as having lived a heroically virtuous life on Earth. 4) A miracle must occur through the candidate's intercession for them to be recognized in heaven, verified by doctors and theologians. 5) A second miracle is required for sainthood.

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26 views2 pages

Theo Second Sem

The 5 steps to sainthood are: 1) A local bishop investigates the candidate's life and writings. 2) The Congregation for the Causes of Saints decides whether to accept or reject the application and conducts their own investigation. 3) If approved, the candidate can be declared as having lived a heroically virtuous life on Earth. 4) A miracle must occur through the candidate's intercession for them to be recognized in heaven, verified by doctors and theologians. 5) A second miracle is required for sainthood.

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Ivan Matthew Superio
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5 Steps to Sainthood

First, the person’s local bishop investigates their life by gathering information
from witnesses of their life and any writings they may have written. If the
bishop finds them to be worthy of being a saint, then he submits the
information that he gathered to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of
Saints.

Second, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints can choose reject the
application or accept it and begin their own investigation of the person’s life.

Third, if the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approves of the candidate,
they can choose to declare that the person lived a life heroically virtuous life.
This isn’t a declaration that the person is in heaven, but that they pursued
holiness while here on earth.

Fourth, to be recognized as someone in heaven requires that a miracle has


taken place through the intercession of that person. The miracle is usually a
healing. The healing has to be instantaneous, permanent, and complete while
also being scientifically unexplainable. Miracles have to be first verified as
scientifically unexplainable by a group of independent doctors, then the person
is approved by a panel of theologians, and then the final approval lies with the
pope. If this is the case, a person is declared a blessed.

Fifth, a second miracle is needed in order to declare someone a saint. The


confirmation of a second miracle goes through the same scrutiny as the first.
St. Joan of Arc

Sometime around 1412, Joan of Arc was born in Domremy, France. It was a small village,
and Joan grew up in a peasant family. Although she was known for her skill and her hard
work, she seemed fairly ordinary except for her extreme piousness. In 1425, around age 13,
Joan started hearing "voices" which she claimed were the voices of Saint Catherine, Saint
Margaret, and Saint Michael. She said these voices commanded her to aid the Dauphin,
Charles, in his fight against England and Burgundy, and to see him crowned as the King of
France at Reims. Reims was the traditional location where French kings were crowned. But
because Reims was in English hands, Charles had not been able to hold a coronation
ceremony yet, though his father had been dead for years.

When Joan went to Vaucouleurs to offer her aid, she was initially laughed away. In February
of 1429, however, she was granted an audience with the Dauphin. He was superstitious and
in dire straits in his battle against the English and Burgundians, so he sent her with a
contingent of troops to aid in the Siege of Orleans, a long stalemate in which the English had
surrounded the city of Orleans with fortresses. Joan followed sudden commands from her
voices and stumbled upon a battle between English and French forces. Rallying the French
troops, she drove the English out of fort after fort, decisively ending the siege and earning
herself popularity throughout France as the miraculous "Maid of Orleans."

After subsequently defeating the English again at the Battle of Patay, Joan brought Charles
to Reims, where he was officially crowned King Charles VII on July 17. On the way from
Reims, Joan and the Duke of Alencon suggested that the French attempt to take English-
controlled Paris. But after a promising first day of fighting, Charles called off the assault on
Paris; he was running low on funds. He recalled the army south and disbanded much of it.
Charles then named Joan and her family to French nobility, in thanks for Joan's services to
France.

Joan continued to fight for Charles's interests, but her luck had run out. In May of 1430,
while holding off Burgundian troops at the Battle of Compiegne so the French townspeople
could flee, Joan was captured by John of Luxembourg. Joan was so popular and such a
valuable symbol to the pro-Charles side (the Armagnacs) that the English and Burgundians
knew killing her immediately would cause an outrage and create a martyr. Instead, they
enlisted the church to discredit her first.

After two escape attempts, including a leap from sixty-foot tower, Joan came to trial under
Bishop Pierre Cauchon for suspected heresy and witchcraft. Cauchon, who continually tried
to make her admit that she had invented the voices, found her guilty of heresy. Before being
handed over to secular authorities, Joan signed an abjuration admitting that her previous
statements had been lies. But after a few days, she said she hadn't meant the abjuration,
and she was sentenced to burn at the stake. Only nineteen, Joan was burned on May 30,
1431.

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