The long journey to sainthood

When Sr Irene ‘Nyaatha’ Stefani is declared “blessed” by the Catholic Church in Nyeri on Friday, she will enter the home stretch of a long, arduous journey towards sainthood, a process officially called “canonisation”.

After some time, she will join hundreds of other Catholic Saints.

Contrary to what many lay people, both Catholics and non-Catholics, may believe, the process of canonisation is today fairly straightforward and combines thorough scientific, religious and social scrutiny of the candidate’s life.

The Vatican employs high-ranking medical and theological experts to examine claims of miraculous healing through the intercession of the person to be beatified.

Independent medical specialists then have to prove the healing or whatever miraculous event has no scientific explanation.

In fact, so rigorous is the process that the Vatican has an office called the “devil’s advocate” ( Advocatus Diaboli, in Latin) or, officially, The Promoter of Faith. Its express purpose is to literally dig up dirt from the life of the candidate, like hidden character flaws.

Traditionally, the “devil’s advocate” is a lawyer specialising in Church (Canon) Law. Of course there’s another side, The God’s Advocate, whose work is to make the argument in favour of the candidate where the Advocatus Diaboli hopes to proclaim: “Hi, this fellow was a fake!”

CONTROVERSIAL SAINTS

Since saints were people who lived among other human beings, controversy has never been far from the process of canonisation, not least because of the seriousness of the issue, the vested interests and sheer possibility of human clamour for fame and glory.

The most recent controversial canonisation was that of Padre Pio, now known as Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. The Italian monk of the Capuchin Order allegedly developed stigmata, or marks corresponding those left on Jesus’ body after crucifixion.

He was also said to have had the gift of bi-location, the experience of being in two places at the same time.

Born Francesco Forgione in Pietrelcina, Italy, Padre Pio was adored worldwide and his Mass services attracted thousands of pilgrims who believed he was a living saint.

But his fame attracted as much interest as hatred and jealousy. His detractors dismissed him as a fraud and, ever cautious, the church at one time banned him from saying Mass and conducting confessions.

The Vatican issued regular statements denying that the stigmata and bi-location were divine occurrences.

Physician and psychologist Agostino Gemeli, who met Padre Pio, said the priest “was an ignorant and self-mutilating psychopath who exploited people’s credulity”.

The saint was accused of applying carbolic acid and iodine on his palms to cause and keep the wounds. Scientifically, carbolic acid is part of the phenol group of chemicals which, in some form and concentration, can corrode the skin, leaving gaping wounds.

It is otherwise a common industrial chemical used for making plastics, skin lighteners and medicine. Fr Pio’s bi-location claims were also dismissed as being “consistent with hallucinations”.

There are no fewer than 23 separate claims that he had faked miracles and had sex with women parishioners in the confessional box or in his small cell-like room.

St Pio was subject to much investigation by The Vatican. One report, by Cardinal Carlo Maccari on behalf of Pope John XXIII, is said to have been damning, and though it was never made public, it talked of Pio’s “immense deception”.

However, he was finally cleared of the accusations. The priest got reprieve when Pope John Paul II, a great admirer and devotee of Pio, cleared him and paved the way for his canonisation despite the fact that, at his death in 1968, no wounds were discovered on his palms. Nonetheless, to his devotees, the disappearance of the wounds was just another miracle. Pope John Paul II canonised him in 2002.

SHROUDED IN MYSTERY

Despite lingering doubt about his sincerity, it was not lost to critics that the approval of Padre Pio’s sainthood took place in record time. In granting him sainthood, the church officially recognised two miracles attributed to him: the curing of an 11-year-old boy who was in a coma, and the medically inexplicable recovery of a woman with lung disease.

Meanwhile, the ongoing process towards the canonisation of Fr Junipero Sega, an 18th century Franciscan missionary who evangelised California, has stoked controversy.

A pressure group, Mexica Movement, last March held a protest against the beatification of Fr Sega, asserting that he actively participated in the killing of indigenous Indians.

Like some other aspects in the history of the church, canonisation has not always been open. In the early years, people would be declared saints without any formal process but rather through popular acclaim.

Later, the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches developed different rules and regulations for canonisation. The first saint to be canonised by a pope was in 993 AD.

Pope Alexander III reprimanded a bishop for having permitted veneration of a man who was far from holy, and decreed in 1173: 

“You shall not therefore presume to honour him in future; for, even if miracles were worked through him, it is not lawful for you to venerate him as a saint without the authority of the Catholic Church.”

The procedure initiated by Alexander III, and confirmed in a Bull by Pope Innocent III in the year 1200 — issued on the occasion of the canoniaation of St Cunegunde — led to increasingly elaborate inquiries on candidates.  The process was truly centralised into a formal process, when Pope Sixtus V established the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1588.

All said and done, there are hundreds of holy men and women who have lived lives of devotion and truly changed the course of history through small deeds.

At least the church acknowledges the humanity of these people. Despite all the flaws and intrigues in individuals, as Fr Francis Mukundi of the Diocese of Nyeri told a media presentation on the subject of Sr Stefani’s beatification recently, the church is both human and divine, and all human beings are bound to make mistakes.

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Formal request: According to a Jesuit online magazine, Loyola Press, five years after the death of a candidate for sainthood, a diocese, parish or religious organisation can make a formal request through the bishop. The report, among others, gives the reasons and evidence of the heroic and holy life of the candidate. If the bishop believes there is a cause, he requests the Vatican for permission to open a special tribunal to gather more information. If the person passes this stage, he or she is named a ‘Servant of God’. The former cardinal of Nairobi, Maurice Otunga, is in this stage.

Collecting testimonies: A report is sent to the Vatican and a formal process of inquiry is kicked off. The main task is collecting the testimony of witnesses who can recount facts about the person’s exercise of Christian virtues.

If everything, including the person’s writings, is confirmed, he becomes ‘Venerable’.

Becoming ‘Blessed’: If at least one miracle is confirmed and the person is given a clean bill of health socially and spiritually, the stage is set for the next step.

If the miracle is verified and confirmed independently as having no scientific explanation and having been brought about by the intercession of the candidate, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints can recommend to the Pope that the person be beatified, and henceforth named “Blessed”. This is what will happen to Sr Irene Stefani tomorrow in Nyeri.

Waiting for miracles: After being beatified, another miracle is required for the person to be canonised and officially declared a saint. Once more, the miracle must have occurred as a result of the person’s intercession.

After beatification, the file remains open for 80 years, and if a miracle does not happen within this time, the file is closed and the person’s status remains ‘Blessed’ forever.

Papal declaration: If there is a miracle, the Head of the Congregation then sends the file to the Pope, who makes the final decision. Once a person is canonised, he or she is officially declared a ‘Saint’. The Pope declares this in an official way at a special Mass in honour of the new saint with the following declaration or its variation.

“Therefore, today, in a solemn Mass in St Peter’s Square, before an immense multitude of the faithful, we have pronounced the following formula: In honour of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity, for the uplifting of Catholic faith and the increase of Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and that of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and our own, after careful deliberation, having called frequently upon God’s help, and with the advice of many of our brother Bishops, we declare and define Blessed (Name) to be a Saint, and we inscribe his name in the catalogue of the Saints, ordaining that, throughout the universal Church, he/she be devoutly honoured among the Saints. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”