In the Roman Catholic Church, saints are made, not born. Since 1588, when Rome first established strict procedures for canonization, the Congregation of Rites has declared that 211 men and women are, as far as man knows, in the company of God in heaven. Only one is an American, Mother Frances Cabrini (1850-1917). A great many more souls are waiting for similar approval.* Last week the Vatican's Polyglot Press released the latest edition of Index ac Status Causarum Beatificationis Servorum Dei et Canonizationis Beatorum, a 391-page Who's Who of potential saints that lists the names of 1,132 dead Catholics who are candidates for the congregation's study.
From Servant to Saint. Progress up the ladder is slow, but the steps are clearly marked. A diocesan commission must first examine the life of the candidate; a favorable verdict is passed on to the Congregation of Rites, which then lists the person as a "servant of God." After the evidence is re-examined by the congregation, the servant may be declared by the Pope as a "venerable." The venerable's cause is then challenged by a devil's advocate (real title: promoter of the faith), who will search for scandal in the person's life, question the authenticity of the two miracles (usually medical cures) alleged to be the result of the potential saint's intercession with God on behalf of some person who has invoked his name in prayer. After this test the candidate is declared "beatified"; if two more miracles are authenticated, the person is formally declared by the Pope to be a saint.
On form, it helps a candidate for sainthood to be Italian, and a nun, priest or brother. Of the "causes" on the Vatican's current list, only 100 are laity; about half are non-Italians. Thirteen of the top candidates are cardinals; five are Popes: Gregory X, Innocent V, Innocent XI, Benedict XIII and Pius IX. Of the dozen or so Americans on the list, best known are Venerable Kateri Tekakwitha (TIME, Jan. 27, 1961), colonial New York's gentle, ascetic "Lily of the Mohawks," and Mother Elizabeth Bayley Seton (1774-1821), founder of the Sisters of Charity.
World War II Candidates. The Vatican's new list of causes contains a number that date back for centuries; one of the longest-standing is that of the 15th century painter Fra Angelico, who is still only a "servant of God." But two potential saints owe their candidacies to World War II Nazi persecution. One is the Polish Franciscan priest Maximilian Kolbe, who was shipped to a concentration camp in 1939. There one day, Father Kolbe volunteered to take the place of a married man who had been scheduled for punishment. The penalty: death by starvation in Auschwitz' notorious hunger bunker.
The other Nazi victim was Carmelite Father Titus Brandsma, a Dutch-born journalist famed for his prewar anti-German writings who was captured by Nazi troops after The Netherlands surrendered in 1940. Brandsma refused to retract his anti-Nazi views, died "protecting Christianity against National Socialism" in a Dachau gas chamber.
*Until the Middle Ages, saints were created by popular acclaim and decrees of local bishops, which Rome usually accepted as evidence of sanctity. Even now the Pope can bypass the Congregation of Rites, declare a saint on his own authority.