On the road to sainthood, the third stage is beatification . This changes the person’s title from Venerable to Blessed.

In order for a person to be beatified, a miracle needs to be attributed to their intercession. This can be misinterpreted as the saint causing the miracle, but closely reading official documents clearly indicates that the miracle is via their intercession. Why the distinction? Because only God can perform a miracle. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, a miracle is a scientifically inexplicable occurrence by the grace of God through the intercession of a Venerable or Blessed. Often in recent times, an unexplained healing has occurred to a person having a disease or malady to which there is no treatment. By praying to a singular Venerable and seeking their intercession, when a miracle occurs, it seems likely that the Venerable is in heaven and able to intercede on our behalf. Rigorous investigation is conducted by both medical professionals as well as the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican. If the investigation proves in favor of the Venerable, the cause is presented to the Pope, who will grant the beatification. A special prayer, Mass, or Divine Office may be authorized by the Pope for the candidate, who is now considered Blessed.

How long does it take to be beatified and made a saint? It depends. In researching those with the title of Blessed, I found Blessed Notker the Stammerer. Notker was born around 840 and died about 912. He was beatified in 1512. It took this Swiss monk 600 years to be beatified. And he has remained at that title for over 500 years. Will he ever achieve the title of saint? Perhaps that’s the wrong question to ask. Does it really matter if he’s declared a saint here on earth? If he is in heaven, he is with God and he is a saint. Our declaration of him as such means little to him now. In a way, his longevity as a Blessed is an excellent opportunity to look at the how’s and the why’s of sainthood and the process involved in declaring a person a saint. The Church put this process together to avoid declarations of saints by popular sentiment. The Church requires the proof of a miracle so that when we look to a person as a role model of faith, we can be assured of God’s approval. After all, it is God who performs the miracle. 

Yet the process of beatification can also occur quite quickly. Just last October 2020, Carlo Acutis was beatified. This 15-year-old from Italy died in 2006 of leukemia, but left a legacy of devotion to the Eucharist. Carlo is best known for documenting Eucharistic miracles around the world and cataloguing them onto a website, miracolieucaristici.org. The miracle attributed to Carlo was of a young Brazilian boy with a serious birth defect. The boy and his mother attended a prayer service the parish priest organized to encourage his congregation to seek Carlo’s intercession for whatever healing was needed.  The boy was cured immediately after the prayer service and leaves little doubt as to whom to attribute the healing intercession. 

The road to saint illustrates that the candidates, whether they are Servants of God, Venerables, or Blesseds, seek God’s will in all things. They can only intercede for us; God is the true miracle worker. Their elevation to Blessed is not a glory to them, but rather a glory to God. We thank the Lord for each and every miracle.