How does someone become a canonized saint?
Answered on video by Fr. Mike Schmitz
Video: How Do People Become Saints? (Fr. Mike Explains the Canonization Process), Ascension Presents, published Sep 6, 2025. Checked 10 October 2026. Loads from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only when you press play. Watch on YouTube
In short: The Church looks hard at a life, and when it finds heroic virtue and faithfulness to God’s grace, it says so publicly. CCC 828
The answer, in writing
By canonizing someone, the Church solemnly proclaims that they practiced heroic virtue and lived faithfully by God’s grace. CCC 828
She proposes the saints as models and intercessors, to sustain the hope of believers. CCC 828
The Church doesn’t make anyone a saint; God does. Canonization is the Church saying publicly, after a long and careful look, “this one is with God, and you can imitate them.”
Next step: The saints, and asking for prayers
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Related questions
Sources on this page
How we know · 1 Catechism paragraph
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 828 (official text on vatican.va).
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