---
title: "How does someone become a saint (canonization)?"
url: "https://seekabove.com/answers/how-does-someone-become-a-saint"
description: "In the deepest sense, a person becomes a saint by living a life given over to God’s love — and there are far more saints in heaven than the Church ever names. “Canonization” is the separate, formal p…"
published: "2026-06-05"
updated: "2026-06-05"
category: "Mary and the Saints"
scripture: ["Romans 1:7", "Matthew 5:48", "1 Thessalonians 4:3", "Revelation 7:9"]
catechism: "CCC 828"
---

# How does someone become a saint (canonization)?

## Short answer

In the deepest sense, a person becomes a saint by living a life given over to
God's love — and there are far more saints in heaven than the Church ever names.
"Canonization" is the separate, formal process by which the Church publicly
declares that a particular person is certainly in heaven and may be honoured by
everyone. The Church doesn't *make* someone holy; it *recognizes* the holiness
God already worked.

## Full explanation

It helps to separate two meanings of the word "saint." In the broad biblical
sense, every person fully alive with God in heaven is a saint, named or not — a
quiet grandmother, an unknown martyr, a faithful friend. That vast, mostly hidden
crowd is the real population of heaven. Canonization is something narrower: it's
the Church carefully examining one life and declaring, with confidence, "this
person is with God — hold them up as an example and ask their prayers."

The process unfolds in stages, and it's deliberately slow and cautious. It
usually begins only after the person has died, when their local bishop opens an
investigation into their life, gathering testimony and writings to ask one
question: did this person live the Christian virtues to a heroic degree? If the
evidence holds, the person is named "Venerable." The Church is essentially doing
careful homework, making sure it isn't honouring a reputation that doesn't match
reality.

Two further steps usually follow, and this is where miracles come in.
"Beatification" — being declared "Blessed" — normally requires a verified miracle
attributed to the person's intercession, often a medically unexplainable healing
that doctors and theologians scrutinise hard. "Canonization" — being declared a
"Saint" — typically requires a second confirmed miracle. The logic is that a
genuine miracle is treated as a kind of confirmation from God himself that the
person really is with him and really does pray for those who ask. (Martyrs, who
gave their lives for the faith, follow a somewhat shorter path.)

Notice what the Church is and isn't claiming. It isn't promoting the person to a
higher rank or granting them powers. It's making a public, trustworthy judgment
that this man or woman is in heaven and may be honoured everywhere, with a feast
day and the freedom to name churches after them. Far more saints exist than will
ever be canonized; canonization simply lifts up a few, with care, as proven models
and intercessors for the whole Church.

## Why this matters

Canonization gives us reliable heroes. Because the Church investigates so
rigorously, a canonized saint is someone we can confidently imitate and ask to
pray for us, knowing we're not chasing a myth. It also keeps the goal of holiness
in front of every kind of person — the saints come from every century, culture,
and walk of life, which means there is almost certainly one whose path looks like
yours.

## Common misunderstanding

Many people assume the Church "makes" saints, as if it manufactures holiness or
hands out a promotion. It doesn't. God makes saints; the Church only recognizes
and declares what God has done. A related mistake is thinking the uncanonized
aren't in heaven — countless holy people are never formally named, and that takes
nothing away from their place with God.

## Scripture connections

- **Romans 1:7** — Paul addresses ordinary believers as "saints," showing the
  word's broad sense of those set apart for God.
- **Matthew 5:48** — Jesus' call to "be perfect" sets the universal goal of
  holiness behind all sainthood.
- **1 Thessalonians 4:3** — "this is the will of God, your sanctification,"
  pointing to holiness as everyone's vocation.
- **Revelation 7:9** — a countless multitude before God's throne, an image of how
  many more saints there are than the Church will ever name.

## Church teaching references

- CCC 828
- The Second Vatican Council's *Lumen Gentium* (ch. 5) teaches the universal call
  to holiness; Pope John Paul II's *Divinus Perfectionis Magister* (1983) set out
  the modern procedure for examining and declaring saints.

## Reflection question

If holiness is genuinely meant for ordinary people — not a special elite — what is
one small, concrete way you could say "yes" to God in the life you actually have
right now?