Last October the nation s capital was the first stop of a 120-stop tour of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, the beloved Little Flower whose quick canonization just 28 years after her death in 1897 at age 24 set a modern record. In two days at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception an estimated 10,000 viewed the relics, far exceeding the expectations of the tour s Carmelite organizers. Therese s autobiography, Story of a Soul, was published after her death, giving Catholics around the world insight into her little way of holiness in ordinary daily life. Soon, miracles around the globe were reported, leading to her quick canonization. In 1997, the pope made her a doctor of the church the 33rd in all of history and only the third woman ever to be so honored.
Popular demand helps move the canonization process along.
The drive to canonize Mother Teresa, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, began within days of her death in 1997 when Roger Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles urged the pope to make the 1979 Nobel Prize winner a saint within three years. Traditionally, however, the process to sainthood cannot begin until five years after the candidate dies. In 1983, John Paul II reformed the saint-making system. The emphasis has shifted from a strictly judicial board the devil s advocate who sought to belittle the candidate was phased out to a more academic model. The process now has more in common with researching, writing and defending a dissertation than it does with appearing before a court.