page_title: Peter Donders
section_title: Beatification
hierarchical_section_title: Peter Donders / Beatification
caption_attribution_description: Tilburg, statue of Petrus Donders made around 1926 by J.P. Maas en Zonen (Haarlem) This is an image of rijksmonument number 521218
context_page_description: Petrus Norbert Donders was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Redemptorists. He served in the missions in Suriname where he tended to the native inhabitants and the lepers; he worked in both Paramaribo and Batavia where he died. Donders' poverty during his youth saw him unable to begin his studies for the priesthood. Later generous benefactors helped to enable him to complete his studies. Right after ordination he was sent to Suriname to tend to the natives there and he was never to return to his native land.
  Donders was beatified in mid-1982 in Saint Peter's Square. The miracle that led to that was the cure of a Dutch child from bone cancer back in 1929.
context_section_description: The beatification process opened in the 's-Hertogensboch diocese in 1900 in an informative process that later concluded in 1903 while the formal introduction to the cause came under Pope Pius X on 14 May 1913 who titled the late priest as a Servant of God. The apostolic process opened on 8 January 1916 and concluded sometime later before the Congregation for Rites approved both process with a decree of validation on 16 July 1938. On 25 March 1945 he became titled as Venerable after Pope Pius XII confirmed that Donders had lived a life of heroic virtue.
  The miracle that led to his beatification involved the cure of the child Ludovicus Johann Westland on 12 September 1929 from bone cancer; this process spanned from 5 October 1931 to 3 February 1932 before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints later validated the process on 3 November 1973. Medical experts approved this on 22 December 1975 while exemption was granted on 5 August 1976 for a second miracle that would have otherwise been needed for Donders to be beatified under the old rules that were still in force regarding sainthood causes. The C.C.S. officials and their consultants also approved this on 11 April 1978 as did the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. alone on 23 May 1978. Donders was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 23 May 1982.
  The current postulator for this cause is the Redemptorist priest Antonio Marrazzo.
caption: Statue made around 1926 in Tilburg
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1536", "Image ImageLength": "2048", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PaintShop Pro 20,00", "Image InterColorProfile": "[]", "Image ExifOffset": "110", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3434", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11530", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048"}