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Introduction • xix
1. Stories or Lessons of Faith
The Saints and the Beatified of America accompany the
men and women of today with fraternal concern in all
their joys and sufferings, until the final encounter with
the Lord. With a view to encouraging the faithful to imi-
tate them ever more closely and to seek their interces-
sion more frequently . . . the Synod Fathers proposed . . .
that there be prepared “a collection of short biographies
of the Saints and the Beatified of America, which can
shed light on and stimulate the response to the universal
call to holiness in America.”
—Pope John Paul II,
The Church in America
(
Ecclesia in America
), no. 15
The preface and most of the chapters start with stories of Catholics, many
from the United States. As far as possible, this
United States Catholic
Catechism for Adults
relates the Church’s teachings to the culture of
the United States, both to affirm positive elements in our culture and to
A canonization today is the Church’s official declaration, through
the decision of the pope, that a person is a saint, truly in heaven
and worthy of public veneration and imitation. The process
begins by naming the person “Venerable,” a “Servant of God”who
has demonstrated a life of heroic virtue. The next stage is beati-
fication, by which a person is named “Blessed.”This step requires
one miracle attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God.
For canonization, a second miracle is needed, attributed to the
intercession of the Blessed and having occurred after the individ-
ual’s beatification. Miracles are not required for martyrs. The pope
may dispense with some of the formalities or steps in the process.
CANONIZATION