Consecrated life higher than marriage?

[gloriana35]

Many of the Italian saints date from the days before Trent, when popular devotion, not an official canonisation process, determined who was raised to the altars - and many are early martyrs. Franciscans have the largest number of beati and heretics. I cannot count how many obscure Franciscan beati there are.

 

As for England - we're too rational.   When John Henry Newman was canonised, lots of us joked that canonisation requires miracles - and we don't ask for them. 

[Nunsuch]

6 minutes ago, gloriana35 said:

As for England - we're too rational.   When John Henry Newman was canonised, lots of us joked that canonisation requires miracles - and we don't ask for them. 

Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day once said: "I hope no one tries to canonize me--I don't want to be dismissed that easily." Of course, her cause is underway....

I know a number of religious congregations that have made the deliberate decision not to pursue canonization for their founders because of the cost in both money and effort. They would rather advance the charism and the ministry that the founder envisioned for the community.

[Sister Leticia]

When I was a candidate with the Society of the Sacred Heart I read a biography  of our St Philippine Duchesne, by Catherine Mooney. Philippine had just been canonised (in 1988) when the book was written. I recall the long introduction incorporated some extracts from Dr Mooney's doctoral thesis, which was about canonisation processes, and how they are as impacted by/dependent on factors like the race, class, status and gender of the person as by their sanctity.

@Nunsuchmight know more about this? 

Basically, religious orders have long been the ones with the financial and personnel resources, and the benefactors (eg wealthy alumni/ae), to pursue these processes. In terms of numbers of saints and beati - the oldest orders - Carmelites, Benedictines - have a head-start on those of us founded in 1800 or later! Along with the Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits they are also numerous! Gloriana mentioned the number of Franciscan saints and beati - let's not forget that this is helped by there being several orders of friars, all the Poor Clares, and hundreds more female orders, spread around the world.

In addition, many orders would embrace the cause of a layperson who was part of their extended family. Pier Giorgio Frassati, for example, was a 3rd order Dominican (as was St Catherine of Siena), Bl Laura Vicuna was a pupil at a Salesian school, and so on. The cause of an extremely saintly person who wasn't part of a religious order in any way, would have to be advanced by their diocese. If that person lived and died in relative obscurity, unknown beyond their family, work and parish circles, didn't have visions or die as a martyr, then, as you can imagine, any sort of cause is much less likely.

As for the UK...

Pre-Reformation there were various mediaeval saints, usually mystics and monastics. Then, from the 1530s onwards, we began to produce martyrs instead. There were doubtless many Catholics who quietly and devotedly lived for God, secretly kept the Faith and supported others in this, but the ones who came to attention were the ones who were caught, and invariably executed. There were 100s of them, not all canonised or beatified, as per this Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_martyrs_of_the_English_Reformation

Official Catholic Emancipation in this country only dates from 1829, with bishops and diocese restored in 1850. Even so, Catholics faced decades more of prejudice, so I think the promotion of the martyrs was an important tool in inspiring and encouraging them. And it could only happen when the English Catholic Church felt strong and confident enough to begin the processes. The memory of the martyrs was still a fundamental part of our identity when I was growing up, reinforced by the canonisation of 40 martyrs in 1970. So, when Cardinal Newman was canonised he thus became the first English Catholic saint since the Middle Ages who had died peacefully in his bed!

[Nunsuch]

Everything that @Sister Leticia says is so true. Thanks for all that information. (And, yes, I've read Catherine Mooney's book.)