Lengthy historic investigations. Decrees of “heroic virtues.” Miraculous cures.
The Vatican's complicated saint-making process has long fascinated Catholics and non-Catholics alike, and will be on display Saturday when Pope Francis canonizes two children whose “visions” of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago turned the sleepy farming town of Fatima into a major Catholic pilgrimage site.
Francis recently reformed the process to address financial abuses that had long tarnished the Vatican's saint-making machine, but the basic criteria remain.
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