What Makes a Saint?
At the age of three Audrey Santo nearly drowned. Although saved she would spend the next 20 years of her life “kept alive by machines and unable to speak or move”. (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/10/13/bid_to_canonize_girl_draws_mixed_reaction/) Since her death in April 2007, Audrey’s supporters have lobbied Rome to consider her for sainthood. The request has touched off a debate as to what makes a saint.
Generally, in order for a candidate to be canonized or beatified, he/she must have lived a life “marked by the exercise of heroic virtue, and only after this has been proved by common repute for sanctity and by conclusive arguments.” (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02364b.htm) As explained by Monsignor F. Stephen Pedone in the above-mentioned Boston Globe column, the problem with Audrey’s case is that there are no examples of this heroic virtue: “They might be hard pressed to prove that she had this will to embrace Christian virtues and to live them . . . She probably didn't even know what they were."
Yet, one could argue that ultimately a saint is one who draws others to Christ and His Church. If that’s the case, then Audrey’s supporters believe she is more-than-deserving:
“Over the next 14 years [after her near-drowning], the bed-ridden girl, Audrey, became an object of intense devotion for thousands who came to peer through a window cut into her bedroom and pray. Time and again, they reported seeing miracles in her presence: hosts bled, oil formed in a priest's cup, the sick were healed. In 1998, 10,000 people celebrated Mass in a stadium in Worcester with Audrey, who was brought there by ambulance.”
Audrey’s mother believes her daughter was a victim soul—“someone chosen by God to accept the suffering of others”. Perhaps that is true, but even this assessment is problematic because in Catholic literature victim souls choose to suffer for others, such as Sister Josefa Menendez does in The Way of Divine Love. There is no proof that Audrey viewed her sufferings as a sacrifice for others.
Tough call.
Donald Tremblay
