(RNS) — The first formation center for canonization in the United States is scheduled to open at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California, in early 2026.
The Center for Sainthood, commissioned by San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in an April 14 decree, aims to train sainthood enthusiasts on the inner workings of canonization. Announced earlier this month, the seminary’s six-day, in-person certification course promises to teach “how to honor deserving candidates and expedite their path to sainthood in the Vatican,” according to the center’s website.
Fifty years after the canonization of the first U.S.-born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, the founders of the center said they hope to ignite a stronger saintly American culture. As causes to canonize laypeople and Black American saints have sparked interest among Catholics, what’s been missing is a better understanding of the yearslong process, the center’s founders said.
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Michael McDevitt, a spokesperson for the new center who has worked on the cause of Servant of God Cora Evans since 2012, said fellow volunteers could have used training when they started her candidacy. The cause for the Utah-born Catholic convert, raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is now under review at the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
“It seems complex in one sense because there’s these many different steps, but once you learn how to move forward … it’s not that it’s difficult, it’s just that it’s unknown,” McDevitt told Religion News Service.
Despite being eager to start causes, many volunteers are deterred by the process seeming out of reach, he said. For this reason, the center’s course will focus on the work required at …