Someone below asked about the difference between “servant of God” and “venerable.”

Servant of God is first, and relatively general. It is a recognition of holiness that marks the opening of the cause.

After this point, the cause proceeds, with all of the extensive documentation required. If the person in question is found to have lived the virtues in a heroic way, he or she is declared venerable. And after that point – it’s a matter of waiting. In the case of those who did not die a martyr’s death, in particular, it is a matter of waiting for miracles occurring by virtue of the individual’s intercession.

Here is an interesting chronology of the process related to Blessed Frederic Ozanam, founder of the Vincent de Paul Society, and one of my favorites – here’s a lay saint for you, Todd!

The question of religious v. lay saints comes up frequently. All I can say is that religious have, of course, the dynamic of their communities promoting their causes. Moreover, what’s also true is that part of recognizing sanctity involves “measuring,” in a sense the fruits. It is more than a recognition of individual holiness. And the fact is, that such fruits are more easily seen in the labors of religious working on behalf of communities and institutions than it might be in the life of a lay person.

But I also think that there have been great strides in recognizing the holiness of laypeople, obscured, perhaps, because of the great numbers of beatifications and canonizations occurring during this pontificate. (Which is a lot, even if you take out all the Spanish and Vietnamese martyrs, which number in the hundreds, I believe.)

There’s Blessed Frederic Ozanam. Blessed Gianna Beretta Molla , Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, and others, as well as from past years Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, and scads more.