On Aspiring to Sainthood

Loretto Sister Ann Patrick Ware worked for the National Council of Churches in the 60s and 70s. She was the only nun and one of a very few Catholics working there at the time. As such, she addressed any number of curiosities the Protestants had about matters ancillary to the “Deposit of Faith.” One of those was canonization of saints.

So she wrote a short, scholarly paper about what to do if you aspire to become a Roman Catholic saint. She paged through Albin Butler’s Lives of the Saints, listing the saints’ various jobs and roles in life.

Ware concluded that a good route for canonization was to be ordained a bishop. Kings had a fair chance, popes less so, clerics a remote possibility. One farmer had been canonized, St. Isidore.

For women, she wryly concluded, the best bet by far was to be a virgin and martyr.