All saints can be sorted out into these two categories that were developed by the early Church.
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Initially the Church didn’t have a formal canonization process, but they held up for veneration men and women who were saintly examples during their life and at the moment of their death.
These “saints” were later categorized into two primary groups, into which all saints are separated. The categories hinge on the way the person died and how closely they imitated Jesus’ death on the cross.
Read more:
The saint-makers: Why did Popes John Paul II, Benedict and Francis canonize so many saints?
