The Center for Sainthood Studies, located at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California, will host its first-ever certificate program in February 2026, aiming to train Catholics on how to navigate the canonization process.
The center was first established in April 2025 by a decree from the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said the archdiocesan website.
Its goal is to foster "a deeper understanding of the processes involved in recognizing the holiness of individuals and their potential for sainthood.”
The United States is underrepresented, proportionally, by canonized saints compared to other countries, Travis Degheri, the executive director of the Center for Sainthood Studies told Aleteia.
"I don't believe this is due to a lack of worthy candidates, but more so, a lack of knowledge of the canonization process," he said.
With the certificate program, "we are preparing individuals to navigate the complex process of initiating or continuing a cause for canonization, seeing it all the way through the Diocesan Phase and ultimately sending it to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints where it will begin the Roman Phase," he said.
More US saints?
It is his hope that the Center for Sainthood Studies will "make this process more accessible in an effort to encourage more people to pursue causes of canonization, especially right here in the United States."
The six-day certification program will be held for the first time from February 16-21, 2026. This is also the first time a course of this nature has been offered in the United States.
Presently, there are 10 canonized saints who lived in the United States or who lived in territory that would eventually become the United States, as well as a handful of people who have been given the titled "Blessed" or "Venerable."
Notably, there are no U.S.-born male canonized saints; St. Damien of Molokai, St. John Neumann, and St. Junipero Serra were all born in Europe and moved to the United States (or what would become the United States) as adults.
