Calls for John Paul's Canonization Echo Centuries of Fervor

VATICAN CITY, April 8 -- The fervor that mourners showed during the viewing of the body of Pope John Paul II this week and the calls for his immediate sainthood are old hat in the history of the papacy.

Pope Clement IV, who died in 1268, is a case in point. As his body lay in state before an altar, "crowds of people, moved by his holiness and by his miracles, converged to see him, touch him and kiss him," said an official Vatican account. Many considered him a saint.

The custom pertains not only to the particular virtues of a pope, but to the belief that every pontiff is the direct heir of St. Peter and, from the Middle Ages on, the deputy of Jesus on earth.

The constant taking of snapshots of John Paul's body by the public may have seemed like an innovation. But it was just an updating of the ancient practice of getting as close as possible to the body or even appropriating part of its clothing or the coffin as a holy relic.

Prior to John Paul, Pope John XXIII was the only pontiff in modern times who people so broadly singled out for sainthood as soon as he died. He was beatified, the next to last step in attaining sainthood, in 2000.

Papal graves often are immediate attractions for mourners seeking help. Visits to their tombs are credited with curing disease. Pope St. Silverius was sent into exile by a rival in 537. The sick went to his tomb, according to Liber Pontificalis, the official collection of papal biographies, and they were cured. Records show that Silverius was not listed as a saint until centuries later.

Visits to the sepulchers of Leo IX, who died in 1054, and Honorius III, deceased in 1227, also quickly cured the ill, old accounts say.

The phenomenon extended beyond the Renaissance. When the body of Pope Benedict XIII, who died in 1730, was moved from St. Peter's Basilica to the Santa Maria sopra Minerva basilica, the cypress, lead and walnut casket that held it was opened. An inspection showed his body was perfectly preserved, according to an account. For the people, it was a sign of holiness.

As word spread, pilgrims and even some cardinals grabbed pieces of his clothing. At Santa Maria, a mob assaulted the coffin. Excited congregants with knives cut at the wood and the "crippled and blind kissed" the coffin, according to the account. Some even came with axes to chop up the lead box.

There was no such uncontrolled behavior at St. Peter's during the viewing and the funeral of John Paul this week. Rosaries and photos of the pope, however, were big sellers in the plazas around the basilica.

Whatever the popular enthusiasm for canonization, there is no official saint-by-acclamation. There is, instead, a process.

A Vatican office takes nominations. Officials there conduct a study. For John Paul to be canonized, two miracles will have to be attributed to his intervention. He smoothed the road to canonization by eliminating a procedure in which a church official plays the role of devil's advocate to challenge a candidate's credentials.

John Paul named 482 saints, more than any pontiff in history.

For Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the pope waived a rule that the process could begin no sooner than five years after the candidate's death. She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003.

Church officials might not want to give the appearance of caving in to public pressure and speeding up the process for John Paul. Francis George, the cardinal of Chicago, told a CBS television interviewer that the calls for quick sainthood did not seem totally spontaneous.

"It was spontaneous in one way and another way not," he said. "As soon as the homily was over, up go those big signs all over the place, 'Make him a saint now. '

"The church has processes for good reasons," he continued. "And the process can't start before five years, normally. Now, there could be an exception. But my own inclination would be to stick with the process. A lot of cardinals, I think, would probably be of that mind as well."