GOOD TALK, Larry Cunningham on Saints and Miracles

Sep 26, 2023

By Carolyn Zablotny and Colleen Dulle


How fortunate we are to have professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame,  Lawrence Cunningham , leading U.S. scholar and theologian who has authored over twenty books,  including  The Meaning of Saints, with this “good talk” to help unravel the complex relationship between sainthood and miracles.

 

In Our Time:   Larry, we are so grateful for your studies of the saints, elucidating their importance for us today.

 

Often we describe Dorothy Day as being “a saint for our time.” And you write about how the style of true saintliness is relative to the problems of spiritual living of the times, because the greatest of the saints are “those who have risen above the exigencies of a particular moment to show a new way.” Could you talk a little about Dorothy’s “new way”?

Lawrence Cunningham:   Well, I mean new in the sense of, you think of the canonization process, say most of the people that were canonized by John Paul II,they tended to be founders of religious orders or members of religious orders, or in a few rare cases, married couples and so on and so forth. But Dorothy was singular in the sense that she was a convert. She had a history behind her. I think she’s the only candidate for canonization who ever admitted to having an abortion when she was young, and she made this radical conversion of life and started a movement that exists to this day. So she was different from the typical of those who are candidates for canonization.

“in Dorothy’s case, her story itself is so extraordinary! The miraculous seems like some merengue on the pie.”

IOT :  As you well know, the process of canonization is a juridical one. What we refer to as the “cause” for Dorothy Day is actually a “case” to prove her sanctity. There are very clear criteria, including the “heroic” practice of virtue, attested to in interviews with people who knew or worked with her, in writings by and about her, etc. Almost two years ago now, literally tons of documentary evidence was sent to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints!

Which brings us to this critical issue of miracles – the final requisite proof of holiness. Can you shed some light on the significance given to them?

LC: The miracles are expected in the process of canonization, and if she’s canonized, it’s going to be because the Roman authorities accepted a supernatural intervention through her on some person in a way that can’t be explained otherwise.

But the point is that canonization is a process. The papal process we know today is a 17th century phenomenon, but there were canonizations before there were papal canonizations going back well over a thousand years. What I’m saying is, it’s a very complicated story.

IOT:   At the risk of terrible oversimplification, can you sketch it out a bit for us?

LC:     Well, this whole business of the rise of the importance of miracles in canonization starts 400 years before the first papal canonization, which was in the 10th century, and it was a way of distinguishing history from fable. You had to have a historical person, and that person was a conduit through which God manifested his mercy by healing people or whatever. There’s a lot of historical development in these issues.

IOT :  There has been some talk in recent years about changing the miracle verification process in some way such that it would consider other types of miracles beyond medical ones—which make up the majority because they are well-documented and thus can be “proven” more easily. This might necessarily involve a loosening of the verification procedures. Do you see any reason for a change in the process today?

LC:   Oh, I’m the last one to ask that question! Supposing they do find some miraculous medical cure for Dorothy Day, would it make a difference in the story we tell about her? The answer clearly is no. So to me, it’s not an issue.

But I do think there has to be some kind of canonical process. I mean, there are people 30 or 40 years ago whom we might have thought of as really saintly, and it turned out they weren’t so saintly.

IOT:   I do worry a little, though, that the importance placed on miracles in the process of canonization contributes to our associating of holiness with the “extraordinary” – and hence to an idea of saints as being other worldly, inviting of reverence perhaps but not imitation – and not with the “ordinary” daily practices of the Christian life, exemplified by Dorothy, like the very concrete works of mercy to which we are all called.

 

LC:   Well, I would kind of agree with that. And in Dorothy’s case, her story itself is so extraordinary! The miraculous seems like some merengue on the pie.

 

Our deep thanks to Bro. Martin Erspamer, OSB, for the use of his iconic images (preceding columns for “Good Talk,” “Breaking Bread,” “Sowing Seeds,” “Signs of Holiness”)  

Share this post

SOWING SEEDS, What it takes to be a lifelong Catholic Worker

By Claire Schaeffer-Duffy and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy • 26 Apr, 2024
A desire to know God in the poor rather than any specific quest for community led the two of us to the Mary Harris and St. Benedict Catholic Worker houses in Washington, DC in the summer and autumn of 1982. Michael Kirwan, a graduate student in sociology at George Washington University, founded both a couple years earlier. We arrived shortly after graduating from college, coming by separate paths. Claire had just finished a senior thesis on the enduring, revolutionary value of the Catholic Worker movement. And Scott was reassessing his vocation after spending most of a year as a novice with the Capuchin-Franciscans. In those days, the talk between us was all about radical poverty and solidarity with the poor. The two small row houses Michael purchased were located on Fourth Street NW in a squalid neighborhood under the thumb of several drug-dealing families. Mary Harris house served women while St. Benedict house served men. Both were crammed with people who were mentally ill, addicted, or utterly alone in the world. Inspired by Michael, we saw the Catholic Worker as a place where Christianity could be taken literally. Fourth Street provided ample opportunity. There, the Gospel invocations of “whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me,” “take nothing for the journey,” “take the lowest place,” “forgive not seven times, but seventy-seven times,” and “pray unceasingly” were translated into unlimited hospitality and incredible precarity. We slept on the floor, prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, and went to daily Mass in the midst of the chaos. In early 1983, Carl Siciliano, an eighteen year old contemplative came to volunteer at St. Benedict’s. He too was eager for the radical path, and the three of us immersed ourselves in the tumult of life on Fourth Street with enthusiasm. As Claire would say, “we’re like the three musketeers.” This was the era of Reaganomics, a time when thousands of unhoused Americans lived on the streets of the Capitol. The United States was arming wars in Central America and ramping up its nuclear arsenal to build weapons of incalculable destruction. Washington, DC was abuzz with protests. Despite the enormity of our daily tasks, we joined numerous anti-war demonstrations and went to jail on several occasions for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. In the autumn of 1983, we went on a peace mission to Nicaragua with Teresa Grady, who is now part of the Ithaca, NY Catholic Worker, and Carl. Following Michael’s advice, we left the care of the houses on Fourth Street in the hands of Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day while we were away. The responsibility of maintaining two small houses of hospitality often conflicted with our desire to participate in a nonviolent action. The one who went off to jail or a peace campaign could only do so if someone stayed back at the house to cook the soup and break up the fights. Deciding who did what was an occasional source of tension. New community members came, but did not remain long.

SAVED BY BEAUTY, Artists of Hope

By Carolyn Zablotny • 26 Apr, 2024
Bro. Martin Erspamer, OSB and Bro. Michael (Mickey) McGrath, OSFS are both liturgical artists, widely recognized for their creative work. Meeting in the pages of the Guild’s newsletter, they bring an artistry and open-heartedness long associated with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. From its very beginning, the Catholic Worker has been blessed by grace-filled encounters, their number suggesting more providence than coincidence. How else can the meeting between Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day be understood? He lit the match that set the new convert on fire to see what the Gospel, if lived, would look like, a match that led to a movement and even to a cause for canonization. Both still kindle our imagination with the possibility of new life, new hope. Beauty is an entryway to our imagination. Even as a young girl, Dorothy found deep inspiration and joy in literature, nature, and music. She must have felt a kindred spirit when she met nineteen-year-old art student, Ade Bethune, in 1933. Ade had come to the Catholic Worker on East Fifteenth Street. While she was moved by the hospitality offered to the poor, she felt the fledgling Catholic Worker newspaper wasn’t sufficiently conveying the spirit behind the work. She offered her artwork. To this day, her bold images continue to animate the paper.

GOOD TALK, Charles E. Moore on How to Live in Community

By Gabriella Wilke • 26 Apr, 2024
Charles E. Moore is a member, teacher, and pastor of the Bruderhof, an international Christian movement of intentional communities founded by Eberhard Arnold in 1920. A contributing editor and author for Plough , his published works include Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard , and Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together. Drawing on his expertise and experience, he spoke with one of In Our Time’s editors, Gabriella Wilke, on how to go about life together. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
More Posts
Share by: