By Eduardo Ángel Cruz
In September 2024, the Pope visited UC Leuven, the world’s oldest Catholic university, on the eve of its 600th anniversary. What was meant to be a joyous celebration quickly took a controversial turn. The cause? Francis announced plans to invoke one of the papacy’s oldest powers: declaring someone a saint. During his visit, the Pope declared the future beatification of King Baudouin of Belgium (1930–1993), saying, ‘May his example guide our leaders.’ Days of protest followed.
The ‘example’ that the Pope wanted leaders to follow wasn’t Baudouin’s praise of King Leopold II (1835–1909), notorious for his brutal colonial rule in Congo. Instead, it was Baudouin’s refusal to sign a 1990 bill legalising abortion, a decision that triggered a constitutional crisis.
Religious followers and secular critics understood Francis’s move as more than a spiritual gesture. It was a political statement, aimed at influencing today’s leaders to reconsider progressive laws supporting women’s right to choose. Crucially, this isn’t an isolated incident. It shows how canonizations are used to promote certain values to a wide audience.
Political canonizations aren’t new
Canonizations might seem like relics from a distant past, but they are alive and more politically charged than ever. If anything, as seen in this example, the decision to make someone a saint is still used to promote political messages and values, often with controversial outcomes.
The thing is, canonizations have always been political. My research focuses on the Spanish Empire’s use of canonizations in colonial Latin America. I uncover how saint-making processes were not just about highlighting virtue—they were about consolidating power, managing political alliances, and advancing personal or familial agendas.
Archival sources from the people promoting the canonization of saints show this with clarity. Through the lens of colonial Latin America, we see how canonizations were almost always used to send messages about who had power and influence, both in the New World and in Europe.
Blood ties: family politics in canonizations
Letters between people promoting canonizations reveal interesting family politics. These go far beyond the typical stories of kings promoting the sainthood of a distant relative. In the cases I study, it’s common for those pushing for a saint’s canonization to be related to that very saint by blood. For instance, the canonization of Toribio de Mogrovejo (d. 1606), one of the most famous Peruvian saints, was promoted by none other than his nephew.
This endorsement wasn’t just a coincidence. In medieval and early modern times, familial networks were key to advancing one’s social, political, and economic position. The sainthood of a family member wasn’t just a religious victory—it was a way to secure prestige, political clout, and even financial gain. Indeed, the promoter of this canonization quickly rose from bishop of a poor bishopric, that of Arequipa (Peru), to that of Lima—the richest in the continent at the time.
The politics of exclusion: gender and sainthood
But it wasn’t just about who got canonized—it was also about who shouldn’t. In many of the cases I examine, canonization efforts for women were stymied because they did not fit into the political agendas of men promoting other candidates for sainthood.
In a remarkable example, a representative of the Lima cathedral actively worked against the canonization of Rose of Lima, arguing that she didn’t represent the kind of spiritual image wanted for Peru. Instead, he urged a focus on promoting competing male candidates. These gendered politics were deeply intertwined with the broader power struggles, demonstrating that the process of choosing saints also reflected broader social disparities.
A legacy of power: why this matters today
Why does all of this matter? Why should we care about a few canonizations that happened centuries ago in colonial Latin America?
First, these historical cases clearly show that canonizations have never been purely religious. Most of the time, they were used to send messages about power, influence, and social order. Second, as my article in Issue 30.3 of Studies in World Christianity reveals, sainthood also displayed colonial power dynamics, revealing the complex ideological founding of a global empire.
Lastly, the study of political canonizations helps us to critically examine modern-day sainthood. As the recent controversy in Belgium exhibits, canonizations still spark debate, signal political stances, and influence public opinion. Put simply, their story is one of power struggles, political manoeuvring, and the complex web of relationships that shaped the religious landscape of world Christianity. By looking at the examples of colonial Latin America, I hope to shed light on the enduring significance of canonizations in shaping social realities—both in the past and present.
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About the author
Raised in a border town between Mexico and Guatemala, Eduardo Ángel Cruz is a historian specialising in Spanish colonial history. In the first stages of his career, he studied financial disputes surrounding prominent pilgrimage sites in the Spanish Empire. Years of archival experience prompted an evolution of his pursuits towards broader devotional practices. This progression culminated in a PhD dissertation which examines the economic dynamics underpinning the canonization of saints in Baroque Rome and the deployment of Counter-Reformation sanctity as political propaganda in Spanish overseas territories. As a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven, his current focus is on analysing the concepts of ‘miracle’ and ‘miraculous cure,’ alongside the intersections of race and gender as reflected in testimonies by Indigenous and Afro-descendant witnesses of miraculous deeds across colonial Latin America.
About the journal
Studies in World Christianity promotes creative thinking and lively scholarly interchange in the interpretation of all aspects of Christianity as a world religion. Articles range in scope from historical, theological, and social scientific perspectives, exploring the rich diversity of Christian life and thought primarily in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania and Eastern Europe, as well as the majority world.
Read Eduardo Ángel Cruz’s full article ‘Entangled Sainthood: Imperial Canonisations and the Invention of Saints in Colonial Latin America’ in Issue 30.3 of Studies in World Christianity.
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