TY  - JOUR
AU  - Barro,Robert J.
AU  - McCleary,Rachel M.
TI  - Saints Marching In, 1590-2009
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16769
PY  - 2011
Y2  - February 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16769
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16769.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert J. Barro
Department of Economics
Littauer Center 218
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-3203
Fax: 617/496-8629
E-Mail: rbarro@harvard.edu

Rachel M. McCleary
E-Mail: rachel_mccleary@harvard.edu
AB  - The Catholic Church has been making saints for centuries, typically in a two-stage process featuring beatification and canonization.  We analyze determinants of rates of beatification and canonization (for non-martyrs) over time and across six world regions.  The research uses a recently assembled data set on numbers and characteristics of beatifieds and saints chosen since 1590.  We classify these blessed persons regionally in accordance with residence at death.  These data are combined with time-series estimates of regional populations of Catholics, broadly-defined Protestants, Orthodox, and Evangelicals (mostly a sub-set of Protestants).  Regression estimates indicate that the canonization rate depends strongly on the number of candidates, gauged by a region’s stock of beatifieds who have not yet been canonized.  The beatification rate depends positively on the region’s stock of persons previously canonized.  The last two popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI (the only non-Italians in our sample), are outliers, choosing blessed persons at a much higher rate than that of their predecessors.  Since around 1900, the naming of blessed persons seems to reflect a response by the Catholic Church to competition from Protestantism or Evangelicalism.  We find no evidence, at least since 1590, of competition between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
ER  -