In an original book, the Professor of Economics Augustin Mohrer questions the political and economic dimensions of the Canonisations in the Catholic Church. What are the motivations and cost of making a saint? What about its profitability?
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Although the list of saints before the end of the XVI e is very approximate, the Catholic Church would have recognized more than 10,000 to date. Since the last three popes, it has been ‘There have never been so much: nearly 2,500 are waiting for canonization. Professor of Economics, Augustin Mohrer looked at the relationship between politics, the economy and religion in what he calls “the Fabrique des Saints”.
Although the sanctification process is expensive – 150,000 euros, or even more -, the saints and their relics drain an important economy and respond to different political needs, analyzes the author of the book La Factory des Saints (Atland, 2021).
You say that there is a political and economic dimension in the decision to declare holy one person. Why?
Augustin Mohrer: If the canonization comes to crown the elaborate life of one or a believer, it also meets political and economic issues. This is the need that creates the saint! During a canonization, the Church chooses to highlight the life of a person fulfilling a number of criteria (the so-called theologa and cardinal virtues) and creates a legend around her for a very specific purpose.
The example of Joan of Arc (V. 1412-1431), sanctified five hundred years after his death, shows that she has come to respond to a political need. In 1920, two years after the war, France, humiliated by Prussia and Germany, needed a personality giving back hope and glory to the national feeling. By emboding the French releasing the land of his enemies, Joan of Arc intervenes like a strong symbol.
Have the first saints came to replace the ancient gods?
Between 300 and 350, Rome experienced a serious economic crisis, mainly due to a shortage of slaves. To replace them, it was necessary to use the free men who until then did not work (20% of the population) and encourage fertility. In this context, the often benevolent gods of the time – between 1000 and 2,000, with Jupiter at the top of the Pantheon – were no longer in line with the needs of a population whose daily had become more austere.
This is how the Church, not disposing at the time only the concept of Trinity, created the saints. She has built a legend around the history of Christians who can embody qualities whose people, and especially the powerful people who were governing. As there was a kyrielle de gods, so there was a Kyrielle de Saints, whose names have now been forgotten for the majority of them, simply because they do not “serve” anymore !
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