It appears there is no simple answer to my question.
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This is true. Just to give you a little more information, it doesn’t really take any miracles to
be a saint. A saint is someone who is in heaven, whether we know about it or not. When the church canonizes someone, it doesn’t do anything to
them – we don’t
make them a saint – it’s just an official recognition of the fact that they already
are a saint, and are worthy of official public veneration, having churches named after them, etc.
The Church does not want to declare people saints willy-nilly, though. That’s why there’s an official process, which requires two recognized miracles. Miracles are evidence we use to help determine whether someone is a saint. However, the process is, historically, a fairly late creation, and it can be waived. Also, most saints before, oh, the year 1200 or so were not proclaimed by Vatican decree, they were recognized for their holiness in the area where they lived and a
cultus developed around them. Although miracles are attributed to many of these saints in their various hagiographies, they were never formally investigated and officially approved by the Holy See.
