Takayama Does NOT Perform the Miracle – Only God Does That. But We Ask Ukon to Intercede – with God!

►It may take five years. Ten years. Or 100 years. It all depends on ONE fervent Takayama devotee to remember to invoke Ukon’s name — to intercede with God for a difficult case — needing God’s  miracle.  If Blessed Takayama’s life or virtues are not known, nobody will invoke his name. There are other saints more alive and relevant to today’s everyday challenges. Thus, the ardor of Takayama devotees to share all available studies about the man, his life, his virtues. In time, he should be a familiar go-to friend — an exemplar of a courageous Catholic who dedicated his life being obedient to God’s will.

Not all “Beati” (Blessed) get to be canonized as Saints. There is a large number of Blessed – with incorruptible bodies – who have not been proclaimed Saints, though they are miracles by themselves. The requirement of the Pontifical Congregation for the Causes of Saints is for a miracle from God for some supplicant — realized though their intercession.

Among Japan’s 436 venerated Martyrs – 394 Blessed have NOT graduated to Saints yet, waiting for miracles to be performed through their intercession. If no devotee remembers to ask for their intercession, will a miracle ever happen?

DURING HIS LIFETIME, many people found Takayama Ukon’s life a great inspiration — his holiness was so evident. In Manila, he was regarded as a living saint.

At his deathbed, Ukon implored Our Lady of the Rosary for her prayers “now and at the hour of our death,” was given the Last Rites by Jesuit priests, while surrounded by his loving family. Here was a saint indeed! In the Catholic religion, anyone who dies in a state of grace is in the presence of God for all eternity. They became saints the moment they entered Heaven.

Which is why the Manila Archdiocese readily proposed Sainthood for Takayama Ukon de Manila in 1630. But the process of being recognized as Official Saints – of being enrolled in the Church’s “Canon of Saints” – requires a long official process involving both the proposing diocese and the Vatican.

Specific Petition

To be proclaimed as an Official Saint in the Holy Roman Catholic Church, the Congregation for the Making of Saints requires that a miracle be produced through the intercession of a candidate — as proof of God’s caring grace. According to the Church, miracles — or divine events that have no natural or scientific explanation — serve as proof that the person is in Heaven and can intercede with God to change the ordinary course of events. Since such miracles are considered proof that the person can intercede for us, the miracle must take place as a result of a specific petition to that particular candidate – NOT a scatter-shot “Prayer to All the Saints in Heaven – Particularly Blessed Takayama de Manila Who is in Need of a Miracle.” The prayer must be for the solo intercession of the newly beatified Blessed Takayama with God – to make the miracle happen.

In brief, it must be the gravely-ill patient himself, anxious for a miracle from God, who invokes the intercession of Blessed Takayama, who himself died from an illness the doctors could not heal.

A growing community of Prayer Warriors for Blessed Takayama de Manila – from Sikatuna Village (Quezon City) to Waukesha, Wisconsin (USA) — have emailed their readiness to support the miracle-seeker’s prayers with our own concerted supplications — wherever in the world the patient may be.

Scientifically Unexplainable

If a miracle through the intercession of Blessed Takayama is reported in Manila or Osaka — a Diocesan Commission, composed of scientific experts and theologians, will examine the claimed miracle. To be recognized as such, the purported medical miracle must be “spontaneous, instantaneous and complete healing — while also being scientifically unexplainable. Doctors must conclude, ‘We don’t have any natural explanation of what happened.’” If the claim passes muster, this is forwarded to the Vatican — where a Miracle Commission sifts through all such claims.

Decree of Miracle

If the Pope agrees, he issues a Decree of a Miracle. Through the Rite of Canonization, the Pope, by an act which is protected from error by the Holy Spirit, elevates a person to the universal veneration of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

By canonization, the Pope does not make the person a Saint. Rather the Holy Father declares that the Saint – who was actually a saint upon his death — is indeed with God and is an example of someone who lived a holy life in obedience to God’s will — worthy of emulation by the faithful throughout Christendom. ◘

By Dr. ERNIE A. DE PEDRO
Managing Trustee
Lord Takayama Jubilee Foundation