The Church in Spain currently maintains 347 causes of beatification and canonization involving 3,344 people, a figure that reflects the intense work being carried out in Spanish dioceses to officially recognize examples of holiness that have emerged in recent decades and centuries.
The data come from the Jubilee 2025 Report. Report on the Causes of Virtue in Spain, prepared by the Office for the Causes of Saints of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. The study provides an overview of all the causes opened in the country and their stage of processing, becoming an unprecedented initiative among episcopal conferences worldwide.
More than three hundred causes open
According to the report, there are currently 53 causes for martyrdom, of which 48 correspond to victims of religious persecution in 20th-century Spain. Added to these are 292 causes for heroic virtue, one for the offering of life, and another corresponding to an equipollent canonization.
In total, 57 Spanish dioceses out of the 70 existing ones are involved, highlighting the broad territorial reach of these processes.
Of the causes currently open, 42 remain in the diocesan phase, while many others are already under study by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. To date, 148 Servants of God have been recognized as Venerable following the decree of heroic virtue.
Bishops, priests, religious, families and laity
The report highlights the diversity of vocations represented in these processes. Among the candidates for the altars are bishops, diocesan priests, deacons, religious, seminarians, laity, married couples, fathers and mothers of families, as well as young people and children.
It also highlights the high number of founders and foundresses present in the open causes. There are currently 82 processes related to founders, of which 71 correspond to religious institutes and 11 to secular institutes.
More than 2,400 blessed martyrs of the 20th century
The document also records the high number of blesseds recognized in Spain. Following the decrees of martyrdom approved during 2026, the total rises to 2,449 blesseds, of which 2,404 were killed during the religious persecution of the 20th century.
The remaining 45 blesseds correspond to causes for heroic virtue and include cardinals, bishops, diocesan priests and religious, consecrated persons and laity.
A “pastoral of holiness”
In an article published by L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, highlights the value of this initiative of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and presents it as a model that could inspire other episcopal conferences.
The cardinal also recalls the recent words of Leo XIV, who described Spain as the “cradle of great saints and fervent missionaries,” a tradition that, in his view, continues to bear fruit in the life of the Church.
Semeraro emphasizes that the report is not merely a statistical inventory, but a pastoral instrument to promote what the Episcopal Conference calls a “pastoral of holiness”, intended to recall the universal call to holiness proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council.
Making known the testimony of future saints
The Office for the Causes of Saints of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, created twenty-five years ago, is preparing new initiatives to bring these figures closer to the faithful. Among them are the publication of a monographic volume in the Library of Christian Authors (BAC) collection and the creation of a web portal dedicated to disseminating the causes of beatification and canonization present in the various particular Churches of Spain.
Semeraro makes his own the words of the director of the Office, Lourdes Grosso García, who maintains that the publication of the report “is not a point of arrival, but a point of departure.” The goal, she states, is that the life and testimony of these men and women become increasingly known and help the faithful to discover that holiness remains a fully current vocation.