Later this month five Blesseds will be raised to sainthood on the closing day of the Eucharistic Synod, while 26 individuals will be beatified in five separate ceremonies during October and November.

These coming events should stimulate us to ask once again, What are saints for? Does the Church canonize saints to increase the number of those who can render powerful spiritual and material assistance to those of us still living on earth? In other words, are saints primarily intercessors and miracle-workers?

According to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the reflections of Catholic theologians since then, saints are more than intercessors and miracle-workers, although they are that as well (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, nn. 49 and 50).

Saints are also exemplars or models of the Christian life, of what it means to be truly holy. They are sacraments of God's presence and redemptive activity on our behalf in the world.

The council said as much in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Through the lives of the saints, who are "companions of ours in the human condition," we are shown "vividly" the presence and face of God. Indeed, God "speaks to us in them and offers us a sign of [the] kingdom, to which we are powerfully attracted, so great a cloud of witnesses are we given (Hebrews 12:1) and such an affirmation of the truth of the Gospel" (n. 50).

At the same time, the council warned against abuses that too often distort the Church's authentic devotion to the saints. These abuses consist in a "multiplicity of external acts" that obscure the real point and purpose of our cult of the saints, namely, the development of "a more intense practice of our love" that is rooted in our faith in Jesus Christ himself (n. 51).

But if the saints are to function as exemplars, models and sacraments of the transforming power of God's grace, which is the presence of God within us and among us, what sorts of individuals would best serve this purpose? Whom should the Church raise up for the emulation of the overwhelming majority of its members, who are lay, married, parents and grandparents, and who are in no realistic danger of being martyred for the faith?

Is it pastorally prudent for the Church to offer its members a preponderance of holy types with whom they cannot readily identify or relate?

In fact, relatively few members of the Church are members of the clergy or of religious communities. Most are or have been married and have had children, and many have had grandchildren, some even great-grandchildren.

While it is undoubtedly true that many bishops, priests, nuns, founders and foundresses of religious orders, and martyrs have been people of extraordinary sanctity, they represent constituencies to which few members of the Church belong or with which they can personally identify. As such, their capacity to serve as models of holiness is severely limited.

It would be a wiser pastoral course for the Church to canonize more saints who were not martyred, were married, had children and grandchildren, and who did not enter a convent or found a new religious community after the death of their spouse. A relative handful of widows and widowers have done so, but that "hand" is very small.

One might wonder if the new pope, Benedict XVI, will take a closer look at the beatification and canonization processes. Those slated for beatification and canonization in the coming weeks were already in the ecclesiastical pipeline, so to speak, under the previous pontificate.

On October 9, Cardinal Clemens August von Galen of Germany will be beatified. Although he was a heroic figure who vehemently opposed Hitler's policy of putting the weak and the disabled to death, not many ordinary Catholics share that type of experience.

On October 23, the closing day of the Eucharistic Synod, five new saints will be canonized: a Jesuit priest, an archbishop, two priest-founders of religious orders of sisters, and a Capuchin friar, who died in 1787.

On October 29, seven priests, nuns and lay people who were martyred during the Spanish Civil War will be beatified.

On November 6, an Italian woman who did, in fact, marry and bear children will also be beatified. Although her biography (available on the Internet) would resonate with few parents today, at least she experienced parenthood, albeit as a Franciscan tertiary.

On November 13, a priest and two foundresses of religious orders will be beatified.

And on November 20, 14 Mexican martyrs --- priests, sisters and laity --- will also be beatified.

Unlike his predecessor, Pope Benedict has decided not to preside at beatification ceremonies.

Father Richard P. McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.