When Pope Francis visits America this month, he’ll be canonizing a Franciscan friar named Father Junipero Serra. Some 231 years have passed since Father Serra’s death. Is it normal for canonizations to take that long? Check out the infographic below for the answer and to learn much more! (Courtesy of Value Penguin). (note that you can click on the image below to enlarge it). 
“When Father Junipero Serra becomes Saint Junípero Serra upon his Sept. 23 canonization in Washington, D.C., 231 years will have passed since his death. That may seem like an extraordinarily long wait for an extraordinary person. It did to us at first glance. After all, the Franciscan friar is credited with building the first nine of California’s 21 Spanish missions. In ValuePenguin’s Serra-inspired study (infographic, below) of one of the Roman Catholic Church’s highest honors, the grand takeaway, however, was that it takes an average of 195 years to earn it. At least, it did for the 267 individuals and groups who have merited the distinction since 1910. (Even we had difficulty researching as far back as the 10th century, when canonization ceremonies started.) All saints have had their names inscribed in the Vatican’s catalogue, whose online database only goes as far back as 1982. Our search, which began with Wikipedia, led us to confirm the identify of saints at websites like this one. The data told us that more and more saints are canonized every decade, but it still seems like a forever kind of wait. In fact, the wait is getting shorter. The 112 saints haloed since the start of the millennium spent an average of 171 years between going to the grave and seeing the faithful flock in their honor.”
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