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Beatification () is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed" () (abbreviation "Bl.") before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".
It is the third stage of the ordinary process of official recognition for Catholic saints: Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed, and Saint.
Since the reforms of 1983, as a rule, (for non-martyred Venerables) one miracle must be confirmed to have taken place through the intercession of the person to be beatified. Miracles are almost always unexplainable medical healings, and are scientifically investigated by commissions comprising Physician and theologians.
The requirement of a miracle for beatification is waived in the case of someone whose is formally declared by the church.
The feast day for a beatified person is not universal, but is celebrated only by territories, religious institutes, or communities in which the person receives particular veneration. For instance, Kateri Tekakwitha was especially honored in the United States and Canada during her time as Blessed. John Duns Scotus was honored among the Franciscans, in the Archdiocese of Cologne and other places. Similarly, veneration of Chiara Badano is particular to the Focolare movement.
The blessed, elected by popular acclamation (the vox populi) enjoyed only local veneration. While the procedure of canonization was taken in hand from the twelfth century by the papacy in Rome, that of beatification continued on a local scale until the thirteenth century before settling at the Council of Trent, which reserved to the pope the right to say who could be venerated.
John Paul II's successor, Pope Benedict XVI (2005–2013), personally celebrated the beatification Catholic mass for his predecessor at St. Peter's Basilica, on the Second Sunday of Easter, or Divine Mercy Sunday, on 1 May 2011, an event that drew more than one million people.
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