Louis-Édouard Cestac

Louis-Édouard Cestac (6 January 1801 – 27 March 1868) was a French Roman Catholic priest and alongside his sister Marie-Louise-Élise co-founded the Serviteurs de Marie. Cestac was dedicated to the needs of the poor and he met with them on a frequent basis in order to get to know them better and to know how he could better serve them in terms of their material and spiritual needs. But he was concerned for girls who were poor and destitute and so decided to provide them with a stable environment. He enlisted the aid of his sister and the two founded a religious order that would be dedicated to helping them.

His beatification received approval in mid-2014 from Pope Francis after the pontiff approved a miracle that had been found to have been attributed to his intercession. Cardinal Angelo Amato beatified Cestac in mid-2015 on the pope's behalf. in a move that would allow the cause to proceed. The formal introduction to the cause came under Pope Pius X on 8 April 1908 and he was titled as a Servant of God. An apostolic process was later held from 21 September 1909 until 28 February 1916 for further investigation. The cause then moved onwards to Rome where the Congregation for Rites validated these processes on 5 June 1919 deeming them to have done their work according to the required criteria.

An antepreparatory committee met to evaluate the cause on 28 March 1944 granting it their approval while the preparatory group had to meet twice on 13 February 1943 and 28 April 1953 in order to approve it. The officials of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and their consultants also met and approved the cause on 13 April 1976 while the C.C.S. met alone to grant definitive approval on 22 June 1976. Pope Paul VI declared Cestac to have lived a life of heroic virtue and named him to be Venerable on 13 November 1976.

Cestac's beatification all depended on one healing deemed a miracle as a result of his intercession. One such case was investigated in a diocesan tribunal and was sent to the C.C.S. in Rome who validated the investigation on 28 January 2011. Medical experts deemed that there was no scientific explanation for the healing on 3 October 2013 while theologians ruled on 18 February 2014 that the healing came due to requests made for Cestac's intercession. The C.C.S. concurred with both findings on 3 June 2014. Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of a decree that recognized the healing as a legitimate miracle on 13 June 2014 which enabled the beatification to take place. Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the beatification on 31 May 2015 on the pope's behalf.