The second miracle is said to have occurred on May 1, 2011 – the night of John Paul’s beatification ceremony in St. Peter’s Square – and was the healing of a Costa Rican woman.

On Tuesday, Italian news agency ANSA reported that a Vatican congregation of cardinals and bishops had credited John Paul with the second miracle.

Seventy-eight former popes have been canonized, the last being Pope Pius X, who served as head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1903 to 1914. He was canonized in 1954.