在阿西西，圣方济各遗骸吸引了持续的人潮：每小时约1500人，工作日有11000人，周末接近20000人，800周年展出期间约37万人次参观，连同一位修士称每9到10个参观者中约有1人哭泣。即便这种朝圣在形式上像中世纪习俗，数据也显示现代需求仍然强烈，圣方济各更像一位当代文化偶像与圣人的结合体。
朝圣热潮整体上似乎在上升，2025年有超过50万人步行前往圣雅各之路，而在20世纪80年代末仅有几千人；圣人正式封圣则明显加速，2013年教皇弗朗西斯一次性批准了约800位圣人，过去40年新增圣人数量超过此前400年，2006年去世的卡洛·阿库蒂斯成为首位“千禧一代”圣人，显示了与当代媒体文化的衔接。 然而欧洲天主教信徒比例却从1975年的37%降至2025年的32%，因此更多的圣人并不等同宗教复兴。圣人的来源也更全球化（388位出生地已知的圣人中有156位出生于意大利，约40.2%），而自公元1000年前后起由教会正式控制的封圣制度要求逝世满五年并有神迹核实，教皇约翰保罗二世的加速政策与其后的教会政治运作使其更像一种教皇权威管理工具，而非单纯反映公众虔信度。
封圣制度并非直接等于“有多少圣人”：经文传统中“圣人”本指“基督徒”，后期才逐步转向受难殉道或卓越德行的个人标准。今日列表化的代祷属性（从“动物”“阑尾炎”到“飞行”“皮肤病”“性诱惑”等）揭示的是对风险和焦虑的分类管理，而非单一神学问题。
In Assisi, the relic of St Francis drew sustained crowds: about 1,500 people per hour, 11,000 on a weekday, nearly 20,000 on a weekend, and around 370,000 visits during the 800th-anniversary display, with the friar reporting that roughly one in nine or ten visitors cried. The numbers show modern demand for pilgrimage remains high, while Francis is presented as a contemporary cultural icon as much as a sacred figure.
Pilgrimage appears to be rising overall, with over 500,000 people walking the Camino de Santiago in 2025 versus only a few thousand in the late 1980s, while canonisation has accelerated: Pope Francis approved around 800 saints in one group in 2013, and the last 40 years produced more canonisations than the prior 400, with Carlo Acutis (died in 2006) becoming the first millennial saint, reflecting adaptation to contemporary media culture. These trends indicate stronger participation in devotional practices, but through new institutional dynamics.
Yet European Catholic share fell from 37% in 1975 to 32% in 2025, so higher saint numbers are not evidence of a broad religious revival. Since canonisation became formalised from around 1000 AD, with criteria such as five years dead and verified miracles, and with 156 of 388 known-birthplace saints from Italy (about 40.2%), the system has become increasingly global and political: John Paul II expanded the pace and geographic scope, making saint-making a sign of papal governance rather than a direct measure of public faith.
Source: The number of Catholic saints is climbing heavenwards
Subtitle: It is not necessarily a good sig
Dateline: 4月 01, 2026 06:04 上午 | ASSISI