Apparently, even miracles are subject to the papal administration’s bureaucratic rigor. On Tuesday, The Telegraph reported that the late John Paul II will finally qualify for canonization, eight years after his death in 2005, as a commission of Catholic cardinals recently concluded that a so-far undisclosed feat attributed to the former Pope should be considered divine.

Officials said that, by the end of this year, Pope John Paul II will be made a saint.

Sainthood requires a pontiff to have two miracles recorded and approved by a commission of relevant experts. The first purportedly took place shortly before his death, when a French nun bedridden by Parkinson’s disease made a surprise recovery that a panel of Vatican medical officials could not explain.

The first recorded miracle led to the Pope’s 2011 beatification – which, although representing a vertiginously high rung on the Catholic ladder, should not be confused with the ultimate canonization, whereby the pontiff is actually declared holy. Whereas a beatified pope is a publicly venerated candidate for sainthood, a canonized pope joins the ranks of proper Catholic saints, and is considered to be in heaven with God.

Although Vatican officials have yet to release details regarding the recently approved miracle, it purportedly concerns the divine healing of a severely ill Costa Rican woman, whose family prayed for the late Pope’s intercession on the day of his beatification. Insiders told The Telegraph that the posthumous miracle would “amaze the world.”

Father Federico Lombari, a Vatican spokesman, told reporters that the last step is obtaining the signature of the current pontiff, Pope Francis – a formality that is likely to happen in the next few days.

The canonization ceremony will likely include another prospective saint: former pontiff John XXIII, or “the Good Pope,” who launched a series of significant church reforms in the ‘60s.

A possible date is December 8, which marks the feast of the Immaculate Conception.