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It took 60 years but a postulator from the Vatican finally came to Richard, a lonesome patch of boggy farmland in southern Louisiana’s rice belt, last December.

Falasca, who was the deputy postulator, or promoter, of the sainthood cause, said he was being beatified not because of what he did as pope but the way he lived his life.

She happened upon this privilege by virtue of her role: She is the vice postulator for John Paul I’s sainthood.

John Paul I was elected in August 1978 to succeed Paul VI, but he died a month later of what the postulators believe to be a heart attack at the age of 65.

A “postulator,” or lawyer, “arguing” for the cause then brings it to a body called the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.