Whenever the Vatican declares a person a Saint there is a process that involves praying to the person, so that he or she will pray to God for a miracle on Earth. For the most part it involves healing someone that is under the care of a physician, or being observed by a Physician authorized by the Vatican.

These prayers are meant to a person that has died and specifically will be credited with a title should the prayers be answered. Every person that is currently afforded that title, in the current Roster of Saints, were made Saints, using this method in general.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_saints

Clearly this has been going on for a long time and it is well documented...Granted a doctor in the year 552 AD is a far
cry from the one who helped cannonize Pope John Paul...

The fact of the matter is this process is an effort to communicate
with the dead. And as far as the documentation is concerned, a con-
sistent one.