Cardiac Surgery Researcher -- Giancarlo Rastelli, M.D., a Mayo Clinic physician who developed a cardiac procedure for congenital heart disease among children, is being considered for beatification, the first step toward sainthood.

The late Dr. Rastelli died of cancer in 1970 at age 36. He was educated in Italy and came to Mayo Clinic in the 1960s. He was appointed head of cardiovascular surgical research at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, at age 34. He conducted his research in cardiovascular surgery at Mayo during the 1960s and developed Rastelli 1 and Rastelli 2, procedures credited with saving numerous lives of children with heart disease. He was awarded two gold medals by the American Medical Association and did a great deal of his research while suffering from Hodgkin's disease.

Dr. Rastelli displayed a poster with the Italian saying L'Amour Vince (which translates as "Love Always Wins") in his office. Many patients signed the poster as an expression of hope and appreciation.

In an article appearing in the official diocese newspaper, Diocese of Winona Bishop Bernard Harrington wrote that Dr. Rastelli's efforts allowed "thousands of children to live who would probably not have survived." Bishop Silvio Bonicelli of Parma, Italy, is leading the effort to have Dr. Rastelli canonized. A proven miracle must be recognized for beatification. To be a saint, a second proven miracle must be presented and verified.

The process could take years. Bishop Bonicelli submits documents to the cardinals and bishops at the Vatican for consideration. And "you wait for an actual miracle to take place" after someone prays to Dr. Rastelli, Harrington said in a story in the Star Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis.

Monsignor Gerald Mahon of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Rochester, where Dr. Rastelli was a parishioner, said he sees the possibility of Dr. Rastelli being beatified as a sign of hope. "This person worshipped and walked these streets where I walk. It means something becomes more possible, more real, for me," he told the Post-Bulletin newspaper in Rochester.