Assassinated cleric Oscar Romero is being considered for canonisation with the Vatican looking into a possible miracle.
Local church officials in El Salvador are convinced the alleged miracle is real, Archbishop of San Salvador Jose Luis Escobar Alas told reporters on Sunday, according to CBS News.
But he warned it could take a long time for the decision making body, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, to look over the matter.
Having a miracle attributed to you is the one step along the road to being declared a saint.
It comes after Pope Francis said Romero, who was shot by a sniper in 1980, had been killed out of hatred for his faith so approving his status as a martyr in February 2015. He was beatified later that year.
Typically one miracle is needed to reach the stage of beatification and then a second must be attributed to the person before they can be canonised – the final process stage in being made a saint.
But if someone is declared a martyr they only need one miracle attributed to them to be canonised.
This can be waived by the Pope if he wishes.
Already known as 'Saint Romero of the Americas', the former archbishop was a controversial figure in his lifetime with many conservatives seeing him as aligned to left-wing causes ahead of El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war.
Before fighting broke out between the right-wing government and leftist rebels, Romero had spoken out against oppression by the military.
He was shot dead while celebrating mass at a hospital chapel at the start of the civil war that went on to see 75,000 killed.
