The Vatican on Monday instructed bishops to be tougher when deciding which candidates for sainthood can begin the official procedures leading to canonisation.
A 100-page document spelling out the rules governing the launch of individual sainthood 'causes' was presented in the Vatican.
It has been viewed as formalising a return to tradition compared to practices introduced under his predecessor John Paul II.
The instructions ask bishops to show ''greater sobriety and rigour'' when accepting requests to begin the first phase of proceedings, writes Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Vatican's saints department.
In his introduction, Cardinal Saraiva Martins says that certain aspects of investigating miracles ''have proved to be problematic'' over the last 20 years.
In a recent interview, the cardinal hinted that certain prospective saints had been fast-tracked because they came from a country John Paul was set to visit.
Preferential treatment was also accorded, he indicated, to countries which did not yet have a saint. The initial inquiries into a prospective saint's life - part of the work of proving that the candidate was sufficiently holy - are usually handled in the diocese where he or she died.
As the head of the diocese, it is the local bishop who starts the process and oversees the first phase, which ends when a dossier of evidence is sent off to the Vatican to be examined by cardinals.
At the end of the process, the anointment of the new saint takes place back at his or her old diocese - at least it did until John Paul, who broke with tradition and held vast ceremonies around the world elevating scores or even hundreds of holy people.
Cardinal Saraiva Martins said the new document was needed ''in order to respond better to the new spirit introduced by Benedict XVI'' in the area of beatifications and canonisations.
Beatification, with which a holy person earns the title Blessed, is the last rung on the ladder to canonisation and full sainthood.
Soon after his election, Benedict sought to draw a clear line between beatification, which means a person can be venerated on a local level, and canonisation, which means that the person is a model for the whole Catholic Church.
Breaking with John Paul II's habit of personally presiding over both sorts of ceremonies, Benedict has delegated beatifications to a cardinal and only presides over canonisations himself.
Critics of John Paul II said his approach, along with the high numbers of beatifications and canonisations during his pontificate, had devalued sainthood in the eyes of the world.
By tightening up on access to the sainthood process, the Vatican's new document is expected to reduce the number of would-be saints on the Vatican's books.
Cardinal Saraiva Martins firmly rejected suggestions that under John Paul the Vatican had turned into a ''saint factory'', saying people who thought this understood ''nothing about saints''.
Talking about saints last December, Benedict XVI said they contribute to making the Church's message ''more credible and attractive''.
He also said that contact with their tradition and legacy was always useful. ''It purifies and elevates the mind,'' he said.
