Gaposchkin draws on hagiographical, visual, and narrative material, as well as little-used liturgical sources and sermons, to discuss the process by which Louis was canonized and made a saint in the eyes of a large public.

[1] In The Catholic Historical Review, Paula Mae Carns praised The Making of Saint Louis as "beautifully written, well researched, comprehensive, and insightful", calling the primer on the structure of the liturgical office a useful addition for readers unfamiliar with the genre.

Holt argued that on multiple occasions Gaposchkin weaves in extra material without losing the overall focus, and also stated that she "encompasses and crystallizes many intellectual theories of middle ages [sic]".

[5] John W. Baldwin declared in Speculum that "through her mastery of previous scholarship and her singular attention to the liturgy and sermons, Cecilia Gaposchkin has produced the definitive study of Louis's sainthood for our generation."

Baldwin stated that she "demonstrates how these ceremonies [...] made Louis a credible and ideologically potent saint for a large public including not only the clergy but the pious laity as well.