Canonization

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This article is about the process of declaring saints. For the canonization of Scripture, see Biblical canon.

Icon of St. Cyprian of Carthage, who urged diligence in the process of canonization.

Canonization is the act by which a Christian Church declares some deceased person to be a saint, inscribing that person in the canon, or list, of recognized saints.

In the Catholic Church, the act of canonization is now reserved to the Holy See and occurs at the conclusion of a long process requiring extensive proof that the person proposed for canonization lived, and died, in such a way that he or she is worthy to be recognized as a saint. Originally, however, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process, as happened, for instance, in the case of Saint Peter and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Other Christian Churches still follow the older practice (see, for instance, below on Eastern Orthodox practice).

Canonization, whether formal or informal, does not make someone a saint: it is only a declaration that the person is a saint and was a saint even before canonization. It is generally recognized that there are many more saints in heaven than have been canonized on earth.^[1]

1 Historical development of the process
2 Current procedure in the Catholic Church
3 Eastern Orthodox Practice—Glorification
4 See also
5 Bibliography
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Historical development of the process

The first persons whom Christians honoured as saints were the martyrs. Their death for their faith was considered the supreme and undeniable witness to their faith in Christ. The fame of many of them spread widely, leading to their veneration far outside the area in which they lived and died.

The Roman Canon of the Mass contains the names only of martyrs, along with that of the Virgin Mary and, since 1962, that of Saint Joseph.

By the fourth century, however, "confessors", people who had confessed their faith not by dying but by word and life, began to be venerated publicly. Examples of such people are Saint Hilarion and Saint Ephrem the Syrian in the East, and Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Hilary of Poitiers in the West. Their names were inserted in the diptychs, the lists of saints explicitly venerated in the liturgy, and their tombs were honoured like those of the martyrs. Since the witness of their lives was not as unequivocal as that of the martyrs, they were venerated publicly only with the approval by the local bishop.

This approval was required even for veneration of a reputed martyr. In his history of the Donatist heresy, Saint Optatus recounts that at Carthage a Christian matron, named Lucilla, incurred the censures of the Church for having kissed the relics of a reputed martyr whose claims to martyrdom had not been juridically proved. And Saint Cyprian (died 258) recommended that the utmost diligence be observed in investigating the claims of those who were said to have died for the faith. All the circumstances accompanying the martyrdom were to be inquired into; the faith of those who suffered, and the motives that animated them were to be rigorously examined, in order to prevent the recognition of undeserving persons. Evidence was sought from the court records of the trials or from people who had been present at the trials.

Detail of St. Augustine in a stained glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, Florida.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (died 430) tells of the procedure which obtained in his day for the recognition of a martyr. The bishop of the diocese in which the martyrdom took place set up a canonical process for conducting the inquiry with the utmost severity. The acts of the process were sent either to the Metropolitan or Primate, who carefully examined the cause, and, after consultation with the suffragan bishops, declared whether the defunct was worthy of the name of martyr and public veneration.

Acts of formal recognition, such as the erection of an altar over the saint's tomb or transferring the saint's relics to a church, were preceded by formal inquiries into the sanctity of the person's life and the miracles attributed to that person's intercession.

Such acts of recognition of a saint were authoritative, in the strict sense, only for the diocese or ecclesiastical province for which they were issued, but with the spread of the fame of a saint, were often accepted elsewhere also.

The Holy See began to be asked to intervene, so as to ensure a more authoritative decision. The canonization of Saint Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg, by Pope John XV in 993 is the first undoubted example of a papal canonization of a saint from outside Rome. (Some historians maintain that the first such canonization was that of Saint Swibert by Pope Leo III in 804.) Thereafter recourse was had with greater frequency to the judgement of the Popes; and in 1173 Pope Alexander III, after reprimanding certain bishops for having permitted veneration of a man who was far from being a saint, decreed: "You shall not therefore presume to honour him in the future; for, even if miracles were worked through him, it is not lawful for you to venerate him as a saint without the authority of the Roman Church."^[2]

The procedure initiated by the text of Alexander III, confirmed by a Bull of Pope Innocent III in the year 1200, issued on the occasion of the canonization of Saint Cunegunde, led to increasingly elaborate inquiries.

For information on the procedure in use before 1983, see Historical process of beatification and canonization.

[edit] Current procedure in the Catholic Church

Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister of 25 January 1983 and the norms issued by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 7 February 1983 for its implementation on diocesan level continued the work of simplification already initiated by Pope Paul VI.

The process begins at the diocesan level, with the bishop giving permission to open an investigation into the virtues of the person who is thought to have been a saint.^[3] This investigation may open no sooner than five years after the death of the person being investigated.^[4] However, the pope has the authority to waive this waiting period, as was done for Mother Teresa by Pope John Paul II ^[5] and for John Paul II himself by his immediate successor, Benedict XVI.^[6] When sufficient information has been gathered, the subject of the investigation is called "Servant of God", and the process is transferred to the Roman Curia—the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints—where it is assigned a postulator, whose task is to gather all information about the life of the Servant of God. When enough information has been gathered, the congregation will recommend to the pope that he make a proclamation of the Servant of God's heroic virtue, which entitles him or her to receive the title "Venerable". A Venerable has as of yet no feast day, but prayer cards may be printed to encourage the faithful to pray for a miracle wrought by his or her intercession.

The next step depends on whether the Venerable is a martyr. For a martyr, the pope has only to make a declaration of martyrdom, which then allows beatification, yielding the title "Blessed" and a feast day in the Blessed's home diocese and perhaps some other local calendars. If the Venerable was not a martyr, it must be proven that a miracle has taken place by his or her intercession. Today, these miracles are almost always miraculous cures, as these are the easiest to establish based on the Catholic Church's requirements for a "miracle." (The patient was sick, there was no known cure for the ailment, prayers were directed to the Venerable, the patient was cured, and doctors cannot explain it.)

To pass from Blessed to Saint, one (more) miracle is necessary. A saint's feast day is considered universal, and may be celebrated anywhere within the Roman Catholic Church, although it may or may not appear on the general calendar.

In the case of persons that common usage has called saints from "time immemorial" (in practice, since before 1500 or so), the Church may carry out a "confirmation of cultus", which is much simpler. For example, Saint Hermann Joseph had his veneration confirmed by Pope John Paul II.

In the case of the Eastern Catholic Churches, individual churches sui juris retain, in theory, the right to glorify (see next section on Eastern Orthodox practice) saints for their own jurisdictions, this has rarely happened in practice.

The canonizations of saints are dogmatic facts, that is, truths connected to revelation by historical necessity and which are to be held definitively, but which are not able to be declared as divinely revealed.^[7] Contrary to what is sometimes reported in the popular press^[8] , canonization is not an "ex cathedra" pronouncement of the Pope, and as such, is not an infallible statement according to Catholic Doctrine.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Eastern Orthodox Practice—Glorification

Tsar Alexis praying before the relics of Metropolitan Philip.

Within the Eastern Orthodox Church, the canonization—or, more properly from the Orthodox perspective, the "Glorification"—of saints differs from the western tradition in both theology and practice. The Glorification of saints is considered to be an act of God, not an act of the Church Militant. The official recognition of saints grows from the consensus of the church.

When an individual who has been sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit falls asleep in the Lord, God may or may not choose to glorify the individual through the manifestation of miracles. If He does, the devotion to the saint will normally grow from the "grass roots" level. Eventually, as the Holy Spirit manifests more miracles, the devotion to the individual grows. It should be noted that at this point there are no formal prayers by the Church to the individual. Rather, memorial services (Greek: Parastas, Russian: Panikhida) are served at the grave of the individual, praying for him or her—though an individual may pray privately to someone who has not yet been formally Glorified, and even commission Icons, which may be kept in the home but not displayed in the Temple (church building).

Eventually, the evidence of their saintliness will have grown to such a degree that a formal Service of Glorification will be scheduled. A Glorification may be performed by any Bishop within his Diocese, though such services are usually performed under the auspices of a Synod of Bishops. Often there will be a formal investigation to be sure that the individual is Orthodox in their faith, has lead a life worthy of emulation, and that the reports of miracles attributed to their intercessions are verifiable. The Glorification service does not "make" the individual a saint; rather, the Church is simply making a formal acknowledgement of what God has already manifested.

The incorrupt Relics of St. John (Maximovitch) at the time of his Glorification in San Francisco

Sometimes, one of the signs of sanctification is the condition of the Relics of the Saint. Some saints will be incorrupt, meaning that their remains do not decay in conditions when they normally would (natural mummification is not the same thing as incorruption). Sometimes even when the flesh does decay the bones themselves will manifest signs of sanctity. They may be honey colored or give off a sweet aroma. Some relics will exude myrrh. The absence of such manifestations is not necessarily a sign that the person is not a Saint.

In some traditions, an individual who is being considered for Glorification will be referred to as "Blessed," though there is no formal service of "beatification" in the Orthodox Church. It shouls be noted that some fully-glorified saints are also referred to as "Blessed," such as a Holy Fool for Christ (for instance, "Blessed St. Xenia") or saints who have been given this particual appellation (such as, "Blessed Augustine", "Blessed Jerome", and others). In such cases the title "Blessed" is in no way intended to imply that they are less than fully saints of the Church.

The particulars of the Service of Glorification may differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but normally it involves the formal inscribing of the individual's name into the Calendar of Saints (assigning a special day of the year on which their feast is to be celebrated), the chanting of a service in honor of the Saint (normally using specially commissioned hymns which are chanted for the first time at the Glorification) and the unveiling of an Icon of the new Saint. Before the Glorification itself there may be a special "Last Panikhida," a solemn Requiem at which, for the last time, the Church prays for the repose of their soul. After the Glorification, the Church will no longer serve a Panikhida for the repose of his soul, but instead a Paraklesis or Moleben will be served to implore their intercessions before the Throne of God.

Martyrs need no formal Glorification. The witness of their self-sacrifice is sufficient (provided their martyrdom was the result of their faith, and there being no evidence of un-Christian behaviour on their part at the time of their death). Not all saints are known, many will remain hidden by God until the Second Coming of Christ. For this reason, on the Sunday after Pentecost the Orthodox celebrate all the righteous souls together on All Saints Sunday. In some jurisdictions, the Sunday following All Saints Sunday will be a day of general commemoration of all saints (known and unknown) of the local church. For instance, All Saints of the Holy Mountain, All Saints of Russia, All Saints of America, etc.

St. Symeon the New Theologian writes: "The saints in each generation, joined to those who have gone before, and filled like them with light, become a golden chain, in which each saint is a separate link, united to the next by faith, works, and love. So in the One God they form a single chain which cannot quickly be broken."

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

André Vauchez, La sainteté en Occident aux derniers siècles du Moyen Âge (1198-1431), Rome, 1981 (BEFAR, 241) [Engl. transl. : Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages, Cambridge, 1987 and Ital. Transl. : La santità nel Medioevo, Bologne, 1989]