Beatification
In Catholicism, beatification is a recognition accorded by the church of a dead person's accession to Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name (intercession of saints).Canonically, one miracle must be proven to have taken place through the intercession of the person to be beatified, though this requirement is waived for those who died a martyr.
A person who is beatified is given the title "Blessed."
Beatification is considered a step towards canonization (being declared a saint).
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2 Beatification and Canonization |
(Public domain text from The Catholic Encyclopaedia of 1914))
This text should be understood as representing an official Roman Catholic view of this subject as it stood before the Second Vatican Council.
According to some writers the origin of beatification and canonization in the Catholic Church is the ancient pagan apotheosis. Benedict XIV examines and refutes this view. He shows that both the grounds for and meaning of apotheosis differ markedly from Christian beatification. Apotheosis often came from the statement of a single person that while the body of the new god was being burned, an eagle (for emperors) or a peacock (Juno's sacred bird) (for imperial consorts) was seen to carry heavenward the spirit of the departed (Livy, Hist. Rome, I, xvi; Herodian, Hist. Rome, IV, ii, iii). Apotheosis was awarded to most members of the imperial family, with no regard to virtues or remarkable achievements. Also, apotheosis was often given to escape popular hatred by distracting attention from the cruelty of imperial rulers. Romulus was deified by the senators who slew him; Poppaea owed her apotheosis to her imperial paramour, Nero, after he had kicked her to death; Geta had the honour from his brother Caracalla, who had got rid of him through jealousy.
Canonization in the Catholic Church is quite another thing. The Catholic Church canonizes or beatifies only those whose lives have been marked by heroic virtue, and only after this has been proved by common repute for sanctity and by conclusive arguments. Finally, the Church sees saints as nothing more than friends and servants of God whose holy lives have made them worthy of His special love. She does not pretend to make gods.
The origin of canonization and beatification comes from the Catholic doctrine of the worship (cultus), invocation, and intercession of the saints. As was taught by St. Augustine, Catholics honour God in His saints as the loving distributor of supernatural gifts. Scholastic theologians have defined three types of worship. Strict adoration, or latria, is given to God alone. Honor and humble reverence, or doulia, is given to the saints. A higher form of doulia, hyperdoulia, is given to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church erects altars to God alone, though in honour and memory of the saints and martyrs. There is Scriptural warrant for such worship in the passages where we are bidden to venerate angels (Ex., xxiii, 20 sqq.; Jos., v, 13 sqq.; Dan., viii, 15 sqq.; x, 4 sqq.; Luke, ii, 9 sqq.; Acts, xii, 7 sqq.; Apoc., v, 11 sqq.; vii, 1 sqq.; Matt., xviii, 10; etc.), whom holy men are not unlike, as sharers of the friendship of God.
The basis of prayer to saints is simply that, as believers can help each other with prayers (intercessory prayer) while living, so they may pray for the living after their deaths. Thus, praying to St. Paul is a prayer asking Paul, alive in heaven, to pray for the believer. As Paul's holiness is attested in his beatification and canonization, his prayers will be well received.
A different service is provided by the beatified in the celebrations of their feasts. In the celebrations of feasts, believers celebrate the holiness of the blessed and are reminded of their good examples.
It follows naturally that for the public veneration of saints the ecclesiastical authority of the pastors and rulers of the Church was constantly required. The Church did not grant liturgical honours indiscriminately to all those who had died for the Faith.
The first practice of beatification and canonization was directed toward martyrs. The decision as to the martyr having died for his faith in Christ, and the consequent permission of worship, lay originally with the bishop of the place in which he had borne his testimony. The bishop inquired into the motive of his death and, finding he had died a martyr, sent his name with an account of his martyrdom to other churches, especially neighboring ones, so that, in event of approval by their respective bishops, the cultus of the martyr might extend to their churches also.
As far as the word "beatification" is concerned, it may probably not antedate the fourth century, when it was introduced in the Church at Carthage; but the fact is certainly older. In the earlier ages this worship was entirely local and passed from one church to another with the permission of their bishops. This is clear from the fact that early Christian cemetaries contain paintings only of local martyrs.
The worship of confessors -- of those, that is, who died peacefully after a life of heroic virtue -- is not as ancient as that of the martyrs. In the beginning "confessor" denoted only those who confessed Christ when examined in the presence of enemies of the Faith, or, as Benedict XIV explains, to those who died peacefully after having confessed the Faith before tyrants or other enemies of the Christian religion, and undergone tortures or suffered other punishments of whatever nature. Later on, confessors were those who had lived a holy life and closed it by a holy death in Christian peace. It is in this sense that we now treat of the worship paid to confessors. It was in the fourth century that confessors were first given public ecclesiastical honour, though occasionally praised in ardent terms by earlier Fathers. Still Bellarmine thinks it uncertain when confessors began to be objects of cultus, and asserts that it was not before 800, when the feasts of Sts. Martin and Remigius are found in the catalogue of feasts drawn up by the Council of Mainz. However, in the East, for example, Hilarion, Ephrem, and other confessors were publicly honoured in the fourth century; and, in the West, St. Martin of Tours, and St. Hilary of Poitiers were objects of a like cultus in the same century.
Later on, the names of confessors were inserted in the diptychs, and due reverence was paid them. Their tombs were honoured with the same title (martyria) as those of the martyrs. It remained true, however, that one could not venerate confessors without permission of the ecclesiastical authority.
Canonization is a decree regarding the public ecclesiastical veneration of an individual. Such veneration, however, may be permissive or preceptive, may be universal or local. If the decree contains a precept, and is universal in the sense that it binds the whole Church, it is a decree of canonization; if it only permits such worship, or if it binds under precept, but not with regard to the whole Church, it is a decree of beatification.
As late as Alexander III, bishops could allow public veneration to be paid to saints, and such episcopal decrees were not merely permissive, but preceptive. Such decrees, however, could not prescribe universal honour; the effect of an episcopal act of this kind was equivalent to the modern beatification. In such cases there was, properly speaking, no canonization, unless with the consent of the pope extending the cultus in question, implicitly or explicitly, and imposing it by way of precept upon the Church at large. In the more recent discipline beautification is a permission to venerate, granted by the Roman Pontiffs with restriction to certain places and to certain liturgical exercises.
Beatification, in the present discipline, differs from canonization in this: that the former implies (1) a locally restricted, not a universal, permission to venerate, which is (2) a mere permission, and no precept; while canonization implies a universal precept.
Canonization, therefore, creates a cultus which is universal and obligatory. But in imposing this obligation the pope may use one of two methods, formal canonization and equivalent canonization. Formal canonization occurs when the cultus is prescribed as an explicit and definitive decision, after due judicial process and the ceremonies usual in such cases. Equivalent canonization occurs when the pope, omitting the judicial process and the ceremonies, orders some servant of God to be venerated in the Universal Church; this happens when such a saint has been from a remote period the object of veneration, when his heroic virtues (or martyrdom) and miracles are related by reliable historians, and the fame of his miraculous intercession is uninterrupted. Many examples of such canonization are to be found in Pope Benedict XIV: Saints Romuald, Norbert, Bruno, Raymond Nonnatus, Queen Margaret of Scotland, King Stephen of Hungary, Wenceslaus Duke of Bohemia, and Pope Gregory VII. Such instances afford a good proof of the caution with which the Roman Church proceeds in these equivalent canonizations. St. Romuald was not canonized until 439 years after his death, and the honour came to him sooner than to any of the others mentioned. We may add that this equivalent canonization consists usually in the ordering of an Office and Mass by the pope in honour of the saint, and that mere enrollment in the Roman Martyrology does not by any means imply this honour.
Is the pope infallible in issuing a decree of canonization? Most theologians say yes. St. Thomas says: "Since the honour we pay the saints is in a certain sense a profession of faith, i.e., a belief in the glory of the Saints [quâ sanctorum gloriam credimus] we must piously believe that in this matter also the judgment of the Church is not liable to error." This infallibility, however according to the holy doctor, is only a point of pious belief.
This general agreement of theologians as to papal infallibility in canonization must not be extended to beatification, not withstanding the contrary teaching of the canonical commentary known as "Glossa." Canonists and theologians generally deny the infallible character of decrees of beatification, whether formal or equivalent, since it is always a permission, not a command; while it leads to canonization, it is not the last step. Moreover, in most cases, the cultus permitted by beatification, is restricted to a determined province, city, or religious body.
We must first distinguish causes of martyrs from those of confessors or virgins, since the method followed is not entirely identical in both cases.
A vice-postulator is appointed by the postulator-general of the cause, to promote all the judicial inquiries necessary in places outside of Rome. Such inquiries are instituted by the local episcopal authority.
Inquiries are prepared by the ordinary episcopal authority. There are three types: a) inquiries about the piety and miracles in particular instances, together with witnesses; b) the local bishop determines that there has been no public veneration prior to beatification; c) inquiries are made into the writings left by the subject.
The results of all these inquiries are sent to Rome, to the Congregation of Rites, and they are opened, translated if necessary into Italian, a public copy is made, and a cardinal is deputed by the pope as relator or ponens of the cause, for all which steps rescripts of the congregation, confirmed by the pope, must be obtained.
The writings of the servant of God are next revised by theologians appointed by the cardinal relator himself, authorized to so act by a special rescript. Meantime, the advocate and the procurator of the cause, chosen by the postulator-general, have prepared all the documents that concern the introduction of the cause. These consist of (a) a summary of the informative processes, (b) an information, (c) answers to the observations or difficulties of the promotor of the Faith sent by him to the Postulator.
This collection of documents (positio) is printed and distributed to the cardinals of the Congregation of Rites forty days before the date assigned for their discussion.
If nothing contrary to faith and morals is found in the writings of the servant of God, a decree is published, authorizing further action, i. e. the discussion of the matter (dubium) of appointment or non-appointment of a commission for the introduction of the cause.
If in this meeting the cardinals favour the appointment of the aforesaid commission, a decree to that effect is promulgated, and the pope signs it, but, according to custom, with his baptismal name, not with that of his pontificate. Thenceforward the servant of God is judicially given the title of Venerable.
All necessary preparation is made for the discussion of the question (dubium): Is there evidence that the venerable servant of God practiced virtues both theological and cardinal, and in an heroic degree? (An constet de virtutibus Ven. servi Dei, tam theologicis quam cardinalibus, in heroico gradu?) In the causes of confessors this step is of primary importance. The point is discussed in three meetings or congregations called respectively, ante-preparatory, preparatory, and general.
When the Congregation of Rites in the above described general meeting has decided favourably, the pope is asked is asked to sign the solemn decree which asserts that there exists evidence of the heroic virtues of the servant of God. This decree is not published until after the pope, having commended the matter to God in prayer, gives a final consent and confirms by his supreme sentence the decision of the congregation.
The miracles now remain to be proved, of which two of the first class are required in case the practice of virtues in the heroic degree has been proved, in both ordinary and Apostolic inquiries or processes by eyewitnesses -- three, if the eyewitnesses were found only in the ordinary processes; four, if the virtues were proven only by hearsay witnesses. If the miracles have been sufficiently proven in the Apostolic processes (super virtutibus) already declared valid, steps are taken at once to prepare the documents with regard to miracles (super miraculis). If in the Apostolic processes only general mention has been made of the miracles, new Apostolic processes must be opened, and conducted after the manner already described for proving the practice of virtues in an heroic degree.
When the miracles have been proved, another meeting of the Congregation of Rites is held in which it is debated once, and only once, whether or not, given the approbation of the virtues and miracles, it is safe to proceed with the solemnities of beatification. If a majority of the consultors be favourable, a decree to this effect is issued by the pope, and at the time appointed by him the solemn beatification of the servant of God takes place in the Vatican Basilica, on which occasion a pontifical Brief is issued permitting the public cultus and veneration of the beatified person now known as Blessed (Beatus).
No remissorial letters are granted for Apostolic processes concerning the general reputation for martyrdom and miracles; the letters sent call for an immediate investigation into the fact of martyrdom, its motive, and the particular miracles alleged. There is no longer a discussion of the general reputation for martyrdom or miracles.
The miracles are not discussed, as formerly, in separate meetings, but in the same meetings that deal with the fact and the motive of the martyrdom.
The miracles (signa) required are not those of the first class; those of the second class suffice, nor is their number determined. On some occasions the decision as to miracles has been entirely dispensed with.
The final stage is a discussion of the security (super tuto) with which advance to beatification may be made, as in the case of confessors; the solemn beatification then follows.
This procedure is followed in all cases of formal beatification in causes of both confessors and martyrs proposed in the ordinary way (per viam non cultus). Those proposed as coming under the definition of cases excepted (casus excepti) by Urban VIII are treated in another way. In such cases it must be proved that an immemorial public veneration (at least for 100 years before the promulgation, in 1640, of the decrees of Urban VIII) has been paid the servant of God, whether confessor or martyr. Such cause is proposed under the title of "confirmation of veneration" (de confirmatione cultus); it is dealt with in an ordinary meeting of the Congregation of Rites. When the difficulties of the promotor of the Faith have been satisfied, a pontifical decree confirming the cultus is promulgated. Beatification of this kind is called equivalent or virtual.
List of beatified people
Beatification and Canonization
Historical development of the process
For several centuries the bishops, in some places only the primates and patriarchs, could grant martyrs and confessors public ecclesiastical honour; such honour, however, was always decreed only for the local territory over which the grantors held jurisdiction. Still, it was only the Bishop of Rome's (Pope's) acceptance of the cultus that made it universal, since he alone could permit or command in the Universal Church. Abuses, however, crept into this form of discipline, due to popular fervour and the carelessness of some bishops in inquiring into the lives of those whom they permitted to be honoured as saints. Towards the close of the eleventh century the popes found it necessary to restrict episcopal authority on this point and decreed that the virtues and miracles of persons proposed for public veneration should be examined in councils. Even after these decrees, "some, following the ways of the pagans and deceived by the fraud of the evil one, venerated as a saint a man who had been killed while intoxicated". Pope Alexander III (1159 - 1181) prohibited popular veneration in these words: "For the future you will not presume to pay him reverence, as, even though miracles were worked through him, it would not allow you to revere him as a saint unless with the authority of the Roman Church." Thus, the pope for the first time reserved the right of beatification. Some bishops did not obey it in as far as it regarded beatification (which right they had certainly possessed hitherto), so Urban VII published, in 1634, a Bull which put an end to all discussion by reserving to the Holy See exclusively not only its immemorial right of canonization, but also that of beatification.Beatification contrasted with canonization
The question of papal infallability
Present procedure in beatification and canonization
In order to secure beatification (the most important and difficult step in the process of canonization) the regular procedure is as follows:
The causes of martyrs are conducted in the same way as those of confessors as far as the informative processes and those de non cultu and ad introductionem causae are concerned. But when once the commission of introduction has been appointed they advance much more rapidly.