The History of Canonization

For many, even in the Church, the Catholic practice of beatifying and canonizing is an enigma. Why does the Church do it? How does the Church do it?  What are the implications of being beatified, and of the further step of canonization?



Early Church Martyrs


The early Church understood that only the Christian who followed Christ perfectly would go immediately into the heavenly Jerusalem. Others would enter the purifying fires of purgatory "to be made perfect," from which they would not depart until they had "paid the last penny" (Mt 5:26, 1 Cor 3:13, 15). Since perfection was conformity to Christ in His death, a process begun at baptism, the martyr (literally, witness) for Christ was seen to have achieved the goal. Thus, during the age of persecution (from Pentecost to 311 AD) esteem for those Christians who had been killed in hatred of the faith (in odium fidei) lead Christians to extol their example of heroic witness to Christ, to guard and preserve their relics (the trophies of victory over death), and to celebrate the anniversary of their birthday into eternal life. The Circular Letter of the Church of Smyrna on the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp (155 AD) illustrates this esteem perfectly.






Confessors of the Faith


This cultus* (religious veneration) could be of a single diocese, but as the fame of the person spread it could encompass several dioceses, and in the case of Mary, the apostles and other significant figures, be universal.  Although the records of early Church Councils shows occasional  interventions to correct abuses in the naming of saints and to establish criteria for their acclamation, the process continued to be a local one with some few examples of Popes declaring saints of universal veneration.

Canonical Process

The first canonical process seems to be that of Pope Urban II (1089-99), in the "Cause" of Nicholas of Trani. The Bishop of Trani was ordered to conduct a local investigation into his alleged sanctity and miracles, which then would be submitted to the Pope for judgment. This first "Cause" dragged on over several pontificates, and seems not to have been concluded favorably. It also seems to have occasioned developments in the legal procedures themselves. Callistus II (1119-24) required all causes to include a critical biography of the Servant of God. As often happens in the Church,  abuses brought about major developments in Church practice. In 1170 Pope Alexander III decreed that no one could be declared a saint without the permission of the Supreme Pontiff. This was precipitated by the acclamation as saint of a Swedish "martyr" who was killed while drunk, and thus could not be truly said to be a willing witness for Christ. This regulation was formally incorporated into Church law by Pope Gregory IX in 1234.

The centralization of the canonization process in Rome was an inevitable development of the Church's theological and canonical Tradition. While the acclamation of the faithful and the acceptance of the bishop is in most cases an adequate witness to the holiness of the person, it only provides a moral certainty, a reasonable credibility, that the person is in heaven. In order to give universal witness to the sanctity of someone a higher standard needed to be invoked, that of the charism of the infallibility of the Church. According to Catholic teaching the Church, the Mystical Christ, cannot err in matters of faith and morals (Jn 16:13). The practical exercise of this infallibility falls to the apostolic office, which in the name and by the authority of Christ the Head of the Church intends to bind the faithful in a matter of faith or morals. This can be done either by the college of bishops as a whole, as in a Council (Acts 15:28 15:28), or by the Successor of St. Peter (Lk 22:32, Acts 15:7-12). By the grace of the Holy Spirit Christ protects such judgments of universal import for the Church from error. The common opinion of theologians historically, therefore, is that papal Canonization is an exercise of the charism of infallibility, protecting the Church from raising an unworthy individual to the universal veneration of the faithful. As in the case of a dogmatic definition, the declaration of a saint inserts that person into the heart of the Church's life, into the central mystery of the faith, the Eucharist, and must by its nature be free from error.

Cause for Beatification/Cause for Canonization.


The second process, canonization, permitted universal veneration of the now Saint by the entire Church. The concluding stage of each was conducted in the form of a trial, with sides for or against. The office of the Promoter of the Faith or Devil's Advocate, who argued against the Servant of God, dates from this era.

The Processes have gone through several revisions and refinements over the centuries, including two recent ones, under Pope Paul VI in 1969 and under Pope John Paul II in 1983. Included in Pope Paul's reforms were the consolidation of the processes into a single Cause for Canonization. Notable in the reform of Pope John Paul II was the elimination of the adversarial role of the Devil's Advocate, though the office of the Promoter of the Faith remains to guard the best interests of the Church. Instead of a trial of the candidate the process is now the gathering and thorough review of all relevant historical and personal information that bears on the life and virtues of the Servant of God.

Also notable was the reduction of the time before a cause for canonization could be introduced. Prior to Pope John Paul II's reforms the introduction of a Cause had to wait 50 years. This longstanding rule was implemented to guard against fanaticism, to allow mere human enthusiasm to cool and become a stable and perduring fame of holiness. Unfortunately, with such a wait the witnesses for or against a Servant of God usually had themselves died. Many worthy but less notable causes languished for lack of reliable evidence. The reform of the waiting period was intended to encourage thorough documentation of a candidate's life, the gathering of testimonies while witnesses were still alive, and the collecting of all personal correspondance and other writings which might be unavailable later. This would permit an historical and theological analysis of the Servant of God's life and virtues that would ultimately be more valuable to discovering the truth than the fifty-year waiting period.

Finally, as Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congreagtion, has recently noted, the process is a meticulous one, that takes account of three vocies which must be in agreement —the Vox Populi or voice of the people (the sensus fidelium), the Vox Dei or voice of God (though the miracle), and the Vox Ecclesiae or voice of the Church's official judgment. Without these three concurring, n one can be beatified or canonized.

What it means to be a Blessed or a Saint.

Up until the beatification of a Servant of God Catholics must observe a strict rule of non cultus, meaning that while they may privately pray to and venerate an individual whom they believe to be in heaven there may not be any public acts of religious veneration. Thus, the rule which the Cause for Pope John Paul II had been so insistent upon prior to beatification - no display of Pope John Paul II's picture in places of worship, no hymns to him and no public prayer directly to him - conforms to the strict norms of the Church in this matter. In fact, the presence of a cultus before the approval of the Church is given can end the candidacy of a Servant of God.

With Beatification a number of marks of veneration can be given to a person. The most important one is that a feast day, with its proper Mass and Office (Liturgy of the Hours),  can be granted to particular dioceses and religious orders and congregations. For example, Blessed Takeri Tekawitha, the Lily of the Mohawks, is celebrated on the liturgical calendars of the U.S. and Canada, but could not be lawfully celebrated, for example, in Japan. St. Pio, while a Blessed, was celebrated by Franciscans and his home diocese of Manfredonia on his feast of 23 September. Other religious and diocesan communities would have needed the Indult (permission) of the Holy See to lawfully celebrate his feast day with public veneration. By analogy, beatification is somewhat akin to the practice of "local canonization" earlier in history, except that a bishop instead of "canonizing" someone himself manifests to the Holy Father the person's fame of holiness and his flock's desire to venerate the person. After sufficient investigation the Pope grants local veneration, that is, beatifies the individual. With beatification comes the restricted right to venerate the relics of the blessed, to have public prayers to him and to honor his images in places of worship, where this is granted by the Holy See.

Finally, the fame of holiness may suggest the fittingness of universal veneration for someone who is beatified. This is granted through canonization. The Holy Father confirms through the discernment of reason and the exercise of the Petrine charism that the person is in heaven and may be honored throughout the Church.


In using the term, but with specific theological meaning, the Church distinguishes between the forms of worship appropriate to the Trinity, Christ and the Blessed Sacrament (called latria, worship or adoration, in the strict sense), and the forms of veneration and honor appropriate to the Blessed Virgin, the angels and the saints — called hyperdulia (or the highest measure of veneration) in the case of Mary, and dulia (or simple veneration) in the case of the angels and other saints).

It is a principle of justice that we must honor, respect and show gratitude in proper measure to those who are part of God's plan for our natural and supernatural life. God commands it in the Fourth Commandment: honor thy father and thy mother. This command obliges due veneration and honor for our natural parents who gave us life, but also for those to whom we owe life in the supernatural order (1 Cor 4:14-16, Heb. 13:7). First among these is the Blessed Virgin Mary (Lk 1:48), whose yes to God initiated the Incarnation and Redemption. Next it belongs to those angelic spirits and human beings who served as God's messengers and accomplished His will, from the holy prophets and kings to St. Joseph and John the Baptist, the apostles, the evangelists, the Fathers and the great and holy men and women of all ages. Without their cooperation with God's Plan, we would not have the faith today. That faithfulness (in the Christian era their imitation of Christ) is the foundation of our individual and collective gratitude for the working of God's grace in their lives and thus the basis of their cultus (in the way understood by the Church).