Canonisation in the Roman Catholic Church is a solemn act by which the pope publicly proclaims the sanctity of a servant of God, whom he thereupon proposes to the veneration and cultus of the universal church. As a rule it is the final act of a lengthy juridical process, of which a former stage has been completed by the decree of Beatification (q.v.). To obtain this preliminary honour, the reputed saint must pass a strict examination of his virtues, and give proof of his performance of miracles. The decree of beatification declares him to be among the citizens of heaven, and accords him the title of Blessed, but the cultus, including the celebration of his feast-day, proper offices in missal and breviary, and the public veneration of his image or relics, is permitted only in a specified country, diocese, or religious order. Canonisation, which follows only on evidence being produced of fresh miracles performed by the Beatus, gives him the full title of Saint, and enjoins his cultus upon the whole church.
This formal grant of a heavenly rank and dignity to a deceased person has an analogy with the Apotheosis (q.v.) of ancient Rome. In the primitive Christian church the germs of the modern custom are to be found in the honours publicly paid to the martyrs. Altars were set up at their tombs, the anniversaries of their triumphs were celebrated with religious rites, and their names commemorated in the liturgy. Similar honours came shortly to be bestowed on the confessors or those who suffered imprisonment or pains short of actual martyrdom for their faith; and finally, when the days of persecution were over, the status of a confessor and the title of saint were extended to all who died with a reputation for eminent sanctity or for the working of miracles, which was taken as an almost infallible token of sanctity. For many centuries the appellation of saint was given to individuals, as it were, by popular acclamation. Martyrologies, menologies, calendars, and the like, were composed, which gave with more or less discernment and authority the names of the generally acknowledged saints, while it would fall to the bishop to decide to whom he should assign a feast-day or ritual commemoration within the limits of his own jurisdiction. Grave mistakes were admittedly made. Thus, St Martin of Tours is said to have miraculously discovered that a pretended martyr much honoured in his diocese, and over whose tomb the bishop had erected an altar, was no other than a robber executed for his crimes. Legendary 'acts,' migrating from country to country, were a frequent source of confusion, a curious instance of which may be found in the story of Barlaam and Josaphat (q.v.), which has procured a place in the Roman martyrology for the pious memory of Buddha.
It was not until a comparatively late period that a regular form of procedure equivalent to canonisation was adopted. Application had, indeed, in early times been made to Rome for sanction of the cultus of some holy person, as in the case of Vigilius, Bishop of Trent, said to have been martyred in the first decade of the 5th century. But the earliest acknowledged instance of a solemn decree of canonisation is that of Udalric or Ulric, Bishop of Augsburg, declared to be a saint by John XVI. in 993 A.D. A little short of two hundred years later (1170 A.D.) Alexander III. reserved the right of canonising exclusively to the Holy See, and made it unlawful to render public cultus to any person, however celebrated for miracles, without the sanction of the pope. There had apparently been some ground for the decree; for in the pontificate of this same Alexander, the monks of a certain convent had publicly venerated as a saint a member of their community, who, in a fit of drunkenness, had been beaten to death by his religious brethren. The new rules were, however, not strictly observed, and abuses continued. Urban VIII., in two constitutions, 1625 and 1634, made more stringent regulations, and laid down the procedure in cases of canonisation, which, with slight modifications, is in force at the present day. It was strictly forbidden to give any public honour whatever to a reputed saint, to exhibit his picture in church, or even to apply to such a one the title of 'saint,' without explanation. The pope, however, declared that he did not thereby intend to prejudice the case of those who had received immemorial cultus through the general consent of the church, or whose cultus had obtained any special sanction from his predecessors. The exception is important.
Canonisation, without a special dispensation, cannot be decreed until fifty years have elapsed since the decease of the claimant for the honour. The process which precedes the decree observes all the forms of a suit at law. Two things must be established by competent witnesses—eminent virtues, technically called virtues in an 'heroic degree,' and the performance of miracles. The virtues, however heroic, will not be enough without miracles, and the miracles, however numerous and extraordinary, will not suffice without heroic virtue. In the case of the martyrs only, the requirements under the head of virtue are naturally less rigorous, all that is needed being proof of certain dispositions regarded as a proper preparation for true martyrdom. The first step is taken in the country or diocese of the servant of God by the ordinary, who sets up his court and examines witnesses, who speak, not now of virtues in particular, nor in proof of definite miracles, but of the existence of fama, or a reputation for sanctity. The bishop, or his vicar-general with assessors, sits as judge. The postulator selects and summons the witnesses in favour of the cause. An official corresponding to the promotor fidei, or the 'devil's advocate,' at Rome, watches the case to see that all the forms of the law are strictly observed, and a notary takes down the evidence, which, with all the documents 'compulsed' or put into court, is transmitted to Rome, to be there laid before the Congregation of Rites, whose business it is to sift and examine the evidence; and finally, but not until the expiration of ten years, report to the pope.
It is not necessary to describe the several stages through which the process is conducted. If the promoter of the faith is satisfied, the pope takes the cause into his own hands, issues remissorial letters to a committee of the Congregation of Rites, which will then have to examine the virtues and miracles specifically. The cause is now said to be 'introduced.' So far the juridical decision is equivalent to the finding of a grand jury that there is ground for sending the case to trial. The introduction of the cause—i.e. of the pontifical process, entitles the beatificandus to be called Venerable. Very many have attained to this point in the proceedings, and no further. The legal expenses are considerable; and apart from the merits of the candidate, the motive power, such as the patronage of princes or the influence of a powerful religious order, is often wanting. If, however, the candidate passes successfully through the ordeal of the pontifical process, a decree of beatification is pronounced, and a festival-day, with proper office and the annexed privileges, is conceded to a specified locality or community, beyond which the cultus must on no account be extended. Before the further process of canonisation can be instituted, as has been said, the beatus must have worked a certain number of miracles since his beatification, and if these are such as can be brought into court, the case once more passes through the hands of several congregations, the last of which is held in presence of the pope, when the final decree is drawn up and agreed upon.
The ceremony of canonisation takes place in the Vatican basilica, and is one of the most solemn and imposing of all papal functions. It opens with a grand procession of pope and cardinals, with the image of the saint borne on banners. The pope then takes his seat on the throne, surrounded with his court. The postulator of the cause, generally a person of high rank, is led to the steps of the throne, and there petitions that the blessed servant of God may be enrolled in the catalogue of saints. The pope replies that so grave a matter requires light and counsel from heaven. The litanies are thereupon chanted, and the demand of the postulator renewed. Again the pope requires to ascertain the will of God by prayer, and the Veni Creator is sung. After a third request the pope announces that the beatus is enrolled in the canon of the saints, and that his memory is to be celebrated on a certain day throughout the church. Other ceremonies follow, with a high mass, at which the pope officiates, and at which the several cardinals concerned present mystical offerings, ornamented candles of wax, turtle doves and other live birds in gold and silver cages, costly flagons of wine, &c.
It must not be supposed that these lengthy juridical proceedings and ceremonies take place on all occasions of papal canonisation. For, besides what is called the formal canonisation, there is another process called equipollent or equivalent canonisation. This is founded upon the before-mentioned exceptions of Urban VIII.—i.e. upon proof of immemorial cultus, or of some papal sanction given to cultus prior to the date of Urban's constitution. In such cases the pope may at once pronounce the decree. Equipollent beatification is a summary process of a similar kind. The pope accepts the results of the ordinary process, and at once decrees beatification.
Equipollent beatification and the earlier stages of the process may be illustrated by the recent case of the English martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries, which possesses some interest as being the first instance of the introduction of a cause relating to any English-speaking person since the Reformation. On June 19, 1874, Cardinal Manning instituted the ordinary process in due form. He delegated three judges, who held their sessions at the London Oratory. Father Morris, S.J., acted as postulator, and summoned Bishop Hedley, Father Stevenson, the Duke of Norfolk, and others, as historical experts, to give evidence on oath in answer to written interrogatories. They testified to the cause of martyrdom, the character of the martyrs, and the tradition of miracles wrought at their intercession or by touch of their relics. There is no cross-examination, nor are unfavourable witnesses called. The proceedings, with extracts from books and MSS., were carried to Rome, where for more than the requisite ten years the case remained to be slowly digested by the officials of the Congregation of Rites. The promoter of the faith made the usual objections, found that such a one had died a natural death in prison, or that religion could not be said to be the cause of the execution of another. Meanwhile attempts were made by the postulators to escape from the difficulties of the tedious process before them, by finding ground upon which the pope could by indult grant equipollent beatification. Such a ground was at last discovered in the pictures of the martyrs under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, painted on the walls of the English College at Rome in 1582, by sanction of Gregory XIII., and thereby giving proof of papal authority for public veneration of these martyrs. The 'devil's advocate' was satisfied, and accordingly the fifty-four martyrs here represented were declared Blessed in a decree issued December 29, 1886. The cause of 261 was 'introduced,' and these are therefore entitled to be styled Venerable Servants of God. Against thirty-three whose names were sent up to Rome by Cardinal Manning, including Henry Garnet the Jesuit, the objections of the promoter so far prevailed that their cause was deferred.
The case affords a curious illustration of the weak points in the procedure. The list of these English martyrs transmitted to Rome in the first instance followed that of the cautious Bishop Challoner, and therefore excluded many doubtful claimants who had appeared in some earlier and less authentic catalogues. Little was known, for example, of the priest Plumtree, who acted as chaplain for the northern earls in the rising of 1569, and was hanged as a rebel at Durham. Few writers ventured to reckon him as a martyr for religion. But his execution was represented in Circiniani's pictures, and therefore, notwithstanding the lack of historical evidence or even of continued tradition, he becomes suddenly, on the strength of this papal privilege, without proof of miracles, promoted per saltum to the full honours of beatification.
It remains to be said that Roman theologians commonly hold the decree of canonisation to be infallible, on the ground that otherwise the church might hold up to the veneration and imitation of the faithful a lost soul. It is said to be more doubtful if beatification is also infallible, for although the decree publicly declares the deceased person to be among the blessed, his cultus is permitted rather than enjoined, and that not for the universal church, but, as has been said, for a limited district or community.
The chief authority on canonisation is the great work of Cardinal Lambertini, afterwards Benedict XIV., whose three folio volumes, De Beatificatione et Canonizatione Sanctorum, are a storehouse of information not only on the legal procedure, but on the phenomena of ecstasies, visions, raptures, bilocations, and the miraculous healing of the sick and raising of the dead. A good summary of the subject may be read in Ferraris' Prompta Bibliotheca (article Cultus
Sanctorum). A portion of Benedict XIV.'s treatise relating to Heroic Virtue was translated in 1850 into English under that title by the Fathers of the Oratory. See SAINT.