Saints

The development of canonization

The need for high degree of discernment became more and more obvious. In 1247 it was determined that Popes were the only ones to make the final decision. The process became increasingly tougher and the standard method of investigation under these reforms and procedures for canonization took on a form of legal trial between the petitioners represented by an official procurator and the “promoter of the faith” or better known as the devil advocate. Most trials took months even years. In the case of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, there were 371 witnesses that testified. Saints were remembered invoked, prayed to wherever Christians assembled for worship. Their names were read from the honor roll of the blessed. They started putting their names in a canon or a list. In the 17th Century the church felt it necessary to establish a canon for the entire church. Luther rejected the mediation of the saints. He felt that saints had no more grace than other Christians did since Christians are justified by faith alone. He argued that we could not be saved through our own merits much less those received by prayer from saints. But he also wrote that there are certainly no more useful books for Christians than the “Lives of the Saints”. Rome’s response was double edged, on one hand, the council Trent in1545 vigorously reaffirmed the Saints and their relics. At the same time the church reformed, making even more of a stringent process for the causes of saints. They wrote strictly forbidding any form of public veneration until that person was beautified or canonized by solemn papal declaration, except for saints from early times who were justified on strengths of early fathers.

Continue to next page for more information on how saints are canonized.