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MEDIEVAL-RELIGION  December 2001

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION December 2001

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Subject:

Re: Pius X

From:

Tom Izbicki <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 6 Dec 2001 10:44:28 -0500

Content-Type:

text/plain

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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Two miracles are listed in the 1951 decree of the appropriate curial
congregation.  It can be found as Document I in G. Zorzetto , Pio X (Udine,
1997), pp. 117-19.
Tom Izbicki

At 09:13 AM 12/6/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>The online version is from the 1908 edition, published in Pius' lifetime.
>Tom Izbicki
>
>At 09:05 PM 12/5/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>
>>I suspect that if you look in the on-line Catholic
>>Encyclopedia, the case of Pius X will be spelled out.
>>These days usually medically unexplained cures after
>>prayers to the saintly candidate qualify as miracles.
>>Nothing like the colorful days of yore....
>>MG
>>--- Dennis Martin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
>> > religion and culture
>> >
>> > Miracles are not required for canonization of
>> > martyrs, but evidence that the death was truly
>> > martyrdom rather than the victim of political
>> > violence etc. has to be provided via historical
>> > research.  In the case of English Catholic martyrs,
>> > the government line was that they were political
>> > traitors; the legislation making certain acts of
>> > Catholic religious cult or belief treasonous crimes
>> > does make it fairly clear that the martyrs under
>> > Elizabeth and Henry VIII were dying for religious
>> > beliefs. They always insisted that they could accept
>> > Elizabeth or Henry as their rightful sovereign but
>> > could not accept the Elizabethan settlement which
>> > made the church in England a state church or, in the
>> > case of the martyrs prior to the Elizabethan
>> > settlement, could not accept the preamble to the Act
>> > of Succession and Act of Supremacy, which denied the
>> > authority of the bishop of Rome over the church in
>> > England.  The excommunication of Elizbeth by Pius V
>> > complicated things even more.
>> >
>> > Most of the English martyrs were beatified in the
>> > 1880s on the basis of existing cult, not on the
>> > basis of martyrdom, because, as I've mentioned
>> > before, of fears of inciting anti-Catholicism in
>> > western European governments.  This leads to the
>> > next point: most of the beatifications in the 19thc
>> > were in fact on the basis of recognition of
>> > long-standing cult.  When Urban VIII forbade in the
>> > 1640s public liturgical veneration for anyone whose
>> > case had not been investigated via the Congregation
>> > of the Rites (finally making stick what popes since
>> > Alexander III had attempted to make standard,
>> > namely, a uniform Roman investigation before
>> > elevation to liturgical veneration) and when
>> > Benedict XIV worked out in detail the procedures to
>> > be followed in such investigations, they exempted
>> > from the historical, canonical investigation process
>> > (interviewing witnesses etc. regarding a life of
>> > heroic virtue, examining alleged miracles based on
>> > seven criteria of empirical scientific evidence)
>> > saints who were already long dead in 1640 and for
>> > whom one could demonstrate (again by historical
>> > investigation) a long-standing cultus prior to the
>> > 1640s cutoff point but who had not at that point yet
>> > been accorded universal liturgical veneration.  The
>> > simple reason for this was that one could not
>> > subject such cases to the same sort of witness
>> > interrogation and investigation that one could
>> > subject people who died at or after the 1640s.  Nor
>> > could one subject claims for miracles worked by such
>> > long-dead saints long ago to the same investigation
>> > that one could subject recently occurring miracles.
>> > Hence at least beatification (carrying with it
>> > official public liturgical veneration in a single
>> > diocese or within a single religious order,
>> > sometimes in several dioceses, but not universally)
>> > could be approved if it could be shown that people
>> > had venerated this person for a long time in a
>> > particular locality without the rigorous procedrues
>> > which had not yet existed.
>> >
>> > But proceeding to canonization (universal liturgical
>> > veneration) still would not take place without at
>> > least 2 more recent (hence capable of rigorous
>> > investigation) miracles.  Hence a lot of these 19thc
>> > beatifications on basis of longstanding cult never
>> > moved beyond that stage because no new miracles
>> > either were alleged or, if alleged, passed scrutiny
>> > (Benedict XIV's rules for investigating miracles are
>> > extremely rigorous).
>> >
>> > In the case of the English martyrs, after
>> > beatification on the basis of cultus existing.,
>> > e.g., at Douai among the English Catholic exile
>> > community from the 16thc onward in the 1880s,
>> > historical investigation of their martyr status was
>> > carried out in the 1960s, resulting in their
>> > canonizations in 1970.  The report of the
>> > investigation of martyrdom is very interesting,
>> > including among other documentation, the expense
>> > report submitted by the executioner for one of the
>> > executions.  See Archdiocese of Westminster, Cause
>> > of the Canonization of Blessed Martyrs John
>> > Houghton, Robert Lawrence, Augustine Webster,
>> > Richard Reynolds, John Stone, Cuthbert Mayne, John
>> > Paine, Edmund Campion, Alexander Briant, Ralph
>> > Sherwin, and Luke Kirby, put to Death in England in
>> > Defence of the Catholic Faith (1535-1582), Official
>> > Presentation of Documents on Martyrdom and Cult,
>> > Sacred Congregation of Rites, Historical Section,
>> > vol. 148 (Vatican City: Vatican Polygott Press,
>> > 1968).
>> >
>> > The reforms of 1983 reduced the number of miracles
>> > for beatification and canonization of non-martyrs to
>> > one each rather than the two (total of four)
>> > required under Urban VIII/Benedict XIV.
>> >
>> > Thus, while it is possible for a non-martyr to be
>> > beatified without any miracles being proven, no
>> > non-martyr is to be canonized without at least one
>> > miracle.  Even in the case of beatifications on the
>> > basis of existing cult, of course normally many
>> > miracles would have been reported, otherwise, no
>> > local cult is likely to have emerged.  But in those
>> > cases, the alleged miracles would not have been
>> > investigated according to Benedict XIV's criteria.
>> >
>> > In all these cases we are talking about miracles
>> > performed after death, since, it is possible for a
>> > person to perform a miracle during his lifetime yet
>> > before death to apostasize, given free wil.
>> > Declaring someone a saint is a declaration that this
>> > person is truly present in heaven (many others are
>> > present in heaven but their presence is not clearly
>> > known to those on earth) enjoying the beatific
>> > vision, enjoying the presence of God who is utterly
>> > holy, hence, they would be holy themselves (sancti),
>> > since nothing unholy can abide God's presence.
>> >
>> > Martyrs are exempt from the requirement altogether
>> > because the point of miracles is to demonstrate that
>> > the person is truly in God's presence in heaven and
>> > capable of acting as an intercessor with God. One
>> > may have lived a very holy life up to the point of
>> > death and at the last moment, turn away from God.
>> > Two ways of being sure that someone did not turn
>> > away from God at the last moment (since no human
>> > being can be sure what is going on in a dying
>> > person's heart) are (1) miracles performed by
>> > intercession in heaven after the person's death and
>> > (2) martyrdom.  A martyr clearly has remained
>> > faithful to God up to and into death, since he not
>> > only says he's wililng to die for his faith but he
>> > actually goes ahead and does, acts out, his belief.
>> > That's as close as observers can get to seeing into
>> > his heart at the point of death.  Hence from the
>> > earliest martyrs onward, Christians were convinced
>> > that someone who truly died a martyr would
>> > immediately enter God's presence.  However part of
>> > the Christian understanding of martyrdom was that
>> > one does not seek out martyrdom but lets it come to
>> > one.  Polycarp, for instance (the oldest surviving
>> > detailed martyrdom account, from about AD 165)
>> > initially fled to the country but when the police
>> > came after him, did not resist.  Polycarp's story
>> > became exemplary (and includes all the elements of
>> > the cult of saints, relics etc.).  Moreover, church
>> > leaders like Origen and others denounced those who
>> > deliberately sought out martyrdom.   (There's a very
>> > practical reason invovled here: someone who
>> > deliberately seeks to become a martyr probably is
>> > operating out of pride and, in the first place, is
>> > more likely to get cold feet and apostasize, causing
>> > harm to himself and scandal to everyone else, and,
>> > second, if operating out of pride, is sinning.)
>> > True martyrs are those who do not seek it out but
>> > who don't flinch when it comes to them.  Robert Bold
>> > got it right in _A Man for All Seasons_ when he has
>> > Thomas More say to his daughter Margaret: (I'm
>> > paraphrasing, Bolt's rhetoric is far better): we
>> > have to use our wits to do everything we can to
>> > avoid martyrdom, that's what God gave us brains for;
>> > if there's a way I can swear the oath I must swear
>> > it and you, Margaret must do the same; but if it
>> > comes to it that there's no way out that does not
>> > sinning, then we must stand to our tackle, "if we
>> > have the spittle for it" (that much at least, I
>> > think is verbatim).  He had asked Margaret, who, in
>> > Bolt's poetic license, has learned of the act of
>> > Parliament before he had, what the precise wording
>> > of the oath was; she asked, what does the wording
>> > matter, we can't take it.  At that point he tells
>> > her that the wording matters greatly; something
>> > similar occurs in the scene where his family visits
>> > him in the tower and he says that if the government
>> > opened a tiny crack he'd fly through it like a bird
>> > but if it comes to it, he believed he could stand up
>> > to death like a man, if he knew that his family
>> > understood why he was doing it.  At that point Bolt
>> > has Alice More say that that's precisely what angers
>> > her: she doesn't see why it had to come to this.
>> > This of course, is what a lot of people still say
>> > about More: he was stubborn, proud etc. and it need
>> > not have come to his death.  I mention this to
>> > illustrate how the question of pride is involved on
>> > all sides of the question of martyrdom and how the
>> > Church at least, has tried to distinguish martyrdom
>> > from suicide.
>> >
>> > Finally,as regards Pius X (another posting on this
>> > thread), I don't know his case in detail, but there
>> > would have had to have been authenticated miracles
>> > involved.  One has to get ahold of the official
>> > _positio_ and the dossier for his beatification and
>> > canonization.  The miracles will be dealt with
>> > there. He certainly was not canonized on the basis
>> > of
>>=== message truncated ===
>>
>>
>>__________________________________________________
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>
>
>Thomas M. Izbicki
>Collection Development Coordinator
>Eisenhower Library
>Johns Hopkins University
>3400 N. Charles Street
>Baltimore, MD 21218
>Telephone:  410-516-7173
>Fax:  410-516-8399
>
>**********************************************************************
>To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
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>For further information, visit our web site:
>http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html


Thomas M. Izbicki
Collection Development Coordinator
Eisenhower Library
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Telephone:  410-516-7173
Fax:  410-516-8399

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