distinguished the act of beatification, which simply declares that a departed Catholic Christian is
blessed (beatus) in heaven, and which within certain limits permits (but does not prescribe) his
veneration.^520
The first known example of a papal canonization is the canonization of Ulrich, bishop of
Augsburg (d. 973), by John XV. who, at a Lateran synod composed of nineteen dignitaries, in 993,
declared him a saint at the request of Luitolph (Leuthold), his successor in the see of Augsburg,
after hearing his report in person on the life and miracles of Ulrich. His chief merit was the
deliverance of Southern Germany from the invasion of the barbarous Magyars, and his devotion
to the interests of his large diocese. He used to make tours of visitation on an ox-cart, surrounded
by a crowd of beggars and cripples. He made two pilgrimages to Rome, the second in his eighty-first
year, and died as an humble penitent on the bare floor. The bull puts the worship of the saints on
the ground that it redounds to the glory of Christ who identifies himself with his saints, but it makes
no clear distinction between the different degrees of worship. It threatens all who disregard this
decree with the anathema of the apostolic see.^521
A mild interpretation of the papal prerogative of canonization reduces it to a mere declaration
of a fact preceded by a careful examination of the merits of a case before the Congregation of Rites.
But nothing short of a divine revelation can make such a fact known to mortal man. The examination
is conducted by a regular process of law in which one acts as Advocatus Diaboli or accuser of the
candidate for canonization, and another as Advocatus Dei. Success depends on the proof that the
candidate must have possessed the highest sanctity and the power of working miracles either during
his life, or through his dead bones, or through invocation of his aid. A proverb says that it requires
a miracle to prove a miracle. Nevertheless it is done by papal decree on such evidence as is
satisfactory to Roman Catholic believers.^522
(^520) Comp. on this subject Benedict XIV. (Lambertini): De Servorum Dei Beatificatione et Beatorum Canonisatione.
Bononisae 1734-’38; ed. II. Venet. et Patav. 1743, 4 vol. fol. Ferraris: Bibliotheca Canonica, a. v. "Veneratio Sanctorum."
Canonization includes seven privileges: 1) recognition as saint by the whole (Roman) church; 2) invocation in public and private
prayers; 3) erection of churches and altars to the honor of the saints; 4) invocation at the celebration of the mass; 5) appointment
of special days of commemoration; 6) exhibition of their images with a crown on their head; 7) exhibition of their bones and
relics for veneration. The question whether the papal bulls of canonization are infallible and de fide, or only sententia communis
et certa, seems to be still disputed among Roman Catholics.
(^521) See Mansi, XIX. f. 169-179. The bull is signed by, the pope, five bishops, nine cardinal priests, an archdeacon and
four deacons. It decrees that the memory of Saint Udalricus be venerated "affectu piisimo et devotione fidelissima," and be
dedicated to divine worship ("divino cultui dicata"). It justifies it by the reason "quoniam sic adoramus (!) et colimus reliquius
m et confessorum, ut eum, Cuius martyres et confessores sunt, adoremus Honaramus servos ut honor redundet in Dominum,
qui dixit: Qui vos recipit me recipit’: ac proinde nos, qui fiduciam nostrae justitiae non habemus, illorum precibus et meritis
apud clementissimum Deum jugiter adiuvemur." The bull mentions many miracles of Ulrich, "quae sive in corpore, sive extra
corpus gesta sunt, videlicet Caecos illuminasse, daemones ab obsessis effugasse, paralyticos curasse, et quam plurima alia
signa gessisse." On the life of St. Ulrich see the biography by his friend and companion Gerhard (between 983 and 993), best
edition by Wirtz in the Monum. G. Scriptores, IV. 377 sqq.; Acta Sanct., Bolland. ad 4 Jul.; Mabillon, Ada Ordinis S. B., V.
415-477; Braun,Gesch. der Bischöfe von Augsburg(Augsb. 1813), vol. I.; Schrödl, in Wetzer and Welte, vol. XI. 370-383, and
Vogel in Herzog 1 vol. XVI. 624-628. Ulrich cannot be the author of a tract against celibacy which was first published under his
name by Flacius in his Catalogus Testium Veritatis, but dates from the year 1059 when Pope Nicolas II. issued a decree enforcing
celibacy. See Vogel, l.c. p. 627.
(^522) The most recent acts of canonization occurred in our generation. Pope Pius IX. canonized in 1862 with great solemnity
twenty-six Japanese missionaries and converts of the Franciscan order, who died in a persecution in 1597. Leo XIII. canonized,
December 8, 1881, four comparatively obscure saints of ascetic habits and self-denying charity, namely, Giovanni Battista de
Rossi, Lorenzo di Brindisi, Giuseppe Labre, and Clara di Montefalco. A Roman priest describes "the blessed Labre" as a saint
who "never washed, never changed his linen, generally slept under the arches of the Colosseum and prayed for hours together