CanonXoas, virgins who devoted themselves to the celibate before the monastic life was known, and there- fore before there were monasteries to receive them; and called canomom (canonical virg^s), because their names were enrolled in the canon or matriada of the Church, that is, in the catalogue of ecclesiastics. They differed tt<Km the monastic virgins in this, that they lived privately in their fkthers' houses, and had their maintenance tnm them, or, in case of necessity, from the Church; but the others lived in communi- ties, and upon their own labor ; so that it is now out of dispute, saya Bingham, that, as the ascetics for the first three hundred years were not monks, so neither were the sacred virgins of the Church nuns confined to a cloister, as in after ages.— Bingham, Orig, EccL bk. vii,ch.iv, §1.
Canonical honrs, certain stated hours of the day assigned to prayer and devotion. Such are Noctums, Matins, Lauds, Nones, Vespers, and ComplinL It is not known at what period these hours were settled in the early Church. The Apostolical Constitutions di- rect pra3*er9 to be said at dawn, and aUthe third, sixth, and ninth honrs, as well as at evening. In England the canonical hours are from eight to twelve in the forenoon, before or after which marriage cannot law- fhlly be performed in any church. — Bingham, Orig. Ecdee. bk. xiii, ch. ix, § 8 ; Procter On Common Preaf- er, p. 10. See Bbeviart.
Canonical obedience is that submission which, by the ecclesiastical laws, inferior clergy are to pay to their bishops, and members of religious orders to their superiors.
Canoniat, a professor of, or a writer upon, the Can- on Law (q. v.).
Canonization, in the Roman and Greek chuit^ es, the act and ceremony of proclaiming a deceased per- son who has previously been beatifitd (see Bkatifi- cation) a saint, and enrolling such a one in the cata- logue of saints to be honored. In the Roman Church this is done by the pope only, who, after examination, " declares the person in question to have led a perfect life, and that God hath worked miracles at his inter- cession, either during his life or after his death, and that, consequently, he is worthy to l)e honored as a saint, which implies permission to exhibit his relics, to
CANONIZATION
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iirroke him, and to oelabrate mass and an office in Mb honor.'* In the Grmk Chorch the ceremony of canon- intioo takes place only in the presence of the patri- trch, who^ hai^ng assembled his bishops for this par- pose in synod, causes the testimonies of the witnesses in (sTor of the person to be canonised to be examined. A tboosand witnesses are reqnired. The tronUe and expense incident to this process are so great that can- onJTJtifins in the East are few.
Anciently the reverence due to *' saints*' was thought to bs fulfilled by potting the name of the saint on the Sicred Dip^chs, or Album Sanctorum, or erecting or- atories or churches onder the invocation of the saint. ** Canonization in the Boman sense was not known be- fore the -tenth centmy, but some hold that the first caoonization was celebrated by Leo III, A.D. 804; and, from the dose correspondence of its ceremonies with those which were performed at the apotheosis or deification of the ancient Romans, it is with great prob- ability snpposed to derive its origin thence. In con- sequence oif the multiplication of saints during the' Dvk Ages, the canonizing of any deceased Christians was prohibited by a solemn ordinance in the ninth oentuy, unless it were done with the consent of the bisbop. This edict occasioned a new accession of power to the Boman pontiff, as it ultimately vested in him tlie exdusive ri^t of canonizing whomsoever he pleased. John XV was the first pope who exercised this assumed right, and who, in the year 996, with great formality, enrolled Udalric, bishop of Augsburg, among the number of the saints. Before a beatified person can be canonized four consistories are held. In the first the pope causes the petition of the parties re- qoesting the canonization to be examined by three auditors of the rota, and directs the cardinals to revise all the necessary instruments ; in the second the cai^ dinals report the matter to the Boman pontiff; in the third, wftdch is a public consistory, the cardinals pay their adoration to the pope. One person, called the dsTil*s advocate, 8a3rs all he can against the person to be canonized, raises doubts on the genuineness of the mirades said to be wronght by him, and exposes any want of formality in the procedure. It is said that the bgenuity and eloquence of the devil's 'advocate nearly prevented the canonization of cardinal Borro- meo in the seventeenth century. But another advo- cate makes a pompous oration in praise of the person who is to be created a saint, in which he largely ex- patiates on the miracles said to have been wrouj^t by htm, and even pretends to know from what motives he scted. In the fourth and last consistory, the pope, having convened all the cardinals, orders the report oonceming the deceased to be read, and then proceeds to take their votes, whether be is to be canonized or not Previously to pronouncing the sentence declar- ing the beatified party to be a saint, the pope makes a solemn protestation that, by this act of canonization, he does not intend to do anything contrary to fidth, or to the Catholic [Bomish] Church, or to the honor of God. On the day appointed for the ceremony the church of St. Peter at Bome is hung with tapestry, on which are emblazoned the arms of the pope, and of the torerdgn or prince who desires the canonization, and is also brilliantly illuminated. Thousands of devout members of the Bomish communion fill that capacious edifice, eager to profit by the intercessions of the new saint with the Almighty. During the ceremony of caooniziag, the pope and cardinals are all dressed in white. Tlie expenses, which are Ytjy considerable, are defrayed by the royal or princely personage at wliose request the beatified person is enrolled among die lafaitB. The cost of canonizing the saints Pedro de Alcantara and Maria Maddalena di Pazzi, under the pontificate of Clement IX, amounted to sixty-four thoiMand scudi**.(or dollars) (Eadie, EccU$. Diet, s. v.). No person can be canonized until at legist fifty years after death, nor if he be believed to have passed into