Through anequivalent canonization orequipollent canonization (Latin:equipollens canonizatio) apope can choose to relinquish the judicial processes, formal attribution ofmiracles, and scientific examinations that are typically involved in thecanonization of asaint. This can take place when the saint has been venerated since ancient times and continuously by the faithful.
The veneration ofmartyrs and other saints is attested from the first centuries of the Church. However, canonization as an ecclesiastical procedure was not outlined until the 11th century with the aim of seeking to define those Christians who would deserve the universal reverence of the Church, thus avoiding confusion between local churches and seeking that the virtues of the deceased were fully proven. Already during this time the authority of the pope was appealed to claim to him or to thesynods the power to determine said cult.[1]
In the 17th century,Urban VIII began to make pontifical declarations of canonization throughpapal bulls, the first canonized saints beingPhilip Neri,Ignatius of Loyola, andFrancis Xavier, and in other bulls Urban would decree the beatification of otherServants of God. Similarly, in 1634, through the bullCaelestis Hierusalem cives, he established such powers of beatification and canonization as exclusive to theHoly See.[2]
In the first half of the 18th century, Bishop Prospero Lambertini, before being elected as pope under the name ofBenedict XIV, published his major liturgical work entitledDe servorum Dei beatificatione et de beatorum canonizatione, where he expounded the procedure ofequivalent canonization and described the possibility of establishing public veneration for a person whose reputation for holiness andheroic virtue has long been proven by tradition and for whom there was already a prior veneration in the Church.
This has been reiterated since then by various pontiffs up to the present. The most recent provisions regarding the canonization process have not repealed it as a valid practice, exclusive to the pope.
Various saints have been included in the martyrology in this way, includingRomuald,Norbert of Xanten,Bruno of Cologne,Peter Nolasco,Raymond Nonnatus,John of Matha,Felix of Valois,Margaret of Scotland,Stephen I of Hungary, andPope Gregory VII.[1] Some of the most recent cases of equivalent canonization were that ofHildegard of Bingen on 10 May 2012, 833 years after her death;[3] that ofAngela of Foligno on 9 October 2013, 704 years after her death;[4] that ofPeter Faber on 17 December 2013, 467 years after his death; and that ofJoseph of Anchieta on 3 April 2014, 416 years after his death.
As examples, prior to his pontificate, of this mode of canonization,Pope Benedict XIV enumerated the equipollent canonizations of saints:
Further equipollent canonizations include those of saints:
Pope Francis added:
