The Venerable often shortened toVenerable is a style,title, orepithet used in someChristian churches andBuddhist temples. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom.[1][2]
In theCatholic Church, after a deceased Catholic has been declared aservant of God by abishop and proposed forbeatification by thepope, such a servant of God may next be declared venerable ("heroic in virtue") during the investigation and process leading to possiblecanonization as a saint. A declaration that a person is venerable is not a pronouncement of their presence in Heaven. The pronouncement means it is considered likely that they are in heaven, but it is possible the person could still be inpurgatory. Before one is considered venerable, one must be declared by a proclamation, approved by the pope, to have lived a life that was "heroic in virtue" (thetheological virtues of faith, hope, and charity and thecardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance). The next steps arebeatification, which normally requires a miracle by the intercession of the candidate, from which point the person is referred to as "The Blessed". The blessed declaration implies the person is in Heaven, experiencing thebeatific vision, but this is not a requirement. The canonization is consummated when the person intercedes in a miracle (normally, this is their second intercession) and is declared asaint. Exceptional canonizations exist.[3] The declaration of sainthood is definitive only to the extent that the Catholic Church claims the person died in the state of grace and already enjoys beatific vision.[4] For example, PopesPius XII andJohn Paul II were both declared venerable byPope Benedict XVI in December 2009, and John Paul II was declared a saint in 2014.[5]
Other examples of venerables are BishopFulton J. Sheen,Princess Louise of France,Francis Libermann, and MotherMary Potter.
The 7th/8th-century English monkSt Bede was called venerable soon after his death and is still often called "the Venerable Bede" or "Bede the Venerable" despite having been canonized in 1899.
This is also thehonorific used for hermits of theCarthusian order in place of the usual term ofreverend.
In theAnglican Communion, "The Venerable" (abbreviated as "the Ven.") is the style usually given to anarchdeacon.[6][7]
In theEastern Orthodox Church, the termvenerable is commonly used as the English-language translation of the title given tomonastic saints (Greek:ὅσιος,romanized: hosios,Church Slavonic:преподобный,romanized: prepodobni; both Greek and Slavonic forms are masculine).
A monastic saint who wasmartyred for the Orthodox faith is referred to as avenerable martyr.[citation needed]
In the 20th century, some English-language Orthodox sources began to use the termvenerable to refer to a righteous person who was a candidate forglorification (canonization), most famously in the case ofJohn of Shanghai and San Francisco. This has not altered the original usage of the term in reference to monastic saints.[citation needed]
InChinese Buddhism, "venerable" is a title of great respect for highly virtuous and learned monks, translated as 尊者 (Zūnzhě) or as 法师 (Fǎshī) or 师父 (Shīfu). It emphasizes their wisdom, virtue, and status within the monastic community, similar to the use of "Venerable Master, A title that denotes a monastic or sagely figure.[8][9][10]
The dictionary definition ofVenerable at Wiktionary
