There has never been a canonization celebration at the Vatican to match the one held on March 12, 1622! Four hundred years ago, Pope Gregory XV solemnly recognized the holiness of three men and one woman, a Carmelite nun, Teresa of Avila. She was honored along with Ignatius of Loyola, Isidore of Madrid (also known as Isidore the Farmer), Francis Xavier, and Philip Neri.
One must also be impressed with the fact that each of these new saints would continue to be major figures in the Church down to our current time. Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus, more commonly known as the Jesuits. Francis Xavier, a great friend of Ignatius, became the great missionary to the people of Japan, India, and the Malay Archipelago. Philip Neri founded the Congregation of the Oratory with a spirituality that has been called "a spirituality of everyday life."
St. Teresa’s writings are recognized as masterpieces of 16th century Spanish literature and spirituality. Her reflections on the process for one to progress toward God through prayer and contemplation are considered benchmarks in the history of Christian mysticism. In 1970 she became the first female declared a “Doctor of the Church.”
Both the Prior General of the Carmelites, Fr. Míceál O’Neill, and the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, Fr. Miguel Márquez Calle, will join Pope Francis in marking the 400th anniversary of these canonizations with a Mass at the Jesuit's Roman Church of the Gesù on Saturday, March 12. Fr. Míceál is also publishing a letter to the Order to commemorate the occasion.
The ceremony in four hundred years ago continues to fascinate scholars because of the innovations in the canonization process that it introduced. Art historians admire it for the use of art to support the missionary expansion of the Catholic Church.
The 1622 ceremony was originally planned as the canonization of the patron saint of Spain's new capital, Madrid, St. Isidore. The King of Spain, Philip IV, paid for the canonization "teatro" -- a structure erected in St. Peter's Basilica decorated with scenes from the life of St. Isidore and illustrations of miracles attributed to his intercession. A banner for each of the others being canonized was to be hanging in the transcept. "So the others were, technically, piggy-backed onto this ceremony," according to Simon Ditchfield, a professor of history at the University of York in England. He has written extensively on the 1622 ceremony.
Previous popes had attempted to regulate the recognition of saints. But the process was slow with many holy men and women being proclaimed and venerated simply as a result of the devotion of the people, Ditchfield told CNS.
Following the Protestant Reformation there was a desire to bring formality and rigor to the Church's process for declaring saints. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V set up what would become the Congregation for Saints' Causes. In the following 30 years, only nine people were canonized and none of them at the same ceremony.
The 1622 saints, Ditchfield says, are the first saints to be beatified before being canonized, an intermediate step that is now standard.
The ceremony in 1622 also broke ground because of multiple people being canonized on the same day. This provided more decorations in St. Peter's and five canonization bulls instead of the traditional one, and an unprecedentedly large body of documentation. Pamela M. Jones, a professor emerita of art history at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, told CNS.
The bulls, or decrees of canonization, and the banners and other art used to decorate St. Peter's, explained Pamela Jones, a professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts "underscored their distinctive contributions and similar virtues. The saints' celebrations also show that they were perceived useful to the Roman Catholic Church as defenders of the faith against 'heretics' and 'infidels' and as disseminators of the Catholic faith in a turbulent era of world expansion."
In some ways, the established process for creating saints also underscored the authority of the pope as established by the Council of Trent. Jones wrote in "A Companion to Early Modern Rome, 1492-1692," a book she co-edited with Ditchfield and Barbara Wisch that "Because saints' cults were universal, the pope, whose jurisdiction was universal, had the exclusive right to canonize," Jones wrote. After the canonization rite in 1622, Rome was the site of processions, fireworks, concerts, and plays. Similar events took place around the world: in Madrid to celebrate St. Isidore's canonization, but even further afield to honor the new religious-order saints across Europe, in Asia and in the Americas.