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The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism.


Christianity


Catholic

In the Catholic Church, after a deceased Catholic has been declared a
Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...
by a bishop and proposed for beatification by the Pope, such a servant of God may next be declared venerable (" heroic in virtue") during the investigation and process leading to possible
canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...
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 in purgatory. 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" (the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity and the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance). The next steps are beatification, 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 the beatific 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 a
saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
. Exceptional canonizations exist. 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. For example, Popes Pius XII and John Paul II were both declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in December 2009, and John Paul II was declared a saint in 2014. Other examples of venerables are Bishop Fulton J. Sheen,
Princess Louise of France Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...
, Francis Libermann, and Mother Mary Potter. The 7th/8th-century English monk St Bede was called venerable soon after his death and is still often called "the Venerable Bede" despite having been canonized in 1899. This is also the honorific used for hermits of the Carthusian order in place of the usual term of "
Reverend The Reverend is an style (manner of address), honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and Minister of religion, ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and c ...
".


Anglican

In the Anglican Communion, "The Venerable" (abbreviated as "the Ven.") is the style usually given to an
archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...
."List of Abbreviations", ''Crockford's Clerical Directory'' website.
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Eastern Orthodoxy

In the Eastern Orthodox Church the term "Venerable" is commonly used as the English-language translation of the title given to monastic saints ( Greek: ''hosios'',
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...
: ''prepodobni''; both Greek and Church Slavonic forms are masculine). A monastic saint who was martyred for the Orthodox faith is referred to as "Venerable Martyr" or hosiomartyr. In the 20th century, some English-language Orthodox sources began to use the term "Venerable" to refer to a righteous person who was a candidate for glorification (canonization), most famously in the case of
Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco (russian: Иоанн Шанхайский и Сан Францисский, Ioann Shankhayskiyi i San Frantsiskyi; secular name Mikhail Borisovich Maximovitch, russian: Михаил Борисович Ма ...
. This has not altered the original usage of the term in reference to monastic saints.


Buddhism

In
Buddhist monasticism Buddhist monasticism is one of the earliest surviving forms of organized monasticism and one of the fundamental institutions of Buddhism. Monks and nuns, called bhikkhu (Pali, Skt. bhikshu) and bhikkhuni (Skt. bhikshuni), are responsible for ...
, various terms or titles for senior or highly respected monks may be translated as "Venerable", including in Theravada Buddhism Bhante and Mahanayaka (Burmese). In Tibetan Buddhism there is
Rinpoche Rinpoche, also spelled Rimboche and Rinboku (), is an honorific term used in the Tibetan language. It literally means "precious one", and may refer to a person, place, or thing—like the words "gem" or "jewel" (Sanskrit: ''Ratna''). The word con ...
.


See also

* Lists of venerable people (disambiguation) * Venerable Order of Saint John


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Venerable Christian terminology Ecclesiastical styles Sainthood Types of saints