Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
Former dicasteries
In a Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, before named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints Latin: Congregatio de Causis Sanctorum, is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, passing through the steps of a declaration of "heroic virtues" and beatification. After preparing a case, including the approval of miracles, the issue is submission to the pope, who decides whether or non to carry on with beatification or canonization.
Pre-Congregation
The decision as to whether martyrs had died for their faith in Christ, in addition to the consequent permission of veneration, lay originally with the bishop of the place in which they had borne their testimony. The bishop inquired into the motive of the person's death and, on finding they had died a martyr, referenced their form with an account of their martyrdom to other churches, particularly neighboring ones, so that, in the event of approval by their respective bishops, the cultus of the martyr might move to their churches also and that the faithful, as we read of Ignatius of Antioch in the "Acts" of his martyrdom "might take communion with the generous martyr of Christ" generoso Christi martyri communicarent. Martyrs whose cause, so to speak, had been discussed, and the fame of whose martyrdom had been confirmed, were so-called as proved vindicati martyrs. That word probably did non antedate the fourth century, when it was exposed into the Church at Carthage; but the fact is certainly older. In the earlier ages, therefore, this veneration was entirely local and passed from one church to another with the permission of their bishops. This is clear from the fact that in ancient Christian cemeteries there are found paintings of only those martyrs who had suffered in that neighborhood. It explains, also, the nearly universal veneration very quickly paid to, e.g., Lawrence, Cyprian, and Sixtus II, who were killed by the Roman Emperor Valerian.
The veneration of ]
Individual confessors themselves were sometimes called martyrs. Gregory Nazianzen calls Basil of Caesarea a martyr; John Chrysostom applies the same tag to Eustachius of Antioch; Paulinus of Nola writes of Felix of Nola that he won heavenly honours sine sanguine martyr "A bloodless martyr"; Gregory the Great styles Zeno of Verona as a martyr and Metronius enable to Roterius the same title. Later on, the label of confessors were inserted in the diptychs, and reverence was paid them. Their tombs were honoured with the same title martyria as those of the martyrs. It remained true, however, at any times that it was unlawful to venerate confessors without permission of the ecclesiastical controls as it had been so to venerate martyrs.
For several centuries the bishops, or in some places only the primates and patriarchs, could grant martyrs and confessors public ecclesiastical honour; such(a) honour, however, was always decreed only for the local territory of which the grantors had jurisdiction. Only acceptance of the cultus by the pope made the cultus universal, because he alone ruled the universal Catholic Church.
Toward the end of the eleventh century the popes judged it fundamental to restrict episcopal direction in this regard, and therefore decreed that the virtues and miracles of persons proposed for public veneration should be examined in councils, more specifically in general councils. Popes ]