Positio

A positio (short for the Latin positio super virtutibus: "position on the virtues") is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a Catholic person is declared Venerable, the second of four steps on the path to canonization as a saint.

Description

A positio is a formal brief arguing for the canonization of an individual in the Catholic Church. Before canonization, ^[1] the formal declaration by the pope that a person is a saint, there is a long process, with various intermediate steps. First, a person whose holiness is being investigated (by a postulator, appointed by the Pope) is referred to as a Servant of God. The very fact of appointing a postulator means that the process of beatification has been activated.

If investigations reveal that the person was indeed holy enough, then a "formal argument for sainthood", the positio, is presented to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. This document contains the informatio , or life story, of the Servant of God under investigation, as well as a series of documents and testimonies to support the cause (summarium). In short, the positio collects the evidence obtained by a diocesan inquiry into a candidate's heroic virtues.

Upon presentation, the positio is examined by a committee of expert historians and theologians, and if they find the evidence presented suitable, they may then make a recommendation to the Pope that the candidate be declared Venerable—that is, worthy of the devotion of Catholic believers. ^[2]

A positio can run to over 1,000 pages in length. The time between the preparation of a positio and a recommendation by the committee of historians and theologians can often be decades.

References

1. "Congregation for the Causes of Saints".
2. "Truthmission.net » Breaking Catholic: Part 7–Saints". Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2019-07-31.