Treatise IX: On Sacramentals

(cc. 1144-1153)

Utility. - By a distinct notion of sacramentals the priest will be helped so that he can spread a right estimation of them and a use alien from all superstition; for his own action it will help to know what blessings he can validly and licitly impart and what rites and rules are to be observed in the dispensation of sacramentals.

— Notion and definition. Already before the middle of the twelfth century they began, by the name sacramentals (substantively), to call certain things or actions which imitate the sacraments in some manner, yet deficiently. 1. Since sacraments are sacred things or observances and work the grace which they signify, already, on account of the former note, all observances of external worship, with only the sacraments and sacrifice excluded, and especially the ceremonies of the sacraments, were called sacramentals by theologians before Suarez and Bellarmine.

2. Afterward, however, it pleased them to attend more to an efficacy which is not merely connatural or from the one operating, i.e., to the other note of the sacraments; and then, with mere ceremonies also excluded, sacramentals could be said to be of six kinds, which are counted in the well-known verse:

Orans, tinctus, edens, confessus, dans, benedictus;

Orans designates the Lord's prayer and the prayers of the Church, especially public ones;

Tinctus alludes to blessed water and to the various blessed or consecrated oils.

Edens recalls blessed bread (eulogiae) and blessed foods;

Confessus refers to the recitation of the Confiteor and other acts of humiliation;

Dans denotes alms and works of mercy;

Benedictus is said of blessed things and of the blessing of persons.

You should observe that some blessings are constitutive, like all consecrations, while others are merely invocative. Thus a church, baptismal or lustral water, and chrism are adorned by a permanent constitutive blessing, so that they are now no longer profane; while a house, animals, and, for the most part, persons themselves are endowed with a merely invocative blessing. (The blessing of an abbot, however, must be called constitutive.) When the blessing is constitutive, the sacramental is the thing itself thus blessed; while, when it is invocative, the sacramental consists rather in the blessing itself.

3. If, moreover, you require the notion of sign, then almsgiving is not to be placed among sacramentals properly so called.

4. If you require the strictly such use of the Church, private actions, for example the sign of the cross, are no longer sacramentals properly so called.

5. The Code, in its description of sacramentals, besides things or observances, does not urge the notion of sign; but it requires the habitual use of the Church, spiritual effects hoped for from the impetration of the Church; and it defines sacramentals, c. 1144: "Sacramentals are things or actions which the Church is accustomed to use, in some imitation of the sacraments, to obtain from her impetration effects especially spiritual" (c. 1144).

Things are blessed water, the paschal candle, the Agnus Dei.

Actions are the blessing of persons or even of things, the sign of the cross, the recitation of the Confiteor, the invocation of the name of Jesus. An action can be joined with a thing, as in the sprinkling of lustral water, in an anointing made by a minister of the Church.

The use of the Church is understood properly as instrumental through her ministers, as in the sacraments.

But the effect is never immediately habitual grace itself, or formal remission of sin, even venial sin. Yet the effects are said to be especially spiritual, and they are the consecration or deputation of a person or thing to God and divine worship; a certain flight of the devil and liberation from his infestation; a certain excitation, through pious movements, of faith, hope, penitence, charity, whence also remission of punishments and of venial faults. By this reason, sacramentals either remove impediments or dispose toward sanctification.

But bodily or temporal benefits are to be referred to liberation from the devil, insofar as all temporal evils, in the present order, have a certain connection with sin.

Moreover, what the peculiar effects of individual sacramentals are must be gathered from the words or prayer of the Church when she confects sacramentals, or from the very nature of the action which is the sacramental.

The efficacy of sacramentals is attributed to the impetration of the Church. For the Church, when she blesses things or performs certain things for obtaining spiritual effects, or when she sanctions the use of sacramentals, formally or virtually asks from God that the indicated effects be granted by God and by Christ the Spouse.

But, while it expresses this efficacy, the Code does not deny another source of efficacy, if any is probably demonstrated. Now, whether from Sacred Scripture itself or from tradition, it is established that in the Church there is an imperative blessing and an imperative coercion of the devil. Wherefore the very positing of the sacred sign by the Church seems already to require certain effects, especially spiritual ones, instrumentally; to which efficacy, which is more strictly from the work worked, the efficacy of the prayer of the Church is then added. Thus it happens that consecrated and blessed things acquire spiritual power inchoatively; i.e., by force of the blessing, there is induced in the blessed thing a permanent real relation to God, the author of every help, by which the conferral of help by God is either required or commanded (cf. Arendt, De sacramentalibus disquisitio scholastica-dogmatica, p. 53 ff.).

— Infallibility of the effect. That the things or persons which the Church blesses or consecrates are consecrated and blessed is not doubted, so that things permanently blessed by a constitutive blessing truly possess that inchoative supernatural power of which above. It is also established that the Church, the beloved spouse of Christ, is always heard, so that no prayer of hers is fruitless. But when there is question of a definite and particular effect, which is not absolutely necessary for salvation, its obtaining is always subordinated to the order of divine Providence, which sometimes also hears us better when, in place of the good hoped for, it substitutes another more profitable to us. Moreover, in the very subject to whom application is to be made, disposition can be lacking.

— Constitution. 1. Sacramentals are not of merely ecclesiastical origin. For God alone can execute supernatural effects and connect them with a sensible sign. He alone also gave to the Church the power of blessing imperatively or of coercing demons.

2. Christ can more specifically be called the author of exorcism, since he willed that in his name demons be cast out; the adviser, by example and promissory commendation, of the washing of feet or exercise of humiliation; and the preceptor of the Lord's prayer, whose very formula, at least from the use of the Church, is employed as specially efficacious, just as a peculiar promise of reward is annexed to works of mercy, which is not common to all good works.

3. But while the Lord himself definitely established that there are and will be in the Church seven fountains of graces which are the sacraments, he provided for the constitution of sacramentals by a promise generally made or by a power conferred, so that there would be as many and such as the Church would make them. By canon 1145, however, the constitution, change, abrogation, and authentic interpretation of sacramentals is reserved to the Apostolic See.

Thence sacramentals can vary in number and be determined otherwise in their constitution, according to the will of the Apostolic See. Thus recently new blessings and forms of exorcism have been introduced, for example the exorcism of Leo XIII.

— Minister of sacramentals. 1. The legitimate minister is a cleric who has the power and is not prohibited from exercising it by competent authority.

2. No one validly consecrates unless he either has the episcopal character or it is permitted by law or apostolic indult (c. 1147, §1). Thus cardinal-priests, from c. 239, §1, 20°, can consecrate churches, altars, chalices.

3. A priest always validly effects blessings, unless the Apostolic See has expressed otherwise in the reservation; but he is prohibited from giving those reserved to the Supreme Pontiff or to bishops or to others. You should observe that indulgences can be attached to pious things only by those to whom the faculty has been given.

Clauses are to be diligently distinguished. The clause "with the consent of the local Ordinary" is not for validity, and the consent can even be presumed. Within domestic walls, for religious the consent of their Superior suffices (cf. S. C. Indulg., June 14, 1901; Beringer-Steinen, Die Ablasse, I, n. 835).

4. "Deacons and lectors can give validly and licitly only those blessings which are expressly permitted to them by law" (c. 1147, §4).

— Rites are to be accurately observed. The use of the formula prescribed by the Church is essential for validity, whether the blessings and consecrations were constitutive or invocative.

You ask what color can or must be employed in the use of the stole. Resp. 1. The color is not rarely indicated in the Ritual itself: then it is clear that this one must be assumed.

Thus, for making blessed water, the Ritual prescribes the use of a violet stole; but if it is blessed before Mass, according to the Missal, the priest assumes not a surplice but an alb, with the stole which agrees with the office of the day.

2. If no color is indicated in the Ritual, then: a) it is always licit to choose the color which the nature of the thing requires, i.e., the saint or mystery in whose honor the blessing is employed. But if absolution or exorcism constitutes a large part of the formula, the violet color is to be assumed; b) it is also always licit to employ the color of the day, except for absolutions or exorcisms, which require the violet color. The Ritual itself insinuates this rule when it says: "In every blessing outside Mass, the priest should use at least a surplice and stole according to the reason of the time, unless otherwise noted in the Missal" (General Rules concerning Blessings, n. 2, Title VIII, ch. 1); c) it is also licit to employ the white color when the nature of the matter requires no other definite color, in doubt concerning the required color; or outside the house, especially for the red color, since it is difficult to carry with oneself stoles of every color.

— Use of the blessed thing. Reverence is prescribed toward things consecrated or blessed by a constitutive blessing; nor can they be employed for profane or non-proper use, even if they are in the ownership of private persons (c. 1150).

Contrary, therefore, to what used to be said, it is not licit to use a blessed candle as an ordinary light, nor to drink blessed water for extinguishing thirst. But these things are neither mortal sins nor to be accused of sacrilege; and from a just cause they are easily excused.

But he who knowingly substitutes false matter for sacramentals would be guilty of grave sacrilege.

— Subject. Although blessings have been instituted for Catholics and are especially to be imparted to them, nevertheless they can also be given to catechumens, and, unless the prohibition of the Church stands in the way, "even to non-Catholics for obtaining the light of faith or, together with that, health of body" (c. 1149).

Therefore blessed candles, ashes, and palms can be received, provided every superstition is removed.

Yet excommunicated or interdicted persons after declaratory or condemnatory sentence are prohibited from the use of sacramentals (cc. 2260, 2275 ff.).

Exorcisms can be made, as we think, over non-Catholics or excommunicated persons, even vitandi (c. 1152).

— Concerning exorcisms. Excepting exorcisms which occur in baptism and in consecrations or blessings, and whose legitimate ministers are those who legitimately baptize solemnly, consecrate, or bless: a peculiar and express license of the Ordinary is required so that someone may legitimately use his power of exorcizing toward the possessed. That license is to be given only to the most approved priests, after a prudent investigation of the case (c. 1151).

The Ordinary will be able to be the major Superior of an exempt clerical religion, if the possessed person belongs to his family by some title indicated in c. 514.

Only exorcisms which are pronounced over the possessed are subject to that prohibition. Hence exorcisms of places and fields can be pronounced more easily. And the so-called exorcism of Leo XIII, which is found in the Ritual, although it is a reserved blessing, can be recited by the faithful as a formula of pious prayer.

You should observe that it is not the infallible effect of exorcism itself to expel the demon; he is infallibly urged by a ministerial precept "either to depart or at least to desist from attacking, only as much as shall have pleased God" (Arendt, op. cit., p. 343). Therefore the greater sanctity of the minister, the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the proximity of a miraculous image, is not useless; and it is understood that an extraordinary charism for expelling demons can even now fittingly be granted to certain persons.

The very invocation of the Most Holy Name of Jesus possesses a connatural efficacy for putting the devil to flight, to whom it represents his defeat.

— I. Notion. On account of their relation to the sacraments, ceremonies themselves, as such, can be called sacramentals and have been called such. But properly such are things and actions which, to connatural efficacy and efficacy from the work of the one operating, add some other efficacy, by which they imitate the sacraments in some manner. They have this efficacy proximately from the impetration of the Church, whether formal or virtual: when she sanctions certain uses of things, the Church virtually asks that the intended ends be obtained. Remotely, however, it is owed to Christ himself, who conferred upon the Church imperative power for blessing or consecrating persons or things, and for coercing the devil; and he is the first author of certain commendations, such as almsgiving and the Lord's prayer. Sacramentals more strictly are those which the Church herself employs through ministers; and thus they are understood in the Code. Sacramentals which have the notion of sign imitate the sacraments still more.

They differ from the sacraments both because they do not require institution by Christ, and because they never immediately confer grace. If you except constitutive blessings and consecrations, the other effects are not even strictly from the work worked. Nor are particular effects infallible.

They are things: blessed water, and in general those things which are endowed with a constitutive blessing; and actions: the sign of the cross, invocative blessings. An action can be mixed with a thing, as in the sprinkling of lustral water, in an anointing made by a minister.

II. Effects are: consecration or deputation of a person or thing to God and divine worship; a certain flight of the devil and liberation from his infestation; a certain excitation, through pious movements, of faith, hope, penitence, charity. Temporal benefits are to be referred to liberation from the devil, since all evils in the present order have a certain connection with sin.

III. The Holy See alone constitutes, changes, abrogates, and authentically interprets sacramentals.

IV. The legitimate minister is a cleric who has the power and is not prohibited. Every bishop validly consecrates; a priest only from concession of law or indult; a priest of himself validly blesses; a deacon and lector only insofar as this is committed to them.

Today solemn exorcism over the possessed can be committed by the Ordinary only to approved priests. Nor is expulsion of the devil infallible.

V. Rites must be accurately observed. The prescribed formula must be employed for validity.

The color of the stole is indicated either by the Ritual, or by the nature of the matter, or by the time or day itself. In doubt, or outside the house, white can be assumed.

VI. Subject. Blessings can be given even to non-Catholics, a special prohibition being excluded. Yet excommunicated persons after sentence are excluded from the use of sacramentals. Nevertheless they seem to be able to be liberated directly from the devil through exorcism.