Decanonization Explained

Decanonization or de-canonization (prefix de- ←   preposition: down, from, away^{[1] [2]} + ← – list, catalog^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}) – exclusion of a person's name from the list, catalog; the opposite of canonization. The list or catalog is the calendar of the saints^{[8] [9]} or the church calendar. Decanonization, the exclusion of the saint's name from the calendars, was carried out in the Russian Orthodox Church,^{[10] [11]} in the Catholic Church^{[12] [13] [14] [15]} and in the Anglican Church.^{[16] [17]}

Orthodox Church

In the Russian Orthodox Church, the most famous case is the decanonization of the Right-Believing princess of Anna of Kashin at the Great Moscow Synod in 1677–1678. The reason for the decanonization was the religious policy of the forcible introduction in Russia of the three fingers sign of the cross, instead of the older two fingers variant.^{[18] [19]} The reforms that began under Alexis Mikhailovich and continued under Peter I and his followers demanded a political and ecclesiastical separation from the previous tradition and national culture. First of all, decanonization affected persons whose literary works or hagiographic works contradicted the new religious policy. The veneration of the famous ecclesiastical writer and translator, the Maximus the Greek, was suspended. Memorial days associated with 21 Russian saints have disappeared from the Typikon of 1682.^[20] In Peter's times, the veneration of the martyrs Anthony, John, and Eustathius, who wore beards, suffered from a clean-shaven pagan knyaz, was stopped.^[21] After 1721 the number of canonizations sharply decreased (only 2) and decanonizations began (there were, of course, much more than 8 of them). In the XVIII century there was a decanonization of a number of locally revered saints, and in the 19th century church veneration of many locally venerated saints was restored. Hegumen Andronik (Trubachev) believes that the most pernicious were not specific decanonizations, but the very admission of decanonization into church life as a possible norm, a rule implemented due to a change in church policy.^[22]

In the 20th century, some of the names of previously decanonized saints were returned to the church calendar. The re-canonization of Anna of Kashin took place in the Russian Church in 1909. However, most of the ancient Russian ascetics, whose veneration was terminated during the "struggle against Raskol", remained forgotten.^[23]

In 2013, 36 saints, New Martyrs who suffered from repression during the Soviet era, were decanonized. Their names were removed from the 2013 Russian Orthodox Church calendar without explanation.^{[24] [25] [26] [27] [28]}

Challenging the possibility of decanonization

There is a group of people who consider the term "decanonization" to be incorrect, as a rule these are persons affiliated with religious structures. They believe that the saints still remain in Heaven. They reject the very possibility of decanonization. They regard canonization as an infallible act that cannot be corrected.^{[29] [30] [31] [32] [33]}

Notes and References

1. [Walter William Skeat]
2. [Charles Annandale]
3. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Голубинский_Е.Е._История_канонизации_святых_в_Русской_Церкви._(1903).djvu&page=10 История канонизации святых в русской церкви
4. Ткачев Е. В. Канонизация. Православная энциклопедия. – М. : Церковно-научный центр «Православная энциклопедия», 2012. – Т. XXX. – С. 269–359. – ISBN 978-5-89572-031-8
5. CANON // Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3; 1913. – P. 255–256. – The name Canon (κανών) means a norm or rule; and it is used for various objects, such as the Canon of Holy Scripture, canons of Councils, the official list of saints' names (whence "canonization"), and the canon or list of clerks who serve a certain church, from which they themselves are called canons (canonici).
6. https://www.britannica.com/topic/canonization Canonization Christianity
7. [Charles Annandale]
8. [James Murray (lexicographer)|James A. H. Murray]
9. [Charles Annandale]
10. https://books.google.com/books?id=JwN6GIyyIgAC&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PA277 Religion and the Early Modern State Views from China, Russia, and the West./ James D. Tracy, Marguerite Ragnow. 2004 / p. 277
11. Making martyrs East & West : canonization in the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches / Cathy Caridi. – DeKalb, Ill. : NIU press, cop. 2016 / p. 135
12. https://books.google.com/books?id=yq8OpvroF5UC&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PA38 Summon's Miscellany of Saints and Sinners// Parminder Summon / 2005 / p. 37
13. https://books.google.com/books?id=8LvkDAAAQBAJ&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PA182 Packy Jim Folklore and Worldview on the Irish Border / Ray Cashman. 2016 / p. 182
14. https://books.google.com/books?id=Ejeh7dANSc8C&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PT190 Afterlives of the Saints. Stories from the Ends of Faith / Colin Dickey. 2012
15. https://books.google.com/books?id=U3gKBAAAQBAJ&dq=de-canonization+saint&pg=PT135 Catholicism Today. An Introduction to the Contemporary Catholic Church / Evyatar Marienberg. 2014
16. https://books.google.com/books?id=_zJJtvK2_KsC&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PR16 The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Fifth Edition Revised / David Farmer, David Hugh Farmer. 2011 / p. xvi
17. https://www.uni-due.de/imperia/md/content/perspicuitas/yw1999.pdf Richard Utz. The Medieval Myth of Jewish Ritual Murder: Toward a History of Literary Reception // Edited by Gwendolyn Morgan The Year’s Work in Medievalism. – BOZEMAN, MONTANA: Montana State University, 1999. – Vol. XIV. – p. 22–42.
18. [Georgy Fedotov]
19. Крест и круг : из истории христианской символики / Б. А. Успенский. – Москва : Языки славянской культур, 2006. – 488 с., [12] л. ил., цв. ил. : цв. ил.; 22 см.; ISBN 5-9551-0108-X (в пер.); ISSN 1727-1630 /с. 90. – Московский собор 1678 г., принявший решение о деканонизации св. Анны Кашинской на том основании, что мощи ее сохранились с двуперстно сложенной рукой / с. 333 – „При патриархе Иоакиме (1675-1690 гг.) были случаи деканонизации святых на том, в частности, основании, что их мощи сохранились с двуперстно сложенной рукой. Так случилось с Анной Кашинской в 1678 г. и с Евфимием Архангелогородским в 1683 г. (см.: Голубинский, 1903, с. 166; Вургафт и Ушаков, 1996, с. 28, 92).“ / с. 365 – Анна Кашинская (в иночестве София) († 1368), жена кн. Михаила Ярославича Тверского; канонизирована в 1649 г., деканонизирована в 1678 г., вновь признана святой в 1909 г.
20. http://lib2.pushkinskijdom.ru/Media/Default/PDF/Rusagiografia.%20Т.%20II/28_Наумова.pdf Святость в эпоху Петра Первого
21. https://polit.ru/article/2013/02/12/holy_fight/ Борьба за святость
22. [w:ru:Андроник (Трубачёв)|игумен Андроник Трубачев]
23. https://polit.ru/article/2013/02/12/holy_fight/ Борьба за святость
24. https://orthodox-theology.com/media/PDF/1.2018/Mihai-LiviuDinu-Review.pdf Karin Hyldal Christensen. Review THE MAKING OF THE NEW MARTYRS OF RUSSIA Soviet Repression in Orthodox Memory. International Journal of Orthodox Theology 9:1 (2018) / Routledge, 2017
25. https://books.google.com/books?id=KZoJEAAAQBAJ&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PT74 Memory Politics and the Russian Civil War Reds Versus Whites / Marlene Laruelle, Margarita Karnysheva. 2020
26. http://www.rus-obr.ru/blog/21868 Деканонизация: горькая правда
27. https://iz.ru/news/541605 Из календаря РПЦ исчезли некоторые святые
28. https://credo.press/140128/ «Инициатива «деканонизации Новомучеников» в РПЦ МП полностью принадлежит игумену Дамаскину (Орловскому)» – доктор исторических наук, агиограф Новомучеников СЕРГЕЙ БЫЧКОВ
29. https://books.google.com/books?id=uA38AwAAQBAJ&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PR25 The Comprehensive Dictionary of Patron Saints / Pablo Ricardo Quintana. 2014 / p. XXV
30. https://books.google.com/books?id=I8P1DwAAQBAJ&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PT44 Truth Is a Synthesis: Catholic Dogmatic Theology / Mauro Gagliardi. 2020 / p.
31. https://books.google.com/books?id=ICvrDQAAQBAJ&dq=decanonization+saint&pg=PT183 The Everything Catholicism Book / Helen Keeler, Susan Grimbly. 2003
32. https://www.pravmir.ru/protoierej-vladislav-cypin-v-kanonax-net-dazhe-slova-dekanonizaciya/ Протоиерей Владислав Цыпин: В канонах нет даже слова «деканонизация»
33. Ткачев Е. В. Канонизация. Православная энциклопедия. — М. : Церковно-научный центр «Православная энциклопедия», 2012. — Т. XXX. — С. 269—359. — ISBN 978-5-89572-031-8