beatification

[Eng. beatific, -ation; Fr. béat if i cation; Sp. beatific a cion; Port. beati ficação; Ital. beatific azione; from Lat. be at i fico, V.] [BEATIFIC.] 1. Gen.: The act of rendering supremely ble ed; the state of being rendered supremely ble ed. 2. Spec . ( in the Church of Rome): An act by which the Pope declares, on evidence which he considers himself to po e , that a certain deceased person is in the enjoyment of supreme felicity in heaven. It is the first step towards canonization, but is not canonization itself. Crabb thus distinguishes between beatifi cation and canonization:-" In the act of beati fication the Pope pronounces only as a private person, and uses his own authority only in granting to certain persons, or to a religious order, the privilege of paying a particular worship to a beatified object. In the act of canonization, the Pope speaks as a judge after a judicial examination on the state, and decides the sort of worship which ought to be paid by the whole church." (Crabb: Eng. Synon.) be-at-i-fied, pa . par. & a. [BEATIFY.] "I wish I had the wings of an angel, to have as angel, to cended into Paradise, and to have beheld the forms of those beatified spirits, from which I might have copied my archangel."-Dryden.