Decree on
the Invocation, Veneration of Relics of Saints,
and on Sacred Images
The holy council commands all bishops and others who hold the office of
teaching and have charge of the cura animarum, that in accordance with the
usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive
times of the Christian religion, and with the unanimous teaching of the
holy
Fathers and the decrees of sacred councils, they above all instruct the
faithful diligently in matters relating to intercession and invocation of
the saints, the veneration of relics, and the legitimate use of images,
teaching them that the saints who reign together with Christ offer up
their
prayers to God for men, that it is good and beneficial suppliantly to
invoke
them and to have recourse to their prayers, assistance and sup****t in
order
to obtain favors from God through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who
alone
is our redeemer and savior;
and that they think impiously who deny that the saints who enjoy
eternal
happiness in heaven are to be invoked, or who assert that they do not pray
for men, or that our invocation of them to pray for each of us
individually
is idolatry, or that it is opposed to the word of God and inconsistent
with
the honor of the one mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, or that it is
foolish to pray vocally or mentally to those who reign in heaven.
Also, that the holy bodies of the holy martyrs and of others living
with
Christ, which were the living members of Christ and the temple of the Holy
Ghost, to be awakened by Him to eternal life and to be glorified, are to
be
venerated by the faithful, through which many benefits are bestowed by God
on men, so that those who maintain that veneration and honor are not due
to
the relics of the saints, or that these and other memorials are honored by
the faithful without profit, and that the places dedicated to the memory
of
the saints for the purpose of obtaining their aid are visited in vain, are
to be utterly condemned, as the Church has already long since condemned
and
now again condemns them.
Moreover, that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and
of
other saints are to be placed and retained especially in the churches, and
that due honor and veneration is to be given them; not, however, that any
divinity or virtue is believed to be in them by reason of which they are
to
be venerated, or that something is to be asked of them, or that trust is
to
be placed in images, as was done of old by the Gentiles who placed their
hope in idols; but because the honor which is shown them is referred to
the
prototypes which they represent, so that by means of the images which we
kiss and before which we uncover the head and prostrate ourselves, we
adore
Christ and venerate the saints whose likeness they bear. That is what was
defined by the decrees of the councils, especially of the Second Council
of
Nicaea, against the opponents of images.
(Cf. Sess. XX11, chap. 3)
(1 Tim. 2:5)
(1 Cor. 3:16 ; 6:19 & 2 Corinthians 6:16)
(Cf. 11 Council of Nicaea [787], can. 7)
(Psalm 134:15 ff.)
(Sess. 111, 1V, V1)
Taken from: The Canons & Decrees of the Council of Trent
(pp 215-216)
Translated by: Rev. H.J. Schroeder, O.P.
Imprimatur: Joannes J. Glennon, Archiepiscopus
Published by: www.TanBooks.com
Copyright: Original 1941
--
Jesse Gomez Jr
In Beautiful Norway
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