Is Pope JPII's new name "The Great"?

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Is the title “the Great” ever given to a Blessed? Or is it reserved to s Saint?
 
Is the title “the Great” ever given to a Blessed? Or is it reserved to s Saint?
The Great is given to many people, monarchs, saints, blesseds and other. Just think of Charlemagne. It really means, Charles the Great. Then there was Alexander the Great. It’s a very classic custom to give people titles.

For example, our Holy Father Francis is always referred to as:

The Seraphic Father
The Mirror of Perfection
The Most Catholic Man
The Perfect Christian
The Alter Christus

None of them were used at his canonization. But they were used by different popes, theologians, biographers and so forth. They come from popular usage.

In the Carmelite tradition they speak of The Great Teresa of Avila.

The Dominicans use The Angelic Doctor for Aquinas.

All of these are used by the Church. Sometimes, they are included in the Church’s liturgy. You’ll see references made to these titles in the Liturgy of the Hours or certain prayers of the mass on the saint’s feast day. They begin as popular titles and the Church makes them her own by including them in the liturgy.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
  1. The Divine Liturgy in a shambles.
Considering everything else that he did, you can’t expect him to solve every problem in the world or the Church can you? No pope ever has or ever will. There are always things that we leave behind. Life is short.

By the way, Pope Benedict has not made any changes to the liturgy either. It was Pope John Paul II who said that the English translation of the mass was inaccurate and asked the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship to look into it. Aside from promulgating the new English Missal, Pope Benedict has made no changes to the liturgy. Either he does not believe that it is in shambles or he has other things to attend to and someone else will have to repair the shambles.

I tend to believe that it’s not in shambles. What is in shambles is people, not the books. We can’t change people over night. That is a very long and arduous process.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
The numbers make is sound clunky. Maybe it would sound better in reverse.

The Great Pius X

The Great Pius XII

If you observe the other names that have “The Great”, do not have the number. It flows.

Gregory the Great

John Paul the Great

Alexander the Great

and so forth.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
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