St. John Paul the Great

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BlessedLDS

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St. John Paul the Great! I’ve been waiting for a while to write that!!!

I have a question, is it appropriate to call St. John Paul II “St. John Paul the Great”? It’s something I’ve been doing for a while. Normally when I write his name.

Also, is there an order Saint and Pope go in when a pipe is canonized?
 
So back to the question, can any canonized Pope be referred to as Pope (name) the Great…or any saints. Is “the great” bestowed by the church or it it just an act of sentimentality…I wonder because during the canonization mass he was never referred to as “the great”.
 
There are saints known such as “St. James the Greater” or “St. James the Less,” but that’s usually to distinguish them apart from each other.

Since there is only one.“Pope Saint John Paul II,” he wouldn’t need the distinction.
 
It’s Pope Saint John Paul the Great, contrast with Blessed Pope John Paul the Great yesterday.

As for “the Great”, there’s no official process. It just gets added to a pope’s name if people decide to use it. That said, though, he’s only one of now 4 popes who are commonly called “the Great”. The other three all being first century (Gregory I, Nicolas I, Leo I).

As a side note, I personally expect Francis will wind up called “the Great” after his papacy is over.
 
BlessedLDS said:
Also, is there an order Saint and Pope go in when a pipe is canonized?
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A common appellation would be Pope Saint John Paul II (or Pope Saint John Paul the Great), but canonically (eg in the Church’s liturgy) he is Saint John Paul II, pope (as the other great pope saints are styled in the canon).
Razanir said:
The other three all being first century (Gregory I, Nicolas I, Leo I).
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None of those great pope saints is so old as the first century.

tee
 
tee_eff_em said:
A common appellation would be Pope Saint John Paul II (or Pope Saint John Paul the Great), but canonically (eg in the Church’s liturgy) he is Saint John Paul II, pope (as the other great pope saints are styled in the canon).

None of those great pope saints is so old as the first century.

tee
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First millennium. What did you think I said? (And alas, the timer’s run out and I can’t go back and change it)
 
It’s now my question, from the example given, that perhaps “the Great” refers to an elder (by age our succession) and perhaps should not be used for one who has a “ii” after his name?

For example suffixes change by tradition: First (Senior), Second (Junior), Third, etc. When Sr. dies, second becomes Sr., and so on. This cannot happen in the naming system of popes because well, the predecessors take the suffix with them, and always the “First” is “the Great.”

Gah. Making my head hurt… :ouch:
 
Miserissima said:
It’s now my question, from the example given, that perhaps “the Great” refers to an elder (by age our succession) and perhaps should not be used for one who has a “ii” after his name?
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Well then why don’t we have John Paul (I) the Great? John the Great? Paul the Great? Benedict the Great?

“The Great” is just an accolade bestowed by history. Do great things as a leader, get “the Great” attached to your name. It’s just coincidence that the first three popes to be called “the Great” were all the first of their name. And actually, I just checked. New names, rather than a repeat, were common enough early on that the ONLY repeated name before Leo the Great was Sixtus.

And actually, other famous “Greats” were not the first of their name. Alexander the Great (famous Ancient Greek leader) was the third of his name. It really is just an accolade bestowed by history for great deeds, no matter how many people before you have used the same regnal name.
 
Perhaps also he will become a ‘Doctor of the Church’ due to his work on Theology of the Body?
 
pnewton said:
I have thought that this might be the case in the future.
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He began the lectures that eventually went into making Theology of the Body within a year of his election and the topic has been a constant theme of his pontificate.

To have him declared ‘Doctor’ based on this would give so much more impetus to the fight against sexual immorality and contraception and abortion.
 
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