Who are the Beati and Venerables?

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Specifically, what do the titles Blessed, Venerable, and Servant of God denote about a person’s “current resting place”? Saints are infallibly declared to be in Heaven, what about the others? And are they infallible declarations?
 
A Venerable and a Servant of God are the same thing. It has been more common since Vatican II to call them Servant of God, but I have noticed that Pope Benedict XVI calls them Venerable. This is a stage opening the investigation for sainthood.

The Beatified or Blessed have been recognized by the Vatican for a miracle. This is a process in preparation for the second miracle which will then lead to official canonization and sainthood. There is a lot involved such as reading all the writings of the person, talking with locals (if any) who knew the person, etc.
 
Spirithound said:
Specifically, what do the titles Blessed, Venerable, and Servant of God denote about a person’s “current resting place”?
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The person’s “resting place” does not change based on what we call them. Therefore, the only thing we can say about someone’s resting place is that we can not know for certain where their resting place is – until they have been declared a saint, in which case we are assured that they are in heaven.
 
Spirithound said:
Specifically, what do the titles Blessed, Venerable, and Servant of God denote about a person’s “current resting place”? Saints are infallibly declared to be in Heaven, what about the others? And are they infallible declarations?
Click to expand...
An overly simplistic definition would place the difference in the extent of the cult and the precept. That regarding a beatus is severely restricted…that of a saint is universal. For an oldie-but-goodie on the subject, as well as a treatment of infallibility of declarations of the “Blessed”, I recommend Fr. Faber’s An Essay on Beatification and Canonisation (available online throguh GoogleBooks). You may also find some of the writings of Benedict XIV on the matter interesting- they can be found online at the Internet Archive.
 
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