Il martirioin odium fideidalla realtà missionaria alla burocrazia romana: note di ricerca sul protonotario apostolico di Propaganda Fide (XVII secolo)

Abstract

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, martyrdom in odium fidei became a stimulus for the missionary vocation, often so exasperated that the superiors of the missionary orders had to moderate it. At the same time, the increase in canonizations (the possible final outcome of the martyr’s experience) is also placed under the control of the Roman authorities. So, the need to control the actual reality of the martyrs was born, but it took place above all in the mission lands where often there was a lack of bishop’s authorities to instruct the processes. The Congregation de Propaganda Fide (founded in 1622) proposes to depute an apostolic protonotary, pertaining to it, for the authentication of the acts of the martyrs and the testimonies gathered through the missionaries scattered throughout the world. This initiative, however, must be in agreement with the competences of the other Roman offices responsible for questions of holiness, especially the Congregation of Rites. The result is a compromise according to which, at the present stage of our knowledge, Propaganda provides information on martyrs in mission land. The essay reconstructs the terms of this compromise at the institutional level and provides an overview of the spread of missionary martyrdom that derives from the collection of Propaganda information at the world level.