DIO SIA BENEDETTO. - Formula of praise to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Virgin and to St. Joseph, customarily recited or sung after the blessing with the Most Holy Sacrament and often also after Mass.

The original series of these praises is owed to the Jesuit Luigi Felici (1736-1818), who, having founded in Rome a congregation of «sailors», composed it in 1797, the better to succeed in eradicating the vice of blasphemy, recommending it, besides to the «sailors», also to all the faithful, as an act of reparation. The pious practice soon spread to other associations, confraternities and churches. Pius VII (23 July 1801) enriched it with indulgences; Pius IX, preaching on 13 Jan. 1847, in the church of S. Andrea della Valle against blasphemy, warmly recommended it; and on 8 Aug. of the same year he added new indulgences and prescribed that it be recited after the more solemn Masses or the last Mass, celebrated in every church, and after the function of the blessing with the Most Holy. From the Papal States the practice spread throughout Italy and also abroad. The same Pius IX, after the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, added the praise: «Sia benedetta la sua santa ed immacolata Concezione»; Leo XIII (2 Feb. 1897; Acta Sanctae Sedis, 29

[1896-97], pp. 447-48) added the fourth praise: "Blessed be his most sacred Heart"; Benedict XV: "Blessed be St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse" (AAS, 13 [1921], p. 158).

The indulgences now attached to this pious practice are the following: an indulgence of three years, each time; of five years, when the Praises are recited in public; a plenary indulgence, once a month, when they have been recited every day (cf. Preces et pia opera, Rome 1938, n. 646, p. 514).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: G. Moroni, Diz. di erudiz. storico-ecclesiastica, LXXXIII, Venice 1857, pp. 146-48; G. Mauri, De additionibus in precibus ecclesiasticis, in Ephemerides liturgicae, 4 (1890), pp. 482-91; F. Beringer, Les Indulgences, French trans., I, 4th ed., Paris 1915, n. 535.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec4_dio_sia_benedetto, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Dio Sia Benedetto}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1682--1684}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/dio-sia-benedetto} }

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