SANTO DOMINGO, ARCHDIOCESE of — Mausoleum of Columbus in Ciudad Trujillo, capital of the Dominican Republic.
and continues for persons consecrated to the worship of God. Thus it can be seen how, in the New Testament and in the Apostolic Fathers, all the faithful without distinction, with no regard for their personal moral qualities, but simply because they were baptized, are called s.: they belong to Christ, the Son of God, by whom they have been redeemed and n2 form the Mystical Body; they are the new chosen people, the heirs of the promises made to the Jewish people. Gradually, however, the word came to be attributed ever more specifically to those who were truly Catholic Christians, in order to distinguish them from the followers of the various heretical or schismatic sects: they are s. because they bear the seal of God, whom they serve in purity of faith and doctrine. After death these persons enjoy eternal beatitude because in life they adhered to Christ and bore witness to his Gospel, and therefore they are s. Among these witnesses to Christ, however, a special place is occupied by the martyrs, who sealed their witness and their attachment to Christ with their blood. In the first centuries of the Church, therefore, s. did not indicate personal moral perfection, but was attributed collectively to persons who had special relations with God. As an individual qualification, the term s. was initially attributed to persons invested with ecclesiastical dignity, particularly bishops, and then gradually to the lower clergy; this, however, does not indicate any moral quality, but is the etymological meaning of the word. Only around the fourth century was a sense of moral perfection also attached to the word, after it had first had a common laudatory meaning. The first to be called s. in the new sense were the martyrs, whose memory and annual commemoration assumed what would later be called the cult of the s.