Scale of Certainty for a Titular Indulgences

Grant 33 outlines Visiting Sacred Places, and in that grant is instructions for visiting ecclesiastic buildings on the solemnity of its Titulars.

What is a Titular? In the Church, a Titular can be seen as a categorical step above a ‘patron saint’. Titulars includes patron saints of course, but it also includes mysteries of the faith. This can usually be seen in how we name our Churches. For example, a Church named ‘St. Peter’s Catholic Church’ is considered to be under the patronage of Saint Peter. He is that church’s patron saint and by extension it’s Titular. Likewise, a Church named ‘Holy Cross Catholic Church’ is considered to be under the patronage of the mystery of Christ’s Holy Cross. So the Cross is that church’s equivalent to a ‘patron saint’ and by extension it’s Titular.

But sometimes finding out a Church’s Titular is not so easy (which is what this post plans to cover). In order to gain this particular indulgence you have to know two things: Who/what is the church’s Titular and what exactly is the feast day designate to that Titular. This may sound easy, and in some cases it is very easy to determine a Titular and their feast. But, for me, once I came across churches that simply call themselves “St. Mary’s Catholic Church” I realized that this may not be so straight forward. In America, the most common names given to churches are in honor of Mary. Our Lady also has more feast days granted to her then any other saint. And she is not the only saint that has left me a little confused. So I tried to research the best ways to determine a Titular and their feast!

What I learned is that every ecclesiastical building (basilica, church, cathedral, official shrine, etc.) has specifically designated a Titular, with a feast day, which is written down on an official document when a church is established. This information can be found in the church’s early records. All though this sounds easy to look up, and all though this would be the most official and accurate information, I do not recommend taking this step first. This is because 1) many churches do not keep these old records readily available, and 2) many times the Titular is obvious enough (in the name of the church) that we can be confident we know who/what they are and their associated feast day.

So my first recommendation would actually be to evaluate a church and determine how confident you are in who/what you think is a churches Titular and feast is. For this, I made a “Scale of Certain.” I invite you to evaluate the churches you go to and the ones closest to you, to see if you can discover their Titular. We will work our way from “Most Certain,” down to “Least Certain.”

-Most Certain-

A Church has more than one Titular Saint, but all these saints share a single feast day.

Ex: Saints Peter and Paul

Ex. Saints James and Philip

A Church’s Titular is a Mystery of the faith under a recognizable name, with a single associated feast day.

Ex: The Ascension

Ex: The Holy Cross

A Church’s Titular is a Saint with a unique full name, made up of two or more names/titles. This saint, with their unique name, has a single associated feast day.

Examples of name types: unique first name (Abdias of Babylon), unique last name (John Kanty), unique nickname (James the Less), unique ethnic name (Mary Magdalen), unique title of the faith (Paul of the Cross), etc.

A Church’s Titular is a Saint with a single, unique name and/or title. This saint has a single, existing, associated feast day.

Ex: St. Hedwig

Ex: Mary, Mother of God

-Somewhat Certain-

A Church’s Titular is a single Saint, and they have multiple feast days, but one of the feast days is very new an unlikely to be listed as a fest day for most locations named after that saint.

Ex: St. Joseph the Worker was established in 1955 while St. Joseph, *Spouse and Father was established in 1480. So any “St. Joesph’s Church” would be celebrated on the feast of “the Worker” if built prior to 1955.

A Church’s Titular is a Mystery of the faith under a unique name. This unique name is not exact but it correlates to a recognizable Mystery that has a single associated feast day.

Ex: Rosary Cathedral – Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary

Ex: The Blessed Sacrament - Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (aka. Corpus Christi)

A Church’s Titular is a single Saint with a common name, with no distinct titles, but the church building has official depicts of their Titular saint. That depicted saint has a single associated feast day.

Ex: St. Anthony (Depictions of St. Anthony of Padua vs. St. Anthony the Hermit)

Ex: St. Teresa (Depictions of St. Teresa of Calcutta vs. St. Teresa of Avila)

-Less Certain-

A Church’s Titulars are multiple Saints, however all these saints do not share a single feast day.

Ex: Both John the Baptist and John the Evangelist are honored in the full name of the Patriarchal Basilica of Saint John Lateran.

A Church’s Titular is a Mystery of the faith or a saint, but the name of the mystery/saint does not correlate to any existing feast days.

Ex: Christ of the Desert

Ex: Our Lady of the Plains

A Church’s Titular is a Saint with a common name, with no distinct titles, with no official indicators to any specific feast, and they have multiple feast days.

Ex: “St. Mary’s Church”

-Least Certain-

See where your churches fall on this “Scale of Certainty.” If a church falls in the first section of the scale, you can confidently believe that you have a correct Titular and feast day. If a church falls in the last section of the scale, and IF you plan to attempt this indulgence at that church, I would call into their office for accurate details. But notice that I say ‘IF.’ This is because I would actually recommendation that you consider doing a different plenary indulgence work and not do a Titular-indulgence.

It’s not that you can’t or shouldn't check into this information, I just haven’t had a lot of luck with calling into church offices for details. There are usually issues when I try to clarify a churches Titular because the records from when a church is first established is not readily available. The information is often archived away and it would take some digging to find. And, the big thing about this (and many other indulgences) is that if regualtions are set, and you attempt to do a plenary indulgence outside of the regulations (even if it's because you don't know the regulations of who/what and when), then that plenary indulgence will likely not be fulfilled. It will still likely be a partial indulgence, but not a plenary indulgence. This is why I personally would choose to do a grant that I have more details for and that I understand better, (like the grants that offer daily plenary indulgences, like praying a rosary or reading scripture).

This covers most of the information I wanted to cover, but there are still a few odds-and-ends notes that I want to address:

NOTE: I have made sure to do my research, but there may be some other information I’ve missed which would adjust my “Scale of Certainty.” For example: Some of my research suggests that the traditional way to determine odd or lacking Marian titles/feast is to place them on the feast of the Assumption. However, I have also heard that some Marian titles/feast may be placed on the feast of the Holy Name of Mary. If one of these facts is more correct then the other, that would adjust my Scale.

NOTE: Occasionally, a parish office will know their Titular details even though the details aren’t obvious. If not, and if you still wish to dig up an official Titular and their feast, records would be found either at the specific church office or at the diocesan office.

NOTE: You do not need to be a parishioner of a church in order to gain a Titular-indulgence.

NOTE: If a Titular feast date changes, then the Titular-indulgence follows that changed date. This makes sense for feasts like Corpus Christi which is not linked to a specific date, but rather a specific Sunday. Just note that this also applies to other feast that don’t usually move, like when the Feast of the Immaculate Conception was moved in recent years so as not to conflict with the usual Sunday liturgy.