The Smell of Holiness is a sweet scent associated with saints, both living and dead. It can also refer to a state of grace. The idea originated in the early medieval period when local Church officials canonized saints. The odor is often associated with incorruptibility and is no longer used to determine sainthood. Some saints, such as Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, were said to emit the scent of roses at the time of their death. The odor is also said to characterize the wounds of saints, especially those with stigmata.
In Catholic belief, the Smell of Holiness is a sweet, floral scent emanating from the wounds of saints or from the saints themselves after their death. The Smell of Holiness is sometimes said to accompany living saints. The term Smell of Holiness can also be used metaphorically to refer to a state of grace, and many theologians today do not give much weight to the olfactory phenomenon it describes. The odor of holiness is often associated with incorruptibility, with the inability of a saint’s body to decompose after death.
The idea of the Smell of Holiness is thought to have arisen during the early medieval period, when saints were canonized by local Church officials rather than the Holy See. People who had known a presumed saint in his lifetime would attest to his sanctity and push for canonization, while the bishop in charge of the decision would look for signs attesting to holiness. The bodies of potential saints were sometimes exhumed for this purpose, and both incorruptibility and the reek of sainthood were considered convincing signs of sainthood. Today canonization is the responsibility of the Holy See, the central government of the Catholic Church, and tests such as those described above are no longer used to determine sainthood; instead, a rigorous examination of the life of each potential saint is conducted.
Some saints are said to have emitted a strong odor of holiness that lasted for days immediately after their death. In particular, Saint Teresa of Avila, known for her mystical religious writings, and Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, who stressed simplicity of life and faith, were said to fill their respective convents with the scent of roses at the time of death. The Odor of Holiness is also said to characterize the wounds of saints, especially the stigmata, which spontaneously form wounds that mirror those of Christ during the crucifixion. Padre Pio, an Italian priest and saint, had stigmata that had lasted for 50 years and presumably smelled of roses.
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