Canonical eulogy IDs

Every eulogy on this site has an identifier, such as mr:0102-telesphorus. This page explains why, and the rules that form one.

Why identifiers

The same eulogy appears in many editions and languages, worded differently, numbered differently, and sometimes on another day. To say "this eulogy" across all of them, it needs a name that belongs to none of them. An identifier lets one:

• cite a eulogy without quoting it, in any language;
• set two editions side by side, eulogy by eulogy;
• attach data to it: its subject, its places, its notes;
• keep that name when a text is corrected or a new edition appears.

The form: mr:MMDD-slug

An identifier has two parts after the prefix mr::

• MMDD, the month and day on which the edition prints the eulogy: 0102 is 2 January. For the eulogies of the current book this is the day of the editio typica altera of 2004.
• The slug, the name of the eulogy's first-named subject in the Latin nominative, in lowercase ASCII, with no honorific (sanctus, beatus): telesphorus, basilius-magnus-et-gregorius-nazianzenus.

The registry holds 4,640 current identifiers, for the eulogies of the 2004 edition, and 1,616 deprecated ones (see Deprecated IDs).

What is identity, and what is not

• The day is part of the identity. A eulogy that an edition prints on another day has its own identifier there; the two are linked as the same eulogy (same_eulogy), never merged.
• Entry number, asterisk and unnumbered status are not. They belong to each edition: the 2004 Latin and the Italian edition may number a day differently, or asterisk different entries, and the identifier stays the same.
• The text is not. An identifier names the eulogy, not its wording, so it survives corrections and translations.
• Identifiers are unique, and within a day no two share a slug.

Building the slug

The slug is the Latin nominative of the first-named subject, folded to plain letters:

• the genitive of the text turned back to the nominative: sancti Basilii → basilius;
• lowercase, words joined by hyphens, diacritics folded (æ → ae, ł → l), classical i for j: ioannes, not joannes;
• no honorific, and no numbers: same-day namesakes are told apart by a place or an epithet (mr:0408-dionysius-corinthi), never by -2;
• one name form, never a mix of two; for a consecrated person, the secular name (see below);
• papal ordinals in roman numerals (pius-v); other regnal ordinals as Latin words (ludovicus-nonus);
• an epithet the eulogy gives with cognomento is kept: petrus-chrysologus.

Religious and secular names

A religious often has two names: the one given at baptism and the one taken in religion. The 2004 Latin usually prints both, the secular name in parentheses: sancti Raphaélis a Sancto Ioseph (Ioséphi) Kalinowski. The slug takes the secular name and surname, mr:1115-iosephus-kalinowski, and the religious name, Raphael a Sancto Ioseph, is kept as another name of the person. The secular name is preferred because:

• it is less likely to collide: religious names repeat across congregations and centuries (three saints and blesseds are Maria a Iesu, three Maria ab Incarnatione);
• it is generally shorter, with no title or place (a Sancto Ioseph, ab Immaculata Conceptione);
• it is less obscure: records, biographies and Wikidata use the baptismal name and surname.

The exception is a religious name so widely used that the saint is known by it, like Pio of Pietrelcina (mr:0923-pius-de-pietrelcina): then the religious name makes the slug, and the secular name is the other name. Never a mix of the two: not raphael-kalinowski. These identifiers are being renamed after review.

Several subjects and groups

Feasts and titled saints

Feasts of the Lord, of Mary and other celebrations take a set phrase, without sancti/sanctae, except for the name of a church, the Holy Cross, All Saints and beatae Mariae. Prophets keep -propheta, the Twelve -apostolus (mr:0629-petrus-et-paulus-apostoli), the evangelists -evangelista.

No bare names

A single name alone, like dominicus, says little: many saints share it. So a single-name slug takes a discriminator, the first of these that applies:

1. the surname, when the saint is commonly known by it;
2. the place, in the Latin genitive: a bishop's see, an abbot's monastery, otherwise the place of death (Dominic, who died at Bologna, is drafted as dominicus-bononiae);
3. an epithet, when there is no surname and no place: -papa for a pope with no ordinal, a biblical title, or a byname the eulogy gives.

The same saint carries the same discriminator on every day. These discriminators are being drafted for the whole registry and are under review.

Deprecated IDs

Older editions contain eulogies that the 2004 book does not print, or prints on another day. Each has its own identifier, marked deprecated, with the edition it is attested in (attested_in) and, where there is one, a link to the same eulogy elsewhere. For example, mr:0102-martinianus is the eulogy of Martinian that the 1749 edition prints on 2 January; the 2004 edition prints it on 29 December, as mr:1229-martinianus. Deprecated identifiers follow the same rules and are never reused.

Recognizability

The aim of all these rules is that a reader can recognize the eulogy from its identifier: who it is, and where needed, which one. Whether an identifier achieves that is a judgement that needs readers; see How to contribute.