Canonization

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Canonization. The action by which the Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint. (The word can also refer broadly to a church's official approval of a doctrine, writing, etc.) In the Roman Catholic Church since c.13th cent. it has been reserved to the pope. According to present canon law the process begins with beatification. This allows the pope to confer the title ‘Blessed’ and to permit the public veneration of the beatified person in a particular place or among a religious order. Thereafter, if further miracles are attested, the cause may be taken up again, and if it is favourably concluded, the servant of God is declared a saint. In the Orthodox Church canonizations are usually made by synods of bishops of an autocephalous church, but sometimes a cult comes to be accepted without formal authority.

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