The culmination of a lengthy process in the Roman Catholic Church whereby, after a long process of enquiry, a deceased individual is declared a saint, or entitled to public veneration. It confers various honours, such as a festival day, and the dedication of churches to his/her memory. In the Orthodox Church, there is a similar but less formal procedure.
Canonization is the process of declaring someone a saint and involves proving that a candidate has lived in such a way that he or she qualifies for this. It's incorrect to refer to the church as "making" someone a saint, since a person's saintliness does not rely on the canonization process, which is regarded as one of fact-finding. It is currently practised by the Catholic Church (including the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches), by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and by the Oriental Orthodox Churches (the Church of England does not rule out canonization, but it has only ever canonized one man: Charles I of England).
Historical development of the process
According to some writers the origin of beatification and canonization in the Catholic Church is the ancient pagan apotheosis.
The Catholic Church, on the other hand, canonizes or beatifies only those whose lives have been marked by heroic virtue, and only after this has been proved by common repute for sanctity and by conclusive arguments. Finally, the Church sees saints as nothing more than friends and servants of God whose holy lives have nevertheless made them worthy of His special love.
The origin of canonization and beatification comes from the Catholic doctrine of the devotion to, invocation and intercession of the saints. As was taught by St. Augustine, Catholics honour God in His saints as the loving distributor of supernatural gifts. Honor and humble reverence, or doulia (δουλια), is given to the saints. The Church erects altars to God alone, though in honour and memory of the saints and martyrs.
The basis of prayer to saints is simply that, as believers can help each other with prayers (intercessory prayer) while living, so they may pray for the living after their deaths.
A different service is provided by the beatified in the celebrations of their feasts.
It follows naturally that for the public veneration of saints the ecclesiastical authority of the pastors and rulers of the Church was constantly required. The Church did not grant liturgical honours indiscriminately to all those who had died for the Faith.
The first practice of beatification and canonization was directed toward martyrs. The bishop inquired into the motive of his death and, finding he had died a martyr, sent his name with an account of his martyrdom to other churches, especially neighboring ones, so that, in event of approval by their respective bishops, the cultus of the martyr might extend to their churches also.
The honoring of "confessors" -- of those, that is, who died peacefully after a life of heroic virtue -- is not as ancient as that of the martyrs. In the beginning, "confessor" denoted only those who confessed Christ when examined in the presence of enemies of the Faith, or, as Pope Benedict XIV explains, to those who died peacefully after having confessed the faith before tyrants or other enemies of the Christian religion, and undergone tortures or suffered other punishments of whatever nature.
Later on, the names of confessors were inserted in the diptychs, and due reverence was paid them.
For several centuries the bishops, in some places only the primates and patriarchs, could grant martyrs and confessors public ecclesiastical honor; Still, it was only the Bishop of Rome's (Pope's) acceptance of the honor that made it universal, since he alone could permit or command in the Universal Church. Abuses, however, crept into this form of discipline, due to popular fervour and the carelessness of some bishops in inquiring into the lives of those whom they permitted to be honored as saints. Towards the close of the eleventh century the popes found it necessary to restrict episcopal authority on this point and decreed that the virtues and miracles of persons proposed for public veneration should be examined in councils. Pope Alexander III (1159 - 1181) prohibited popular veneration in these words: "For the future you will not presume to pay him reverence, as, even though miracles were worked through him, it would not allow you to revere him as a saint unless with the authority of the Roman Church." Some bishops did not obey it in as far as it regarded beatification (which right they had certainly possessed before this), so Urban VII published, in 1634, a Bull which put an end to all discussion by reserving to the Holy See exclusively not only its immemorial right of canonization, but also that of beatification.
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia, so may be out of date, or reflect the point of view of the Catholic Church as of 1913. It should be edited to reflect broader and more recent perspectives.
Current practice
The 1983 reform of the Catholic Church's canon law has streamlined the procedure considerably compared to the process carried out previously. The new process was established by Pope John Paul II, in his apostolic constitution of January 25, 1983, Divinus Perfectionis Magister, and by Pietro Cardinal Palazzini, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in the New Laws for the Causes of Saints, published on February 7, 1983.
The process begins at the diocesan level, with the bishop giving permission to open an investigation of the virtues of the person who is suspected of having been a saint. However, the pope has the authority to waive this waiting period, as was done for Mother Teresa by Pope John Paul II as well as for John Paul II himself by his immediate successor, Benedict XVI.
The next step depends on whether the Venerable is a martyr. For a martyr, the pope has only to make a declaration of martyrdom, which then allows beatification, yielding the title "Blessed" and a feast day in the Blessed's home diocese and perhaps some other local calendars. Today, these miracles are almost always miraculous cures, as these are the easiest to establish based on the Catholic Church's requirements for a "miracle." (The patient was sick, there was no known cure for the ailment, prayers were directed to the Venerable, the patient was cured, and doctors cannot explain it.)
To pass from Blessed to Saint, one (more) miracle is necessary. A saint's feast day is considered universal, and may be celebrated anywhere within the Catholic church, although it may or may not appear on the general calendar.
In the case of persons that common usage has called saints from "time immemorial" (in practice, since before 1500 or so), the Church may carry out a "confirmation of cultus", which is much simpler. For example, Saint Hermann Joseph had his veneration confirmed by Pope John Paul II.
Previous practice
Main article: Historical process of beatification and canonization
The process for making a saint was considerably more involved.
Two additional miracles were required for the canonization.
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