canonization
CulturalExplanation
Canonization is the official act by which the Roman Catholic Church or other Christian denomination declares a person to be a saint. It's only after the person has died that canonization can occur. One way to define canonization is "officially placing in the canon of saints," from the Latin canon, "church rule or calendar of saints." In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, only the Pope can complete a person's canonization, adding the new name to the church's list of saints. But the process has many steps and can take years: The well-known saint Joan of Arc died in 1431, but her canonization wasn't official until 1920.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Organized by MoMA’s Ann Temkin and Michelle Kuo and Philadelphia’s Matthew Affron, “Marcel Duchamp” functions as a multi-museum-sanctioned liturgy—the canonization of contemporary art’s high priest, along with his orthodoxy.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 30, 2026
An essential biography, “The Woman of Her Age” by Fiona Maddocks, followed Hildegard’s canonization by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 7, 2025
Church bells rang out and fireworks burst in the sky Sunday as Venezuela -- mired in crisis -- welcomed the canonization of two of its people as saints.
From Barron's • Oct. 19, 2025
Other Scots were already intending to be in Rome for the canonization of teenage saint Carlo Acutis.
From BBC • Apr. 25, 2025
The elfin nun from Santo Domingo is crazy about saints, often identifying the holy ones long before the Vatican even contemplates their canonization.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
