The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Canonization

in the Catholic and Orthodox churches the inclusion of some person in the list of saints. In Catholicism it is an act that has been strictly defined with respect to law and public worship. The church-wide method of canonization was introduced by Pope Alexander III during the second half of the 12th century and was fixed in 1200 by Innocent III; the right to canonize became the exclusive prerogative of the Roman popes. In implementing canonization the church always pursues political aims.

Orthodoxy does not have as strict a system of canonization as Catholicism. In Russia church-wide canonization was introduced in the 16th century and was placed under the tsar’s control; from the time of Peter I it was implemented by imperial decree upon the recommendation of the synod.

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References in periodicals archive

He will be the second American-born male to be beatified, after Fr.

Beloved friar known for cures, wise counsel to be beatified Nov. 18

John Paul II, the first non-Italian Pope since Hadrian VI (1522-1523), beatified more individuals than all of his predecessors combined over the previous four centuries (when we look at blessed persons who are non-martyrs).

Protestant competition is good for saints

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis praised Sunday a Syriac Catholic bishop who has been beatified in Lebanon, a century after he his beheading by Ottoman forces during a wave of religiously motivated killings in Syria.

Beheaded bishop beatified a century after death

A: Once a person is beatified, there needs to be an official certification of a second miracle.

Some beatification facts

"They were taken as sheep to the slaughter amid a chaos of hatred and confusion." These emotional words were spoken recently by the nephew of one of the 22 newly beatified martyrs in Madrid, Spain.

Beatification of 22 martyred oblates

--Alan Garcia, the outgoing president of Peru, claiming that the fact that Osama bin Laden was found and killed on the same day that Pope John Paul II was beatified was no coincidence.

I have said that his first miracle has been to remove

Pope John Paul II was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday

SNAPSHOT OF THE WORLD

POPE Benedict XVI beatified Pope John Paul II before a million people who jammed into St Peter's Square and surrounding streets, moving the beloved former pontiff one step closer to possible sainthood.

Ecstatic scenes as ex-Pope beatified

AS POPE JOHN PAUL II IS BEATIFIED MAY 1 BEFORE hundreds of thousands in St.

Blessed are you: how do we honor a pope whose complexities are still fresh in our memory?

The pontiff, who died in 2005, will be beatified on 1 May and the page on the social-networking site will link to video highlights of his 27-year papacy, The Independent reports.

Vatican to unveil Facebook page for Pope John Paul II this week

THE Pope has approved a miracle attributed to the late Pope John Paul II and set May 1 as the date for him to be beatified.

Pope John Paul to be beatified; WORLDBULLETINS