What Does “Canonize” Mean in the Bible?
When the Pope declares that a person is a saint and is in heaven with God.
It can mean
- What it recognizes: that the person lived the virtues in a heroic way and was faithful to God’s grace.
- What for: to give us models, and people who pray for us.
- Careful: before being declared a saint, a person is declared Blessed.
Where it appears in the Bible
Hebrews 12:1
What the Bible says
Hebrews 12:1
And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us:
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catechism 828; RAE, “canonizar”