The Church does. More specifically, a bishop or a Holy Synod formally recognizes what the faithful have already seen, that someone lived in Christ and now intercedes for us.
But it’s not quite that simple. The Orthodox Church doesn’t have a Vatican office processing sainthood applications with checklists and miracle quotas. We’ve never worked that way. Sainthood isn’t something the Church manufactures through a legal process. It’s something the Church recognizes.
How It Actually Happens
Here’s the pattern. Someone dies. Maybe it’s a martyr, maybe a bishop, maybe a monk or nun known for holiness. People start venerating them. They visit the grave. They ask for prayers. They light candles. Word spreads. Decades pass, sometimes centuries. The veneration continues or even grows.
Eventually, and this is where the formal process begins, clergy and faithful gather testimony. They document the person’s life. They collect accounts of answered prayers or miracles. They submit all this to the local bishop or the Holy Synod of their Church.
The Synod examines everything. They’re looking for evidence of a Christ-like life, for spiritual fruit, for sustained veneration by the people. If they discern that this person truly lived in the image of God and that the Church should formally commemorate them, they issue an act of glorification. That’s our word for it, though “canonization” works too.
Then comes the public part. The Church composes hymns and services for the saint. An icon is written and unveiled. A feast day gets assigned. Other Orthodox Churches are notified so they can add the name to their calendars. The person’s life is published. What was local and informal becomes universal and liturgical.
The Early Church Did It Differently
In the first centuries, there wasn’t much formal process at all. Martyrs were venerated immediately at their tombs. Bishops participated in and blessed this veneration. Nobody filed paperwork. The liturgical remembrance itself was the recognition.
St. Polycarp died in 155 AD, and the Christians of Smyrna were celebrating his martyrdom anniversary right away. No synod met. No investigation happened. The Church just knew.
Over time, as the Church grew and false claims arose, a more deliberative approach developed. But even now, Orthodox canonization resists becoming a rigid legal procedure. We don’t have the Roman Catholic system with its stages and devil’s advocate and required miracle count. That feels foreign to us. We trust that the Spirit moves in the Church, in the people’s veneration, and in the bishops’ discernment.
Popular Veneration Comes First
This matters. The people usually recognize a saint before the hierarchy does. The Church’s official act doesn’t make someone a saint. It confirms what’s already true. It authorizes and standardizes the veneration so everyone can participate liturgically.
Think of St. Raphael of Brooklyn, the first Orthodox bishop consecrated in North America. He died in 1915. The Antiochian faithful venerated him for decades. Finally, in 2000, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America canonized him. They didn’t create his sanctity. They recognized it and gave us the services and icon so we could properly honor him in our worship.
That’s how it works. The grass roots and the hierarchy both play a role. The people’s sustained veneration testifies to genuine holiness. The bishops’ formal recognition brings that veneration into the Church’s official life.
Who Has the Authority?
A local bishop can bless veneration within his diocese. But for wider recognition, you need the Holy Synod of an autocephalous Church, the Patriarchate of Antioch, the Orthodox Church in America, the Church of Greece, whatever the local Church is. They make the decision and notify the other Orthodox Churches.
Sometimes a saint is recognized locally for centuries before gaining universal recognition. Sometimes the process moves faster. There’s no set timeline. The Church takes her time. We’re not in a hurry. If someone’s truly a saint, that doesn’t change whether we formally recognize it this year or in fifty years.
What About Southeast Texas?
I know this can feel distant when you’re in Beaumont and your Baptist coworkers think saints are a Catholic thing. But the communion of saints is real. These aren’t dead heroes we’re commemorating. They’re alive in Christ, praying for us, closer to us than they ever were in their earthly lives.
When the Church canonizes someone, she’s saying: this life shows you what it looks like to be united with God. Follow this example. Ask this saint’s prayers. Let their icon remind you that holiness is possible, that the image of God can shine through a human life.
And yes, the bishops decide. But they’re listening to what the whole Church already knows.
