Hello, I am writing an essay about Charles IV., the Holy Roman Emperor in the 14th century.
It is known how he adored Charlemagne and I got into a very interesting topic - is Charlemagne considered a saint? I have searched the internet and mostly found that no, he was not fully canonized, only Blessed.
I would love to agree with that, but I live in Prague (as you have probably all ready guessed, because we take Charles IV. very seriously here) and we have a church called Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. Charles the Great. Yep, the construction began during the reign of Charles IV.
This is where it gets it gets ugly - I don't think that the Catholic church recognizes Charlemagne as a saint, yet they own a building that implies he is one - how is that possible?
Thank you for the answers!
EDIT:Just some quick info about the church, that it really exists: CLICK
The absence of a papal canonization does not mean that you cannot venerate someone as a saint. Indeed, the formation and promulgation of a saint's cult is a necessary step in obtaining a canonization. The fact that Charlemagne is beatus constitutes official recognition that such a cult does exist. For him to be declared sanctus, the cult would need to be widespread with confirmed miracles, etc.
In addition, the papacy did not begin to reserve for itself the right to declare someone a saint until the twelfth century, half a millennium after Charlemagne's death. But this process was concerned with declaring new saints, not reaffirming old and established ones.