Canonisation 'by Acclamation'

Who canonised S Brendan? Or S Colman moccu Loigse? I can tell you: S Columba. Supernaturally enlightened, he ordered extra ordinem a celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist, and, in the case of S Colman, ordered the chanters during the actual celebration itself to include the newly-departed Holy One.

During the first Christian millennium, the custom arose of seeking Papal agency in canonisations; my impression is that this was mostly in order to enhance the solemnity of the procedings ... and hence, of the Saint ... and hence, of a sponsoring political entity. 

But Canonisation by popular acclaim never quite disappeared. I have on several occasions drawn your attention to King Henry VI (obiit 1471), and the shrines and pilgrimages associated with this never-canonised Saint; and Michael Hodges's magnificent recent The Golden Legend brings together information and raises new questions. 

In 'East Anglia', Hodges lists eight paintings of Henry VI; of those, two have readable inscriptions, and, in each case, the words are Rex Henricus Sextus. 'Sanctus' (or Scs) does not occur. Three of the paintings show Henry with a halo.

This suggests to me that artists and worshippers were well aware that the King did not have the formal status which would have secured the title Saint. But a halo, surely, does suggest sanctity. 

This record also lists four examples of Sir John Schorne ('Sir' is the form by which the medievals addressed and referred to a priest who was not a graduate). A never-canonised parish priest of North Marston in Buckinghamshire, Schorne died in 1313.

Michael Hodges lists four representations of Sir John: I cannot see that any of them bears a text enabling us to discern whether he is addressed as sancte or described as sanctus. But three of them, I think, have haloes.

I'm not quite sure where these snippets of pointers leave us.

(I was uncertain whether to be irritated by the fact that Michael refers to Essex as part of East Anglia. As a determined Essex Man, I had always thought I might count as an East Saxon, rather than as an Angular. But since childhood, I concede, I have seen myself as a citizen of the Roman Colonia Claudia Victricensis Camulodensium, rather than of any terrible group of invading Teutons. So it must be OK.)