Frostmarking the Saints
The Rite of Canonization
Frostmarking the Saints is the solemn rite by which the church declares a departed servant of the Cold to be certainly kept among the Rimebound Saints — the Frostian “canonization.” To frostmark a saint is to set the church’s seal upon what the Cold has already done: to name them publicly as a friend and intercessor and to appoint their feast and patronage.
The Process
The rite follows a careful examining: the witness of a holy life lived in the Crystalline Virtues; signs of keeping after death (the chief being incorrupt relics — bodies that do not rot, a foretaste of the Reforging); and attested miracles “worked by the Cold at their asking.” Where all are found, the bishops (in the The Hoarfrost Communion, the The Rime Pontiff) proclaim the saint, enroll the name, and translate the relics to honor. The rite insists the saints are venerated, not worshipped — “we frostmark them; we adore the Cold alone.”