Protestants and Saints

[Whickerman]

As some of you will know i'm a non-Christian, but was raised Catholic. That was just to give full disclosure. Anyway, I've just been watching Dibley and a thought struck me. The Catholics have been happily canonizing hundreds of new Saints over the past few decades and these will (I'd imagine but am happy to be corrected) have no place in modern Protestant beliefs. Yet pre-reformation Saints are still recognised as such by Protestants, in title if not in a liturgical sense, as witnessed by such things as church names etc.
So the questions - what makes the person who's canonized now any less worthy of recognition and the title than say, St Francis? Is there any mechanism within mainstream Protestantism to elevate someone to the Sainthood?

(And this isn't to stifle answers - I know people are still referred to as saintly and there's a special place in people's hearts for the deceased, but I'm referring to the title 'Saint' as a prefix title, capital S)

[Clanad]

Not really... However there are Protestant denominations, at least here in the U.S., that are only slightly removed (at least in my opinion) from those of the historical Roman Church. Certain varieties of Lutheran and the U.S. version of the Anglican church, the Episcopalians still at least refer to the Catholic lists of venerated.. Many Lutheran churches are named after the Catholic Saints, i.e., St. Peter's or St. Paul.
However, even among those bodies there's not a mechanism to elevate someone to sainthood. Nor do most U.S. Protestant assemblies hold anything approaching veneration for any of the Roman Saints.

The first 4 books of the the New Covenant are, of course, named St. Matthew's Gospel... etc. However, this simply reflects the titles used in the King James translation of A.D.1611...

[Ankou]

in a catholic sense the term "saint" refers to any person in heaven—however, since the 10th century, the title "saint" is only given to persons who have been officially recognized by the church. in the days when the church of england was in union with the roman catholic church, recognition was in the form of canonization. those martys and confessors given the title traditionally, prior to the establishment of the canonization process or since the break with rome, are generally still considered both "saints" and "saints." the title "hero" is sometimes used as well, more often to refer to those saints who have lived and died since the time of the reformation. these days they tend to have commemoraitons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commemoration_(observance)

i suppose josephine butler would be a modern-ish example. in the church of england she is celebrated with a lesser festival on 30 may. she is also represented in windows in liverpool's anglican cathedral, and st olave's church in the city of london.