canonize \KAN-uh-nahyz, verb:

1. To glorify and honor.
2. Ecclesiastical. to place in the canon of saints.
3. To consider or treat as sacrosanct or holy.

She is a theme of honor and renown, a spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds, whose present courage may beat down our foes, and fame in time to come canonize us, for I presume brave Hector would not lose.
— William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida: Act 2, Scene 2

There are an awful lot of sanctimonious people out there who expect everyone else to canonize them because they’re going around like hall monitors confiscating all the ashtrays.
— Christopher Buckley,Thank You for Smoking: A Novel

The original meaning of canonize is “to place someone in the canon or calendar of saints.” Canon relates to the Greek kannon, “a measuring rod.”