St. Charlemagne's Day

Charlemagne wasn't actually a saint at all; he was an emperor and the first ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, crowned in 800 by Pope Leo III. Although he was never able to read and write himself, Charlemagne, whose name means "Charles the Great," founded the University of Paris. In fact, his reign was marked by a huge cultural revival, including significant advances in scholarship, literature, and philosophy. He died on January 28, 814. More...

he real was charles the emperor

Saint Charlemagne?

The cultus of Charlemagne provides an illuminating example of this system of recognition. Three and a half centuries after his death, in 1165, Charlemagne was canonized by the anti-pope Paschal III. The Catholic Church never officially recognized Paschal III’s canonization of the Carolingian emperor, however, and in fact, all of Paschal III’s pronouncements were eventually abrogated in 1179 by the Third Lateran Council. This wholesale repudiation of Paschal III and his decisions would presumably have included his canonization of Charlemagne.

Despite the rejection of Charlemagne’s canonization, a local cultus that had developed around the emperor persisted and spread to parts of Germany, Belgium, and France. No subsequent pope protested the cultus, so it endured for several centuries with the tacit permission of Rome. In the 18th century, Pope Benedict XIV confirmed the cultus, though apparently not as an official papal act. Ultimately, because the cultus continued to exist with the permission of the Church, Charlemagne is considered beatified. Charlemagne, therefore, can be referred to as Blessed Charlemagne; however, he is not Saint Charlemagne.


http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/einhard.asp#EINHARD’S%20PREFACE.