Veneration (Latin veneratio, Greek δουλεία, douleia), or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a saint: an angel, or a dead person who has been identified by a church committee as singular in the traditions of the religion. Philologically, to venerate derives from the Latin verb, venerare, meaning to regard with reverence and respect.

Within Christianity, veneration is practiced by groups such as the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic, and Eastern Catholic Churches. In some Christian denominations, veneration is shown outwardly by respectfully bowing or making the sign of the cross before a saint's icon, relics, or statue. The practice of veneration is deemed heretical by iconoclastic denominations.

In Islam, veneration of saints is one overt distinction between sects such as the Shi'a and "folklorist" Sufi which venerate saints, and other sects, such as Sunnis and Wahhabists, which abhor the practice

In Roman Catholic, and Orthodox theology, veneration is a type of honor distinct from the adoration due to God alone. According to Deacon Dr. Mark Miravelle, of Franciscan University of Steubenville, the English word "worship" has been associated with both veneration and adoration:

William A. Albrecht (1888–1974) PhD, Chairman of the Department of Soils at the University of Missouri, was the foremost authority on the relation of soil fertility to human health and earned four degrees from the University of Illinois. As emeritus Professor of Soils at the University of Missouri he saw a direct link between soil quality, food quality and human health. He drew direct connections between poor quality forage crops, and ill health in livestock and from this developed a formula for ideal ratios of cations in the soil, the Base Cation Saturation Ratio. While he did not discover cation exchange in the soil as is sometimes supposed, he may have been the first to associate it with colloidal clay particles.

Twenty years before the phrase 'environmental concern' crept into the national consciousness, he was lecturing from coast to coast on the broad topic of agricultural ecology. (C. Edmund Marshall, In Memoriam, 'Plant and Soil' vol 48.)

William Albrecht was born of German ancestry on a farm on the prairie of north central Illinois in the Mid-West United States. After attending the local school he progressed via preparatory school to the University of Illinois where he obtained a B.A. degree in liberal arts.This led to a position teaching Latin and other subjects at Bluffton University, Ohio.