venerate

venerate \VEN-uh-rayt\, transitive verb:

To treat someone or something with deep respect, reverence or deference; to revere.

They venerated the same saints, worshipped in the same churches, and respected a past of shared values.
-- Miranda Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian

They venerated the gods of fire and water.
-- Paul Theroux, Hotel Honolulu

I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Venerate comes from Latin veneratus, past participle of venerari, "to revere, to respect, to worship," from venus, vener-, "charm, loveliness."