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Praying To The Saints

Objections are sometimes raised to the Catholic Apostolic National Church’s teaching on prayer to the saints. This objection is often based upon a misunderstanding between what Protestants and Catholic Apostolic National Churchs (in unison with Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox) understand prayer to be. Prayer, for most Protestant Churches, is worship and adoration due to God and God alone. This understanding of the word prayer is newer than the traditional meaning of the word, in which Catholic Apostolic National Churchs understand it to mean. In traditional usage of the word “prayer” in English, it simply means “to ask” or to make a request of someone. In the traditional usage of the word “pray” throughout history, we see, in old English usage “Pray thee” used in normal conversation. In legal documents, even in use in courts today in the U.S., lawyers still use the form term, “wherefore we pray this honorable court to rule in favor of…” For Catholic Apostolic National Churches, having this more ancient and traditionally proper understanding of the word, prayer does not only mean praise and adoration due to God and God alone. Prayer can also be simple communication, and so we can communicate, speak and ask the saints in heaven to pray for us and with us, to God for our petition. Some objectors would say that this undermines the sole mediation of Christ, but does not, and is no different than asking a fellow Christian, who is here on earth with you, to pray for you when you are ill or in need, or with you to God for some great need.

As Catholic Apostolic National Church faithful, we believe that the Church here on earth, the Church undergoing purgation and the Church in Heaven are spiritually connected through Christ Jesus. Because we are one body in Christ, as Scripture teaches us, the members of the Church are connected supernaturally through the power of God. The Book of Revelation teaches us that the prayers and petitions of the saints are brought before the altar of God, so we know that their prayers are heard. What would the saints in heaven pray for? They are in Heaven, in the presence of God, and have need for nothing. It must be our prayers and petitions that they, in unison with us, ask God for, and so their prayers are brought before His holy altar. For if “the prayers of a righteous man availeth much”, how much more then, do the prayers of the saints in Heaven availeth us, when they pray with us and for us, asking God to grant our petitions?

For persons who are fond of Protestant “altar calls”, how much greater of an altar call can one have, when the very saints in Heaven are praying with you and for you to God for your petition? This is no different than asking a fellow parishioner or the priest to pray with you and for you to God to answer your petition with regard to some hardship or illness you or a loved one may be going through. And because we know, through Scripture, that the angels and the saints are aware of us and our actions here on earth, and that their prayers and petitions are brought before God, how much more will God hear our prayers when joined by those of the saints already in heaven.

This is not a substitution of the divine mediatorship of Christ the Creator, with the mediatorship of the saints. Such a notion would indicate a profound lack of understanding of the “communion of saints” we profess in the Nicene Creed, believed by the vast majority of Christians, and all of the ancient Churches established by the Apostles themselves.

"‘And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"? He is not God of the dead, but of the living . . .’" (Mark 12:26-27)

"Pray at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me . . ." (Eph. 6:18)

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely . . ." (Heb. 12:1)

"And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints . . ." (Rev. 5:8)

We even see, in scripture, examples of prayers making their way to God assisted by angels. In Genesis we read of Jacob, on his deathbed, praying that the angel who had protected him, bless his grandchildren. In the book of Tobias, we read that the angel Raphael, upon revealing himself to Tobias, informed him that when Tobias prayed in his times of sorrow, that he offered Tobias’ prayers to God.

How do we know that those saints and angels in Heaven even are aware of what happens on earth? In the book of Luke we see that the angels rejoice when a sinner repents. (Luke 15:10) In 1 Corinthians 4:9, we are taught by St. Paul, “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.” So scripture teaches that the angels and saints in Heaven see what we know and in seeing what is in the heart of a penitent sinner, sees the condition of our soul. This is the teaching from Scripture and is witnessed and testified to by the Early Church.

"[An] angel came and stood at the altar [in heaven] with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God." (Rev. 8:3–4)

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 18:10)
The Shepherd of Hermas

”But those who are weak and slothful in prayer, hesitate to ask anything from the Lord; but the Lord is full of compassion, and gives without fail to all who ask him. But you, [Hermas,] having been strengthened by the holy angel, and having obtained from him such intercession, and not being slothful, why do not you ask of the Lord understanding, and receive it from him?’" (The Shepherd 3:5:4 [A.D. 80]) 12

St. Clement of Alexandria

"So is he always pure for prayer. He also prays in the society of angels, as being already of angelic rank, and he is never out of their holy keeping; and though he pray alone, he has the choir of the saints standing with him." (Miscellanies 7:12 [A.D. 208]) 13

In praying to the saints and angels for assistance, we do not ask them to provide for our petitions based on their own merit or authority, but rather we ask them to pray for us, and with us, through the merits of Christ Jesus – as we also ask Christ to assist us through His own gracious mercy, pardon and merits.

In the Early Church we find multiple examples that this was common Christian practice, and not something alien to the faith, nor something added in later years. Through their examples we see the true practice of the Church, from the time of the Apostles down to present days. Their historical witness cannot be ignored, nor nullified.

St. Cyprian of Carthage

"Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides always pray for one another. Let us relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love, that if any one of us, by the swiftness of divine condescension, shall go hence the first, our love may continue in the presence of the Lord, and our prayers for our brethren and sisters not cease in the presence of the Father's mercy." (Letters 56[60]:5 [A.D. 253]) 14

St. Methodius

"Hail to you for ever, Virgin Mother of God, our unceasing joy, for to you do I turn again. You are the beginning of our feast; you are its middle and end; the pearl of great price that belongs to the kingdom; the fat of every victim, the living altar of the Bread of Life [Christ]. Hail, you treasure of the love of God. Hail, you fount of the Son’s love for man. . . . You gleamed, sweet gift-bestowing Mother, with the light of the sun; you gleamed with the insupportable fires of a most fervent charity, bringing forth in the end that which was conceived of you . . . making manifest the mystery hidden and unspeakable, the invisible Son of the Father—the Prince of Peace, who in a marvelous manner showed himself as less than all littleness." (Oration on Simeon and Anna 14 [A.D. 305]) 15

"Therefore, we pray you [i.e., we ask of you], the most excellent among women, who glories in the confidence of your maternal honors, that you would unceasingly keep us in remembrance. O holy Mother of God, remember us, I say, who make our boast in you, and who in august hymns celebrate the memory, which will ever live, and never fade away." (ibid)

"And you also, O honored and venerable Simeon, you earliest host of our holy religion, and teacher of the resurrection of the faithful, do be our patron and advocate with that Savior God, whom you were deemed worthy to receive into your arms. We, together with you, sing our praises to Christ, who has the power of life and death, saying, ‘You are the true Light, proceeding from the true Light; the true God, begotten of the true God.’" (ibid)

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

”Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, that at their prayers and intercessions God would receive our petition. Then on behalf also of the Holy Fathers and Bishops who have fallen asleep before us, and in a word of all who in past years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very great benefit to the souls, for whom the supplication is put up, while that holy and most awful sacrifice is set forth." (Catechetical Lectures 23:9 [A.D. 350]) 16

St. Ephraim the Syrian

"You victorious martyrs who endured torments gladly for the sake of the God and Savior, you who have boldness of speech toward the Lord himself, you saints, intercede for us who are timid and sinful men, full of sloth, that the grace of Christ may come upon us, and enlighten the hearts of all of us so that we may love him." (Commentary on Mark [A.D. 370]) 17

"Remember me, you heirs of God, you brethren of Christ; supplicate the Savior earnestly for me, that I may be freed through Christ from him that fights against me day by day." (The Fear at the End of Life [A.D. 370]) 18

The Liturgy of St. Basil

"By the command of your only-begotten Son we communicate with the memory of your saints . . . by whose prayers and supplications have mercy upon us all, and deliver us for the sake of your holy name." (Liturgy of St. Basil [A.D. 373]) 19

Pectorius

"Aschandius, my father, dearly beloved of my heart, with my sweet mother and my brethren, remember your Pectorius in the peace of the Fish [Jesus]." (Epitaph of Pectorius [A.D. 375]) 20

St. Gregory of Nazianz

"May you [referring to the deceased St. Cyprian] look down from above propitiously upon us, and guide our word and life; and shepherd this sacred flock . . . gladden the Holy Trinity, before which you stand." (Orations 17[24] [A.D. 380]) 21

"Yes, I am well assured that [my father’s] intercession is of more avail now than was his instruction in former days, since he is closer to God, now that he has shaken off his bodily fetters, and freed his mind from the clay that obscured it, and holds conversation naked with the nakedness of the prime and purest mind . . . " (ibid., 18:4)

St. Gregory of Nyssa

"[referring to the deceased St. Ephraim], you who are standing at the divine altar [in heaven] . . . bear us all in remembrance, petitioning for us the remission of sins, and the fruition of an everlasting kingdom." (Sermon on Ephraim the Syrian [A.D. 380]) 22

St. John Chrysostom

"For he that wears the purple himself goes to embrace those tombs, and, laying aside his pride, stands begging the saints to be his advocates with God, and he that hath the diadem implores the tent-maker and the fisherman, though dead, to be his patrons." (Homilies on Second Corinthians 26 [A.D. 392]) 23

"When you perceive that God is chastening you, fly not to his enemies . . . but to his friends, the martyrs, the saints, and those who were pleasing to him, and who have great power [in God]." (Orations 8:6 [A.D. 396]) 24

St. Ambrose of Milan

"May Peter, who wept so efficaciously for himself, weep for us and turn towards us Christ’s benign countenance." (The Six Days Work 5:25:90 [A.D. 393]) 25

St. Jerome

"You say in your book that while we live we are able to pray for each other, but afterwards when we have died, the prayer of no person for another can be heard. . . . But if the apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, at a time when they ought still be solicitous about themselves, how much more will they do so after their crowns, victories, and triumphs?" (Against Vigilantius 6 [A.D. 406]) 26

St. Augustine

"A Christian people celebrates together in religious solemnity the memorials of the martyrs, both to encourage their being imitated and so that it can share in their merits and be aided by their prayers." (Against Faustus the Manichean [A.D. 400]) 27

"There is an ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know, when the names of the martyrs are read aloud in that place at the altar of God, where prayer is not offered for them. Prayer, however, is offered for the dead who are remembered. For it is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought ourselves be commended." (Sermons 159:1 [A.D. 411]) 28

"For on these very grounds we do not commemorate them at that table in the same way, as we do others who now rest in peace, as that we should also pray for them, but rather that they should do so for us, that we may cleave to their footsteps; because they have actually attained that fullness of love, than which, our Lord hath told us, there cannot be a greater." (Homilies on John 84 [A.D. 416]) 29

"For the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ; otherwise there would be no remembrance made of them at the altar of God in the partaking of the body of Christ, nor would it do any good in danger to run to His baptism, that we might not pass from this life without it; nor to reconciliation, if by penitence or a bad conscience any one may be severed from His body." (The City of God 20:9:2 [A.D. 419]) 30
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