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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
INTERCESSION OF THE SAINTS
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 5
 May 1994 
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Fundamentalists challenge the Catholic practice
of asking saints and angels to pray for us. But the Bible directs
us to invoke the angels (Ps. 103:20-21, 148:1-2), and the Fathers
show it is part of our faith to invoke also the saints, who offer
our prayers to God in the form of heavenly incense (Rev. 5:8; cf.
8:3)
Origen
"But not the high priest [Christ] alone prays
for those who pray sincerely, but also the angels . . . as also the
souls of the saints who have already fallen asleep" (On Prayer
11 [A.D. 233]).
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 [Christ]" (Epitaph [A.D. 250]).
Cyprian
"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 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. 252]).
Anonymous
"Atticus, sleep in peace, secure in your safety,
and pray anxiously for our sins" (funerary inscription near St.
Sabina's in Rome [A.D. 300]).
"Pray for your parents, Matronata Matrona. She
lived one year, fifty-two days" (ibid.)
"Mother of God, [listen to] my petitions; do
not disregard us in adversity, but rescue us from danger" (Rylands
Papyrus 3 [A.D. 350]).
Cyril of Jerusalem
"Then [during the Eucharistic prayer] we make
mention also of those who have already fallen asleep: first, the patriarchs,
prophets, apostles, and martyrs, that through their prayers and supplications
God would receive our petition . . . " (Catechetical Lectures
23:9 [A.D. 350]).
Hilary of Poitiers
"To those who would fain to stand, neither the
guardianship of saints nor the defenses of angels are wanting"
(Commentary on the Psalms 124:5:6 [A.D. 365]).
Ephraem of Syria
"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" (De
Timore, Anim. in fin. [A.D. 370]).
"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 that so we may
love him" (Encom. in Mart. [A.D. 370]).
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]).
Gregory Nazianzen
"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 . . . "
(Orations 18:4 [A.D. 374]).
"May you [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. 376]).
Gregory of Nyssa
"Do you, [Ephraem] that art standing at the divine
altar . . . bear us all in remembrance, petitioning for us the remission
of sins, and the fruition of an everlasting kingdom" (Sermon
on Ephraem the Syrian [A.D. 380]).
Ambrose
"May Peter, who wept so efficaciously for himself,
weep for us and turn towards us Christ's benign countenance"
(Hexameron 5:25:90 [A.D. 388]).
John Chrysostom
"He that wears the purple . . . stands begging
of the saints to be his patrons with God, and he that wears a diadem
begs the tent-maker [Paul] and the fisherman [Peter] as patrons, even
though they be dead" (Homilies on 2 Corinthians 26 [A.D.
392]).
"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]).
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]).
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]).
"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]).
"At the Lord's table we do not commemorate martyrs
in the same way that we do others who rest in peace so as to pray
for them, but rather that they may pray for us that we may follow
in their footsteps" (Homilies in the Gospel of John 84
[A.D. 417]).
"Neither are the souls of the pious dead separated
from the Church which even now is the kingdom of Christ. Otherwise
there would be no remembrance of them at the altar of God in the communication
of the Body of Christ" (The City of God 20:9:2 [ca. A.D.
424]).
Pope Leo the Great
"Let us rejoice, then, dearly beloved, with spiritual
joy, and make our boast over the happy end of this illustrious man
in the Lord [the martyr Laurentius] . . . By his prayer and intercession
we trust at all times to be assisted . " (Sermons
85:4 [ca. A.D. 455]).
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