Those unfamiliar with the Eastern Orthodox Church may falsely assume that we pray to Saints in the same way one prays to God. They also tend to assume that our veneration of the Saints is idolatry. These assumptions usually stem from a misunderstanding about the difference between prayer to God and intercessory prayer, along with a misunderstanding about the Church here on earth and the Church in heaven. In this article, we will correct these misconceptions. We will also explain why the Orthodox pray to Saints and what role it plays in our spiritual lives.
10 minutes
What is a Saint?
A saint (lowercase s) is a person who has lived and died in Christ, at any point in history. The Eastern Orthodox Church does canonize and commemorate certain Saints (capital S). But every baptized and faithful Orthodox Christian is considered a saint (1 Corinthians 1:2; Romans 1:7; Psalm 34:9; 1 Corinthians 14:33; Ephesians 1:1). Those Saints who receive canonization serve as excellent models for those who strive to live the life of Christ. A few well-known examples of canonized Saints are the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, the writers of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and Saint Basil.
Saints are “those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14) through whom God is “bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will” (Hebrews 2:4). They died as martyrs, making a fearless confession of faith and demonstrating self-sacrificing service to God. Our God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living (Mark 12:27). This means we all remain fully alive in Christ even after we have fallen asleep. Thus, the Saints continue to live with Him in Paradise beside His Throne and pursue communion with Him.
Because Saints are our brothers and sisters in the Faith, we ask them to pray to God for forgiveness of our sins (John 15:14-15).
Prayer to God vs. Intercessory prayer to Saints
It’s important to remember that while prayer can be a part of worship, prayer and worship themselves are not the same. To most Christians, prayer tends to mean speaking to God and/or asking Him for something. This is why many in the West often insist that praying literally is worshiping, because this definition implies that we reserve personal prayer for God alone. However, that does not make it worship.
Often forgotten is the fact that the word pray can also be used as an adverb, a preface before a polite request or instruction (ex: pray pour me a glass of wine). This definition does not imply a specific recipient of the request. Therefore, a Christian could pray to – or ask a request of – anyone, for anything, so long as they do not worship (i.e. devote their entire being to) anyone other than God. We speak about this in more detail in our article about the Mother of God.
When an Orthodox Christian “prays to” a Saint, what he is really doing is asking that Saint to pray for him, to intercede before God for forgiveness of his sins and for his salvation. This is what the Church calls intercessory prayer. We do not devote our lives to their service, for such worship and devotion belongs to God alone. Instead, we merely ask the Saint to pray for us, just as we would any other human being. The Scriptures themselves actively exhort us to do this for one another.
The power of intercessory prayer
Jesus Christ, in His resurrected glory, always prays to His Father on behalf of all mankind. As Scripture tells us, “He holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever. Consequently He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:24-25).
In and through Christ, we can intercede before God for one another. He empowers us (and commands us) to pray for each other and for all creation (1 Timothy 2:1-4; James 5:16-18). When we intercede for someone, we can ask God for any and every kind of blessing. Inspiration. Instruction. Visitation. Healing. Release from temptation. Forgiveness of sins. Salvation. Whatever we usually ask for ourselves, we can – and should – ask for all men, even our enemies.
Pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
James 5:16
To understand the power of intercessory prayer, we must remember God knows all things eternally. He exists outside of time. For God, there is no before and after. He knows what we ask before we even ask it. Thus He hears all of our prayers, even for (or to) those who are dead, before we even make them. There is great power in prayer, and even greater power in making that prayer tangible.
Mediator vs. Intercessor
A common objection to the Orthodox practice of asking intercession of the Saints is the assertion that Christ is the only Mediator. Yes, this is true. Christ is the One who affected salvation for us. That is what “Mediator” means. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ established a pathway to communion with God that before did not exist. He is the only One who can bring about reconciliation with God. That is why He is the Mediator.
Saints are not Mediators; they are merely intercessors, praying for us just as we on earth all pray for one another. It is not, as many might put it, “going around God,” given that interceding for one another is something He specifically asks us to do.
Why do Orthodox Christians pray to Saints?
Many Protestants wonder why Orthodox Christians pray to saints when we could go straight to God. The answer is quite simple. Because we know they will intercede for us before the throne of God (2 Cor. 5:20; Phil. 1:19; James 5:16; Job 42:8; Gen. 20:7; Exodus 32:11-14). We ask the Saints to pray for us because they dedicated themselves to Him – and sometimes gave their very lives. They serve as beautiful examples of how we, too, should fulfill our baptism through service to Christ and His Church.
Because of their righteousness, their prayers have great power with God. We know that God’s hears our prayers; how much more so would He hear the prayers of His Holy Ones! It would be foolish of us to cast the Saints and their loving prayers aside.
Yes, the Saints are human, sinners like you and me. But it is the power of God in them that we pay homage to and respect, not that they have done anything of merit on their own without Him. It is their synergistic relationship with the Holy Trinity, their working together with God and submitting to His will, along with their being made in the image of God, that we venerate.
“But praying to Saints is heretical.”
Many Protestants claim that prayer to the Saints is heresy. But we do not see any outcry about this in the history of the Church until the Protestant Reformation. That is because prayer to the Saints was part of Holy Tradition, long-established and a normative part of the spiritual lives of early Christians. In fact, as early as AD 107-116, after the martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch, we find mention in writing of Christians who saw the Saint praying for them in a vision. And the oldest surviving prayer to the Theotokos, “Beneath Thy Protection”, dates back to AD 250.
Additionally, the Bible itself provides ample proof for the practice of intercessory prayer of the Saints. Because Christ intercedes at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25), by extension others who have died but are alive in Christ can intercede on behalf of the petitioner (John 11:21-25; Romans 8:38–39). Further, Revelation 8:4 mentions the prayers of the Saints ascending before God. And Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31 indicates that those who are “dead” can pray for the living. We also see this in 2 Maccabees 15:14–17 and in the Book of Enoch; while these books are considered apocryphal to many Protestants, this, at the very least, roots this practice in Jewish custom, which was carried over into the early Christian Church.
“But you bow to and kiss their icons. Isn’t that idolatry?”
According to English definitions, worship and veneration are often considered synonymous with each other. However, in Greek, the original language of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the two are quite distinct. Veneration (Gr. doulia) means showing great respect and love for the holy. It is to treat something or someone with reverence, deep respect, and honor. Most often, we show that honor by kissing the icon of the Saint or briefly bowing before it. While in the West, Protestants might conflate kissing an image or bowing with worship, this association never existed in the Eastern Church. Kissing an image merely conveys love toward the one in the image. Likewise, in many cultures, a bow is merely a respectful way to greet another person.
Veneration, a way of showing delight for what God has done, is different from worship (Gr. latreia), the total giving over of the self to be united with God. In fact, we venerate one another every day, honoring each other as brothers and sisters created in the image of God.
In An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, St. John of Damascus writes:
[…] to the saints honor must be paid as friends of Christ, as sons and heirs of God […] And further, if the Creator and Lord of all things is called also King of kings and Lord of lords and God of gods (Rev. 19:16; Ps 50:1), surely also the saints are gods and lords and kings […] Now I mean gods and kings and lords not in nature, but as rulers and masters of their passions, and as preserving a truthful likeness to the divine image according to which they were made (for the image of a king is also called king), and as being united to God of their own free-will and receiving Him as an indweller and becoming by grace through participation with Him what He is Himself by nature.
4.15
“But the Saints can’t hear us. They’re dead.”
Many Protestants will level this criticism at the practice of prayer to the Saints. They insist, and rightly so, that communicating with the dead is forbidden in the Scriptures (cf. Leviticus). And they equate this pagan practice with intercessory prayer to the Saints. It is important to remember that Christ’s death and resurrection changed everything. Death has been defeated, and our God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living (Luke 20:38). Those who die in Christ are at the same time alive in Him. Paradise (or heaven) is not walled off from us; it is interactive and dynamic, and there are ways for us still here on earth to engage with the heavenly.
The Saints are those who have attained salvation, which is union with God. Being in union with God means being in union with His Divine Energies. Thus, through His Grace they are able to perform miracles, both while on earth and after having departed. If a Saint, while alive, could perceive events happening thousands of miles away or walk on water after making the sign of the cross over it, why should we find it so hard to believe that they could hear prayers from other human beings? As the Scripture tells us, with God all things are possible.
If the Saints are in Christ, then they too touch and communicate His glory, His power, His grace. Think of a sopping wet sponge touched by any number of dry paper towels. What is required for the towels to become wet? Only to touch the sponge. The act of touching instantly communicates the water, whether there is one paper towel or ten thousand.
How do I pray to a Saint properly?
Generally, there are two ways you can engage in intercessory prayer with a Saint. The first “formula”, for lack of a better word, would go something like this: “O Holy Saint ____, intercede before Christ our God that He may save my soul.”
You could also use the “formula” we hear in the Divine Liturgy quite often: “Through the prayers of Saint _____, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.”
Praying to Saints is normal!
We know only God can forgive sins; but we still ask others to pray for us for any number of reasons. “Please pray for me; I have a job interview this week!” “Please pray for my mother’s quick recovery from surgery.” When an Orthodox Christian prays to a Saint, the same sort of interchange takes place. We merely ask him/her to pray for us, and we ask him/her to ask God to help us with whatever struggles we might encounter.
The Saints pray unceasingly in the presence of God for those of us still awake. And they serve as a shining example for all of us who one day hope to be saints in our own right. Why wouldn’t you want them praying for you?
Read More: How to Choose Your Patron Saint
7 Responses
this is truly helping me understand as someone who can’t attend an orthodox church and has to learn from home Christos Anesti thank you sm for this wonderful passage
Somos siete hermanos. El cuarto de mis hermanos es protestante y el segundo es sacerdote católico. Y, cada vez que se presenta la oportunidad, tratan sin lograrlo de que sus respectivos criterios sobre la Virgen María y los Ssantos (con mayúscula y sin mayúscula) sean aceptados por el otro. El haber leído este artículo me ha dejado en paz y lleno de gozo, porque amo a mis hermanos y me entristece verles discernir sin tener suficiente claridad para aceptar que nada de lo que digan podrá afectar positivamente el punto de vista del otro, si no le piden a DIOS por intercesión de nuestro Señor Jesucristo que derrame Su Espíritu Santo sobre uno y otro para que se aclaren las dudas que los embargan. Si alguna vez en el futuro, se vuelve a presentar la oportunidad, espero tener la suficiente claridad para intervenir de manera positiva en sus posturas, haciendo referencia a tan maravilloso artículo. Gracias.
Roger, gracias por tu comentario. Dios te bendiga!
Those who have gone on before us and are with God now and are the saved and sanctified in Christ are saints yes. But, my husband, who has passed on and was a saint of God, is a saint of God, like I am and all those who are in Christ would be the one I would pray to if I believed this. He is no less a saint than those the Eastern Orthodox Church considers saints. This makes no sense. To pray and ask them to forgive our sins have no power to help accomplish our prays than anybody else. Of course, we ask for people to pray for us among our fellow Christians here on earth for whatever we are going through but to say someone who is with God right now in glory and can communicate with is an incorrect practice. There is a wide gulf between the living and the dead. See the rich man in hell asking Abraham for the poor beggar Lazarus to dip his finger in water, etc. A saint is not someone the Eastern Orthodox Church has canonized but all that are here on earth and have gone on in Christ and do not have special abilities more than any other Christian in glory.
Annette,
Christ is in our midst! We understand that the distinction between a “Saint” (capital S) and a “saint” (lowercase s) may be confusing to those who are not Orthodox or who converted from a different religious background. What you state is emphatically correct: all those who are members of the Church are saints. The Orthodox Church has a process through which it elevates certain saints to Sainthood, serving as examples for the faithful. We can ask the intercession of any saint, whether they have been officially canonized or not. Canonization is recognition of someone having lived a holy life; it does not turn someone into a saint or make them more important than any other saint in the history of mankind. That is the Eastern Orthodox belief!
Why is it incorrect to believe that the Lord can grant power to whomever He wishes, in whatever capacity He wishes? If you recall, at the beginning of your comment, you stated that those with Christ are sanctified. As the Scripture states, our God is the God of the living, not of the dead. Does this then mean He is not the God of those who have departed? Not at all, because those who have departed are not dead, but are alive in Christ. Death has no power over us the way it did before. For Christ has overcome death!
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus does not illustrate a wide gulf between the living and the dead, for both the rich man and Lazarus had departed this life when the rich man appealed to Abraham to have Lazarus cool his tongue from the flames. The dead are no longer dead, but sleeping, awaiting the Second Coming of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ! God bless you, and thank you for your comment.
The bible does say do not pray to the dead?
Maria,
Christ is in our midst! Deut. 18:10-11 and Isaiah 19:3 condemn the art of necromancy, which is the conjuring up of the dead through wizards and mediums. When we pray to the Saints, we do not attempt to conjure or manipulate anything. We merely ask for their intercessions, their prayers, before the Lord.
Thinking that these verses say we cannot pray to or for the dead would condemn the Lord Himself, who communicated with Moses and Elijah (both of whom are dead) and spoke to them about the redemption (Luke 9:29-31). Surely you would not claim that the Lord did something that is forbidden? God bless.