Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Christian Churches have long held to the tradition of praying for the intercession of the saints and angels in Heaven. In the article we examine the Biblical basis and justification for the practice, as well as take a look at the practices of early Christians and how it lines up with current practice.

“The greatest feat of the Reformation was to accomplish the isolation of the Soul’ -Hillaire Belloc.

Addressing the Specific area of Unease in Intercessory Prayer

Biblically as we see in the next section, it is really beyond doubt that the angels intercede for human beings. I would strongly argue that it would follow from this that the other “citizens of Heaven” are also similarly concerned and praying alongside the angels. This is why it is important to have a firm view of angelic intercession.

Why would it be inappropriate to request the intercession of someone who was disposed to intercede for you? On the contrary it would seem entirely appropriate. Would it not seem reasonable that by doing so we would increase the intensity of their intercession all the more? That’s exactly how it works when it comes to interceding for each other here on earth.

It seems that all the unease that is associated with requests for intercessory prayers from the heavenly denizens lies not in their intercession itself, nor is it a question of their concern, rather it is the act of the “request” itself. I would argue: Why must there be this unease? For the heavenly denizens are themselves watch over us with interest and no such similar unease as we shall see in subsequent sections. Is not not OK to look back at the ones that were looking down upon us, or to regard those that were regarding us? Were it true that soliciting their prayers were a sign of a lack of trust in God and therefore idolatrous (which is the accusation) then equally it should be idolatrous for them to regard us with concern and care as though the care of God were not sufficient. The action of intercession of intercession, much like the Divine Liturgies is not something that is initiated by the Church on Earth in an effort to cry out to Heaven, rather it is the activity of Heaven itself, and ours merely a participation in that activity. Intercessory prayer, as is abundantly evident, is part of Divine worship in Heaven among the Holy Angels and saints.

The Intercession of Angels

In this first verse the angels present God with “prayers of the saints”. The only meaning I can derive from this is that they lift up our own prayers to God, which is precisely what intercession is:

 “When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev 5:8)

Again, this scene is part of the magnificent and momentous setting of the “Lamb as if slain” who is found worthy to open the scroll “from the right hand of the one who is seated on the throne” with the four living creatures and the elders falling before Him in worship. It is indeed incredible that “the angel before God” gives “much incense” to mingle with our prayers. This is a tremendous sign that out poor and unworthy prayers are being elevated by the angels and even placed in a golden censer, that they might appear before God. None of this we could do for ourselves, hence it is obvious that the efficacy of our prayers is being elevated through angelic intercession:

“And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.” (Rev 8:3-4)

The “service” of angels can mean nothing other than intercession. What else could it be, for even if they are to supply us with strength and protection as we see in the stories of the prophets Elisha, none of this is other than by the power of God and through the grace of his Goodness. Angels are not acting on their own behalf, rather because God permits them to help whom he will, and for whom he will permit their intercession:

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14)

There is a similar verse in the Dueterocanonical book of Tobit:

“I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One.” (Tobit 12:15)

Here we see that the guardian angel is watching over the little ones. Are we not all “little ones”? They “see the Face of the Father”, “always”, not just after the person dies. Thus, this is a present threat against those who sin against the faithful and the innocent, that they are guarded by “their” angel. Again “their” is a possessive pronoun, the angel is assigned to the child, which would seem ample scriptural attestation to the Catholic belief in guardian angels and the prayers to them for such intercession.

“”See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10)

“Then the angel of the Lord said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry these seventy years?” Then the Lord replied with gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.” (Zechariah 1:12,13)

And the angel Raphael says: “When thou didst pray with tears . . . I offered thy prayer to the Lord” (Tobit 12:12)

Finally, we read in the Book of Job (33:22-31)

“Their souls draw near the Pit,
    and their lives to those who bring death.
Then, if there should be for one of them an angel,
    a mediator, one of a thousand,
    one who declares a person upright,
and he is gracious to that person, and says,
    ‘Deliver him from going down into the Pit;
    I have found a ransom;
let his flesh become fresh with youth;
    let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;
then he prays to God, and is accepted by him,
    he comes into his presence with joy,
and God repays him for his righteousness.
That person sings to others and says,
‘I sinned, and perverted what was right,
    and it was not paid back to me.
He has redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit,
    and my life shall see the light.’

“God indeed does all these things,
    twice, three times, with mortals,
to bring back their souls from the Pit,
    so that they may see the light of life.
Pay heed, Job, listen to me…”

The Prayers of the Saints

It is highly unlikely that while angels and awake and expressing their love for men in the form of their intercession that the saints who are greatly honoured as we shall see in subsequent sections are made to be completely unaware, rather than expressing their love and brotherly concern alongside them. Indeed these verses would seem to say otherwise:

“And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” (Luke 16:8,9)

The passage is quite hard to interpret, however I personally feel it is reasonable to view that “when it is gone”, (meaning at the time of death), you will be welcomed by children of men into eternal dwellings, can only refer to some form of intercession. Why else would you be welcomed by men into eternal dwellings in return for financial help other than that they were praying to God for you in return for your goodness to them, and to those on earth. The children of men are more shrewd than children of light (meaning angels) at financial dealings.

The verse from Hebrews shows that the heroes of the Old Testament are concerned and avidly observing earthly events, hence “witnesses” that “surround”, as in a stadium:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:1)

See how St Paul says that we “have come” in the verse from Corinthians, not “will come”, indicating that there is a living communion between the saints in Heaven and the pilgrim Church upon Earth. In prayer, and in the liturgies and devotions of the Church we “come to them”. What else would we come to them for, rather than the favor of their prayers for us still here on Earth:

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn (ἐκκλησίᾳ πρωτοτόκων- ekklesia prototokon) who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus…” (12:23,24)

Are they Conscious and Concerned or the Opposite?

There’s seemingly nothing in the sayings of Jesus or of the New Testament writers that would lead one to believe that the dead were unaware in the time between their deaths and Judgement Day. As we shall see, the writings of the Gospels rather seem to convey an organic continuity between those on earth and those who have passed into the afterlife rather than an abrupt rupture.

In these verses Jesus tells us that there is joy in Heaven over the conversion of sinners on Earth. There if no reference to this joy being a feature only upon the death of the sinner. Further it is not specified that it is only the angels that rejoice, the participants in joy seem to be all the heavenly denizens. Jesus tells two parables here in Luke, the first time he states “there will be…joy in Heaven” (v.7) and the next “there will be…joy before the angels of God”.

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7)

“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)

We are not lead to believe that the least person in Heaven in greater than the greatest person but unconscious, unlike him: “the least in the Kingdom of Heaven being greater than St John the Baptist” (Matt 11:11).

This exalted position itself of the saints who have died in Christ makes their unconsciousness unlikely. Jesus says that his apostles: “will sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel” and St Paul says “…you will judge angels”(Matt 19:28).

The apostles are confirmed by the Gospel as the very foundations of not the earthly Jerusalem and the Church on earth, but the heavenly Jerusalem. One simply cannot conceive of a more exalted position not just for any creature. Should the judges and foundational pillars sleep while the angels that are to be judged themselves are awake? To what purpose? Are those that are to judge the 12 tribes sleep to the day of Judgement? Does the judge sleep until the day of the trial?

Many other verses that refer to the dead in Christ seem incompatible with unconsciousness or lack of awareness:

Luke 20:38 “so he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.”

We see the two great Old Testament figures “in glory” and freely conversing with Jesus:

Luke 9:30-31 “Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory”.

Elijah was taken up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire (and it is also held that Enoch was taken up into Heaven without tasting death). What did Elijah have to then do, return the chariot to the rental station and then play dead? That’s improbable, I think he gets to keep on ridin’! Nor is it possible that the Cloud of witnesses” all the heroes of the Old Testament, who witness to our earthly journeys these can also be unconscious.

“The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7, NIV)

Here the dead in Christ are conversing with him, and adorned with a white robe of honor:

Where also the souls under the altar of God “who had been slaughtered for the Word of God and the testimony they had given…. (who cry out): ”Sovereign Lord how long will it before you avenge our bloods on the inhabitants of the earth?” They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed” (Rev. 6:9-11).

It is again in continuation of this passage and prior to the opening of the seventh seal (hence the end has not yet come) that once again we hear:

“Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.” (Rev. 7:13-15)

Again it seems unlikely that the “woman” of Revelations be taken off her exalted pedestal to be then laid unconscious: “great portent…the woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars” (Rev.12:1)

Revelations 14:3-5 and 20:51-5 speak initially of the 144000 who are “undefiled, blameless” , the “first fruits from the dead” in chapter 14:4 (confirmed in 1 Cor 15:23), and then in chapter 20:

“…I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.”

Whatever might be the figurative meaning of these difficult verses, it certainly seems from them that there are those that are conscious even prior to the General Resurrection, and these are exceptionally holy. Further, (Rev 20:4, 5)  speaks of a “first resurrection”, and that “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended). Rev 20:6 “Over these the second death has no power” can be taken to indicate that the saints in Heaven are indeed saints eternally (since it is being spoken of the ones who are already raised as the “first fruits”). Those in Hell on the other hand are raised only to the final condemnation.

These two passages from the first Letter of St. Peter show that the dead are spoken to, therefore again, they must be conscious:

1 Peter 4:6 “For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.”

1 Peter 3:19,20a “in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey….”

St Peter’s words in the passage right after saying that he is about to die as revealed to him by the Jesus:

2Peter1:15” I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able to recall these things”

Love of the Angels and Saints transcends Death and Life

It is quite strongly implicit from the passages discussed, that there is no essential break-up of communion between those on Earth and those in Heaven, be it the angels or be it the dead in Christ. There is interest, concern…and help. The entire earthly life is spent developing in the exercise of the virtues through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, living “as one body in Christ” in the Church, the lack of concern and enduring love would be an aberration to the spiritual life. It is hardly likely that personages like the apostles who are the “foundations” of the Church cease to be concerned or awake in the present, nor in the case of all the cheering “witnesses”. In fact we should have every conviction that the saints in Heaven love us with a love that is more pure even than the holiest on Earth because they love is with a purely love, unhindered by fleshy considerations beholding as they are the Beatific Vision. Is this not the reason that St John the Baptist is not greater than the least in the Kingdom of Heaven? They look down upon us and love us more than our own family and friends, with a love that is pure and unsullied, a direct reflection of the divine Light unsullied by anything earthly.

Do we respond, or do we remain entrapped by the fact that Scripture provides no example of prayer to a person that has passed over into Life. The Church goes with the former option. The practice itself, which to all intents and historical purposes arose organically and seemingly among the early Christian communities, as we see in the sayings of the Church Fathers themselves next.

Why are Intercessory Prayers Effective?

Why does God care that we intercede for each other? It seems reasonable to hold that God smiles upon an “imitation” of the lives of holy persons and that this might therefore be at least in part, the reason that He is pleased with intercessory prayer. When a wayward child askes their pious mother to pray for them, it seems that there must be some merit, however little in the intention of that person to seek a person of God’s prayers, and the fact that in this, the parent is honored. From this it would also make sense that the intercession of a righteous person, as St. Paul says, is effective. For in invoking these, the life and example of that righteous person is also brought to mind and is sought to be emulated. We can see an example of this in St. Paul exhorting his listeners to “imitate” him, while he is praying for them, as no doubt he is doing now also.

Intercessory Prayer on Earth:

James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

1 Tim 2:1-6: “I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men… For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.“

Romans 15:30 “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf”

I give thanks to my God in every remembrance of you, always in all my prayers making supplication for you all” (Philippians 1:3-4).

In the Old Testament, God Himself commanded Abimelech to have recourse to Abraham’s intercession: “He shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. . . . And when Abraham prayed, God healed Abimelech” (Genesis 20:7, 17). So, too, in the case of Job’s friends He said: “Go to my servant Job, and offer for yourselves a holocaust; and my servant Job shall pray for you: his face I will accept” (Job 42:8).

“I was the mediator and stood between the Lord and you” (Deut.5:5; cf. Galatians 3:19, 20).

“As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23)

Is it possible for suffering of the one to atone for the sins of other? It certainly is, or everyone would suffer the same amount. In the same way, the merits of one’s prayers can also work for the Salvation of others. 

The Mass has two wonderful prefaces for the feast days of the saints which bring this out:

Preface II:

For you are glorified when your Saints are praised;
their very sufferings are but wonders of your might:
in your mercy you give ardor to their faith,
to their endurance you grant firm resolve,
and in their struggle the victory is yours,
through Christ our Lord.

Preface I:

For the blood of your blessed Martyr N.,
poured out like Christ’s to glorify your name,
shows forth your marvelous works,
by which in our weakness you perfect your power
and on the feeble bestow strength to bear you witness,
through Christ our Lord.

The veneration of the saints is engendered in the love of God. The abnormality does not lie in the veneration of Gods’ beloved, rather in the negligence of them. It is the most natural and righteous sentiment to hold in honor that which the Beloved regards with love and it is the contrary that would seem unrighteous. A Catholic sees no difference in the request for intercession of the saints from that of intercession of any living person on Earth in principle. Either all is idolatory or all none is.

Are there Technical Problems?

As for the “telephone connection” I don’t think this is a big problem. It’s a bit like one ant saying to another “the humans can’t hear us, because our science doesn’t allow us”. Obviously we know more about ants than ants know about themselves. Further we can, even as human beings be aware of things that are far separated from where we are through technology, like the bushfires in Australia or of a stars colliding in outer space. It simply cannot be held that the dissemination of information in Heaven can be a problem. To hold to this can only be through a failure to comprehend the glorified state and Glory itself, as Jesus said to the Saducees “you do not know the power of God” and as St Paul admonishes the Corinthians in 1 Cor 15:36. You know the power of man and even that does not present a problem. So also the spiritual state is superior to the physical state, not inferior. The power of the spiritual state, like that is the physical all originated from God. So we’re hardly placed to say “spirits CANNOT hear us”.  No more than ants, even less.

So Mother Mary need not be “omnipotent/ omniscient” etc. I’ve heard these arguments before from Protestants, omniscience is not the same as “hearing everything” I hope you agree. But all the same take everything else away, there is no reason why God cannot enable the saints to hear our prayers

Dr. David Wood asks Mohammed Hijab in their debate 11th. Nov 2018, “How come Mohammed can hear the prayers of believers all over the world? Is he omnipresent?”

Hijab replies on this occasion: “Allah’s angels carry the prayers to him”. Dr. Wood has no come-back to this. Dr. Woods Protestant theology has let him down here.

What the Church Fathers Say

“[The Shepherd said:] ‘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 [you saw], 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]).

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CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

“In this way is he [the true Christian] 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 [in prayer]” (Miscellanies 7:12 [A.D. 208]).

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” (Prayer 11 [A.D. 233]).

CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

“Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides [of death] 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 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]).

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]).

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 [Jesus]. 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]).

“Therefore, we pray [ask] 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.).

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 wish to stand [in God’s grace], neither the guardianship of saints nor the defenses of angels are wanting” (Commentary on the Psalms 124:5:6 [A.D. 365]).

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]).

“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]).

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]).

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 of Pectorius [A.D. 375]).

GREGORY OF NAZIANZ

“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. 380]).

“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).

GREGORY OF NYSSA

“[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]).

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

“He that wears the purple [i.e., a royal man] . . . stands begging of the saints to be his patrons with God, and he that wears a diadem begs the tentmaker [Paul] and the fisherman [Peter] as patrons, even though they be dead” (Homilies on Second 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]).

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]).

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 on John 84 [A.D. 416]).

“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 [A.D. 419]).

In a related article, we look specifically at the place of Mary our Mother, Mother of God