Asking a saint to intercede does not mean bypassing God. It means entering into the very way God chose to save humanity: together, not each person in isolation. Whether it is permissible to invoke the saints is a distinct question: it is, and the Church has held this from the first centuries, as witnessed by the invocations of the catacombs and the Fathers (see the journey below)[1][2][3]. Yet once that legitimacy is accepted, a deeper question remains: why do it? Why ask Saint Thérèse or Saint Joseph to pray for us if God already hears us and loves us infinitely?
The answer rests on three convictions developed in this article. First, God chooses to work through intermediaries: from Genesis to Revelation, he freely associates creatures with the circulation of his grace, not from need but from love. Second, the prayer of the righteous is powerful (Jas 5:16), and the saints in Heaven, definitively united to God, are the most righteous of all. Finally, intercession bears spiritual fruit in the person who practises it: humility, trust, fraternal communion, and the desire to imitate those whose help one invokes.
This practice always remains subordinate to Christ, the “one mediator between God and men” (1 Tim 2:5). The saints' intercession is not added to his as a second source; it flows from his, just as moonlight comes from the sun. Precisely because Christ's mediation is unique and superabundant, it can be shared with his whole Body — a principle stated for Mary (LG 60) and extended here by theological inference to all created cooperation, on the direct basis of LG 49-50 and CCC 956: far from diminishing the one mediation, this cooperation manifests its power (LG 62)[4][5].
Related questions are treated elsewhere: the practice's legitimacy in Should We Pray to the Saints?, the nature of the communion of saints, whether the saints can hear us, and the difference between dulia, hyperdulia, and latria. Here the focus is solely on the reason: why ask for their intercession?
Asking the right question: “why,” not “may we?”
Many discussions about the saints stop at the threshold: is it allowed, is it idolatry? Those are real questions, but they are not this article's question. Once the invocation of saints is recognised as legitimate, one must still understand what it contributes; otherwise it risks becoming an empty habit.
A legitimate practice — but why embrace it?
The Church states forcefully that invoking the saints is permitted. In 1563 the Council of Trent declared that “it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, aid, and help for obtaining benefits from God”[6]. The wording is deliberate: not merely tolerated, but “good and useful.” The question is how.
The Catechism goes further. It does not merely say that one may pray to the saints, but states that “their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan,” because the saints “contemplate God, they praise him” and “do not cease to care for those whom they have left on earth”[7]. The primary reason is therefore not a legal permission; it is a living reality in which Christians are invited to share.
What “asking for intercession” means exactly
To intercede is to pray for another. The word comes from the Latin intercedere, meaning “to intervene on someone's behalf.” Asking a saint's intercession therefore means saying to an elder brother or sister: “pray for me.” It is neither worship nor the attribution of an independent power. A saint gives nothing instead of God; the saint presents our request to God, and God alone grants it.
This is exactly what Christians do among the living. Asking a believing friend to pray for an exam, entrusting an intention to a monk, or writing “pray for us” at the end of a letter insults no one, least of all God. The saints in Heaven are not less alive than we are: more closely united to Christ, they help establish the Church more firmly in holiness[8]. Asking their prayer follows the same logic, brought to perfection.
First reason: God chooses to work through intermediaries
The first reason is theological, not psychological: it concerns how God acts. An almighty God could do everything directly and unaided. Yet Scripture shows the opposite: God, who needs nothing, constantly chooses to associate his creatures with his work of salvation.
God freely associates creatures with his work
This biblical constant comes down to a paradox: God, who needs nothing, chose to pass through his creatures. He entrusts his word to prophets, his people to judges, his sacraments to priests, and his Gospel to apostles. He could have saved the world with a word; he chose a Mother, disciples, and a Church. Grace rarely descends alone: it passes through hands, voices, and prayers.
This choice is not weakness but divine delicacy. God honours his creatures by making them, according to their measure, causes of the good he accomplishes. Saint Thomas Aquinas sees this as a sign of the dignity God grants his friends:
“God governs lower realities through higher ones, not from any lack in his power, but from the abundance of his goodness, so as to communicate to creatures themselves the dignity of causality.” — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Ia, q. 22, a. 3 (translated from the Latin)[9]
Asking for the saints' intercession therefore means entering into God's customary way of acting, not violating it.
Intercession throughout the Old Testament
Long before the saints in Heaven, Scripture shows righteous people on earth praying for others and God allowing himself to be moved. Abraham bargains for the salvation of Sodom (Gen 18:22-33). Moses intercedes for the idolatrous people, and “the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing” (Ex 32:14). More strikingly, God himself commands sinners to seek a righteous man's prayer:
“My servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly.” — The Lord to Job's friends, Job 42:8[10]
This verse is decisive: Job does not appoint himself intercessor; God appoints him as an intermediary even though God could forgive directly. God wills forgiveness to pass through another person's prayer. Intercession is therefore not a pious invention but a divine pedagogy.
The dead praying for the living: the witness of Maccabees
One might immediately object: yes, but those intercessors were alive. Yet the Old Testament already knows the intercession of righteous people who are dead. In a vision given to Judas Maccabeus, the former high priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah, both long deceased, pray for the people:
“This is a man who loves the brethren and prays much for the people and the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of God.” — Second Book of Maccabees 15:14[11]
The text presents this not as superstition but as encouragement sent by God on the eve of battle. The righteous who have entered glory do not lose interest in the living; they pray for them. Here already, in seed, lies the reason for the intercession of the saints. This book is deuterocanonical — received in the Catholic canon, set aside by Protestants — but it retains here at least its value as historical testimony: the question of the canon is treated in Should We Pray to the Saints?.
Christ, the one mediator — and the intercession that flows from him
The major objection remains: “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). If Christ is sufficient, why the saints?
The answer is that the same Saint Paul, only a few verses earlier, asks for “supplications, prayers, intercessions [...] for all people” (1 Tim 2:1). The apostle sees no contradiction between Christ's unique mediation and the intercession of the members of his Body. They belong to different orders. Christ is mediator by nature and in his own right: he is God and man, his death redeems, and he “always lives to make intercession” for us (Heb 7:25). The saints intercede by participation, because they are grafted onto him. Their prayer adds nothing to his; it extends his prayer throughout the Body.
The Second Vatican Council states this exactly:
“Being indeed more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven contribute to building up the Church in holiness more firmly [...]. Admitted into the homeland and present to the Lord, through him, with him and in him, they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us [...]. Thus their fraternal concern is of the greatest help to our weakness.” — Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, no. 49[12]
Far from overshadowing Christ, the saints' intercession reveals the fruitfulness of his mediation: a Saviour who makes the saved capable of helping others toward salvation is greater than a solitary saviour[13].
Second reason: the prayer of the righteous is powerful
The second reason concerns efficacy. If one prayer is sought rather than another, it is because one believes it more likely to be heard. Scripture plainly says that not every prayer has equal strength.
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power”
Saint James states the principle and immediately gives an example:
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.” — Letter of Saint James 5:16-17[14]
Prayer is not an automatic mechanism in which the identity of the person praying makes no difference: the holiness of the one who prays gives prayer particular weight before God. To ask a saint's intercession is to join our fragile prayer to that of a righteous person whose voice, united to Christ, “has great power.”
The saints in Heaven: more alive and more closely united to God
If the prayer of a righteous person on earth is powerful, what of those who have reached their goal? The blessed in Heaven are no longer exposed to sin, distraction, or lukewarmness, and they see God face to face. Their will is perfectly conformed to his. Revelation portrays them presenting our prayers like incense:
“The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” — Revelation of Saint John 5:8[15]
The image matters: even in Heaven the prayers of the faithful are not ignored but gathered and presented to God by those who dwell in glory[16]. Intercession is not a bond severed by death; it reaches its fulfilment in Heaven.
Charity does not end with death
Why would the saints continue to care for us? Because charity, which forms the substance of their happiness, “never ends” (1 Cor 13:8). A saint loves more in Heaven than on earth and therefore cannot pray less for his brothers and sisters. Saint Thomas Aquinas draws the direct conclusion:
“The saints in heaven, being nearer to God, know our petitions, whether by divine revelation or in the Word whom they behold; and it is most fitting that we ask them to intercede for us with God.” — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-IIae, q. 83, a. 11[17]
Far from competing with God's love, the saints' love is its overflow: because they are immersed in divine charity, they abound in concern for us.
Third reason: we form one Body
The third reason is ecclesial. Asking the saints' intercession makes sense because Christians on earth, souls in purgatory, and the blessed in Heaven form one family, one Body whose head is Christ.
The communion of saints: grace in circulation
The Creed's profession “I believe in the communion of saints” means that spiritual goods circulate among all members of the Church, beyond death. This is the foundation of intercession: one asks for a saint's prayer only if one truly believes oneself in communion with that saint. The Catechism says:
“Being indeed more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven contribute to building up the Church in holiness more firmly [...]. They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us. [...] Their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, 956 and 2683[18][19]
The nature of this communion is developed in What Is the Communion of Saints?. Here the essential point is that it supplies intercession's why: asking a saint's prayer activates a real bond; it does not invoke an absent person.
Asking a brother or sister in Heaven as on earth
If it is normal to ask someone close to us, “pray for me,” there is no reason to deny the same request to a brother or sister more advanced in holiness simply because that person has passed through death. Death has not moved the saint farther away; it has drawn the saint nearer to God and therefore, in God, nearer to us. Around 406 Saint Jerome made precisely this argument against Vigilantius, who denied the usefulness of seeking the martyrs' prayers:
“If the apostles and martyrs, while still in the body, can pray for others when they must still be anxious for themselves, how much more can they do so after their crowns, victories, and triumphs?” — Saint Jerome, Against Vigilantius, 6 (c. 406)[20]
The Church's argument has remained the same: the saints pray more, not less, once they enter glory.
Turning the “one mediator” objection into a reason
As we have seen, Christ's unique mediation does not forbid intercession; it grounds it. The Body does not compete with the head but manifests it. For a detailed answer to the Protestant objection, see Should We Pray to the Saints?. The positive point is enough here: because Christ is the one mediator, he can make all his members intercessors for one another, on earth and in Heaven.
Fourth reason: the spiritual fruits of intercession
The first three reasons are objective: they concern God, the saints, and the Church. The fourth is subjective in the proper sense: it concerns the good intercession produces in the soul that practises it. God did not merely will intercession to be effective; he willed it to form us.
Humility: acknowledging that we cannot save ourselves alone
Asking another person's prayer means admitting that we are not self-sufficient. Pride wants to owe everything to itself, even salvation. The Christian who invokes a saint acknowledges a need for help and that help may come through a brother or sister. Intercession is thus a daily school of humility that breaks the illusion of spiritual self-sufficiency. The Catechism says that “we can and must” ask them to intercede for us “and for the whole world”[21], not because God lacks anything but because it is good to know ourselves small and surrounded.
Trust: powerful friends close to God
Intercession also nourishes trust. Knowing that friends surround us in Heaven — not distant strangers, but brothers and sisters who love us and pray for us — tears us away from discouragement. Saint Bernard excels in this register when he invites the tempted believer to turn to Mary:
“In dangers, in distress, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. [...] Following her, you will not stray; praying to her, you will not despair.” — Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Homily II on the “Missus est”[22]
What Bernard says of Mary applies, in due measure, to every saint: they are given as supports so that Christians may advance “without despair.”
Imitation: intercession opens us to the saints' example
No one invokes a saint for long without beginning to look at that saint. To look at a saint is to discover an embodied path of holiness, suited to a temperament, an age, or a vocation. Intercession and imitation belong together: the Council teaches that in the saints we seek “an example in their way of life, fellowship in their communion, and aid by their intercession”[23]. Asking Saint Thérèse's prayers naturally leads to her “little way”; invoking Saint Joseph teaches his industrious silence.
Consolation: never alone in trials
Finally, intercession consoles. Entrusting a trial to a friend in Heaven who understands because that friend suffered removes the sense of abandonment. Jacques Fesch, condemned to death and converted in prison before his execution in 1957, experienced this intimately:
“She may ask the intercession of a particular saint or relative whom she knows to be in Heaven; she will always receive an answer so long as her desires conform to the Lord's will and her trust is absolute.” — Jacques Fesch, Dans cinq heures je verrai Jésus, August 4, 1957[24]
Intercession is therefore useful not only before God but for the heart: it places every life, even the most damaged, within a communion greater than itself, one that carries it.
Do the saints really want to intercede for us?
One might imagine that the blessed, absorbed in the vision of God, lose interest in earth. The opposite is true: the more a saint is united to God, the more that saint shares God's desire that “all people be saved” (1 Tim 2:4). The saints themselves said so.
“I want to spend my Heaven doing good on earth”
A few weeks before her death, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux expressed this certainty in a celebrated sentence:
“No, I shall be unable to take any rest until the end of the world. [...] I want to spend my Heaven doing good on earth.” — Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Last Conversations, July 17, 1897[25]
Far from exceptional, these words express the logic of all holiness: charity perfected in Heaven does not turn inward but overflows. Thérèse was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church, lending particular authority to her testimony on this point.
“I shall be more useful to you after my death”
As Saint Dominic lay dying in 1221, he consoled his weeping brothers with a similar promise: dead, he would be more useful to them than alive because he could pray for them from within God[26]. The same assurance appears in countless saints. Intercession is not the living projecting their wishes onto the dead; it is a desire the saints themselves expressed during life.
Patron saints: why choose one?
This is the origin of patron saints for baptism, trades, nations, and particular causes. Choosing one does not mean acquiring a lucky charm, but forming a privileged spiritual friendship with a particular intercessor, just as among all our acquaintances there are a few friends to whom we more readily entrust our troubles. The Church encourages this familiarity, provided it remains ordered to God and is never reduced to a formula.
The Church's constant witness, from the catacombs to today
The why of intercession is not a late justification. It runs throughout Church history, from the first Christian generations to the present Catechism. The constancy of the practice is itself an argument: what the Church has done everywhere and always touches her deepest faith.
- c. 250-320Graffiti in the catacombs
Beneath the present Basilica of Saint Sebastian Outside the Walls in Rome, on the walls of the triclia of the Apostles' memorial, pilgrims carved hundreds of invocations addressed to Peter and Paul — including the famous formula: “Paule et Petre, petite pro Victore” (“Paul and Peter, intercede for Victor”)[27]. Invoking saints was already a living popular practice.
- c. 233Origen and the saints' prayer
In his treatise On Prayer (De oratione, XI), Origen teaches that angels and “the souls of the saints already entered into rest” pray with those who pray on earth[28].
- c. 350Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
In his Mystagogical Catecheses (V, 9), Cyril explains that at Mass the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs are commemorated “so that through their prayers and supplications God may receive our petition”[29].
- c. 406Saint Jerome against Vigilantius
Jerome answers Vigilantius, who denied the usefulness of seeking the martyrs' prayers, with the classic argument: the saints pray more after their “crowns and triumphs,” not less.
- c. 743Saint John Damascene
In the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (De fide orthodoxa, IV, 15), he states the doctrine received throughout the Christian East: the saints are to be honoured “as friends of Christ” and their intercession sought[30].
- December 3-4, 1563The Council of Trent
Faced with Protestant objections, the Council defines that it is “good and useful” to invoke the saints and seek their prayers to obtain benefits from God.
- November 21, 1964Lumen gentium
Vatican II restates and deepens the doctrine: united to Christ, the saints “do not cease to intercede for us,” and their fraternal concern “is of the greatest help to our weakness.”
This continuity is not anecdotal. It shows that the intercession of the saints has never been a marginal devotion but a normal expression of the Church's faith, defended against opponents and confirmed by the solemn Magisterium.
What the Church says today
The 1992 Catechism sums up the whole tradition soberly: the saints, “contemplating God, [...] do not cease to intercede with the Father for us,” and their intercession “is their most exalted service to God's plan”[31]. The ultimate reason for the saints' intercession is therefore not primarily our comfort but God's glory: God delights in saving his people through the interwoven prayers of all his children.
How to ask for the saints' intercession in practice
Understanding the why calls for right practice. One must still know how to invoke the saints without slipping into either superstition or timidity.
Litanies, novenas, and patron saints
Traditional forms are simple. The Litany of the Saints, one of the Church's oldest prayers, names the saints while repeating “pray for us”: those words alone express the meaning of intercession. A novena — nine days of trusting prayer to a saint for an intention — extends this request through time. Recourse to a patron saint forms an enduring relationship. In every case the words remain “pray for us,” not “save us”[32].
What not to expect from it
Asking a saint's intercession is neither an infallible technique nor a bargain. A saint is not a distributor of favours; the saint presents our request to God, who answers according to his wisdom and our true good, sometimes differently from what we hoped. Intercession therefore requires the same surrendered trust as every prayer, explored in Does God Hear Every Prayer? and Does Prayer Change God or Us?. Properly lived, the saints' intercession never diverts us from God; it leads us to him through the great family of his friends.
Further reading
- Should We Pray to the Saints? — the legitimacy of the practice and responses to Protestant objections.
- What Is the Communion of Saints? — the foundation of all intercession.
- Can the Saints Hear Us? — how the blessed know our prayers.
- Does Mary Hear Our Prayers? — the intercession of the Mother of God.
- Dulia, Hyperdulia, and Latria — why veneration is not worship.
- What Is Reconciliation with God? — the goal toward which every intercession leads.
Notes and References
Graffiti of the triclia of the Memoria Apostolorum, at the cemetery ad Catacumbas (Via Appia, beneath Saint Sebastian Outside the Walls): hundreds of Latin and Greek invocations addressed to the apostles Peter and Paul, dated from about 250/260 to about 320 according to the archaeological sequence. Corpus: Inscriptiones Christianae Vrbis Romae (ICVR), vol. V, triclia graffiti; cf. the University of Oxford The Cult of Saints database, entry E05087 (“Latin and Greek graffiti invoking the apostles Peter and Paul, found at the Memoria Apostolorum”). The formula “Paule et Petre, petite pro Victore” (“Paul and Peter, intercede for Victor”) is one of these second-person calls for intercession.
1 27Saint Jerome, Against Vigilantius, 6 (c. 406). Latin in Patrologia Latina, vol. 23: “Si Apostoli et Martyres adhuc in corpore constituti possunt orare pro caeteris [...], quanto magis post coronas, victorias et triumphos?” Saint Thomas cites the passage in support of the saints' intercession (ST II-IIae, q. 83, a. 11).
2 20Catechism of the Catholic Church, 956 (vatican.va): “Being indeed more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven contribute to building up the Church in holiness more firmly [...]. They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us [...]. Thus their fraternal concern is of the greatest help to our weakness.”
3 8Second Vatican Council, dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium, no. 60 (November 21, 1964), on Mary: her maternal role toward men “neither obscures nor diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power”; all Mary's salutary influence flows from the superabundance of Christ's merits, on which it depends entirely.
4Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, no. 62 (November 21, 1964): “the one mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation on the part of creatures, in dependence on the one source” — a principle stated for Mary; its extension to all participated intercession is a theological inference, resting directly on LG 49-50 and CCC 956.
5 13Council of Trent, Session XXV, decree De invocatione, veneratione et reliquiis sanctorum (December 3-4, 1563), in H. Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum (Denzinger-Hünermann), no. 1821. Latin: “bonum atque utile esse suppliciter eos invocare, et ob beneficia impetranda a Deo [...] ad eorum orationes, opem auxiliumque confugere.”
6Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2683 (vatican.va): those witnesses who have preceded us into the Kingdom “contemplate God, they praise him and do not cease to care for those whom they have left on earth [...]. Their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and must ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.”
7 19Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Ia, q. 22, a. 3, co. (on providence; Leonine text): “[...] inferiora gubernat per superiora; non propter defectum suae virtutis, sed propter abundantiam suae bonitatis, ut dignitatem causalitatis etiam creaturis communicet.” The French quotation in the body of the article is the translation of this text. On the same principle, see also Ia, q. 23, a. 8 and Contra Gentiles, III, ch. 70.
9Book of Job, 42:7-8. God addresses Eliphaz the Temanite and his companions, commanding them to seek Job's prayer so that they may be spared.
10Second Book of Maccabees, 15:11-16. Judas Maccabeus's vision shows the high priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah, both already dead, praying “for the people and the holy city.”
11Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, no. 49 (November 21, 1964), on the union of the Church's members in Heaven, purgatory, and on earth, and the blessed's continual intercession before the Father.
12Letter of Saint James, 5:16-18: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power.” Elijah's example (1 Kgs 17-18) illustrates the power of righteous prayer.
14Revelation of Saint John, 5:8: the golden bowls “full of incense” are explicitly identified with the “prayers of the saints” presented before the Lamb.
15Revelation of Saint John, 8:3-4: an angel offers incense “with the prayers of all the saints,” and its smoke rises before God with their prayers.
16Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-IIae, q. 83, a. 11, Whether the saints in heaven pray for us. See also the Supplement, q. 72, a. 2-3, on the legitimacy and fittingness of invoking the saints.
17Catechism of the Catholic Church, 956, citing Lumen gentium 49. See 954-959 on the Church's three states.
18Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2683: “We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.”
21Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Homily II on the “Missus est” (Super Missus est), no. 17 (c. 1120). Latin in Patrologia Latina, vol. 183: “In periculis, in angustiis, in rebus dubiis, Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca [...]. Ipsam sequens non devias, ipsam rogans non desperas.”
22Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, no. 51 (November 21, 1964): the Church has always believed that the apostles and martyrs “are more closely united with us in Christ,” and seeks in the saints “example in their way of life, fellowship in their communion, and aid by their intercession.”
23Jacques Fesch, Dans cinq heures je verrai Jésus. Journal de prison, Jubilé / Le Sarment, 1989; entry for Sunday, August 4, 1957, p. 99. Fesch, guillotined on October 1, 1957 after his conversion in prison, is a Servant of God (cause opened in 1993).
24Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Last Conversations, Mother Agnes of Jesus's Yellow Notebook, July 17, 1897 (Centenary ed., Cerf / Desclée de Brouwer). Full formula: “I want to spend my Heaven doing good on earth.” Saint John Paul II proclaimed Thérèse a Doctor of the Church on October 19, 1997.
25Reported by Blessed Jordan of Saxony, Saint Dominic's successor as Master of the Order of Preachers, Libellus de principiis Ordinis Praedicatorum, 93 (c. 1233): on his deathbed (August 6, 1221), Dominic promised his brothers that he would be “more useful after his death” and continue to help them by his prayer.
26Origen, On Prayer (De oratione), XI, 1-2 (Koetschau critical text, GCS 3; treatise composed c. 233-234, after settling in Caesarea): “But these pray along with those who genuinely pray — not only the high priest but also the angels [...] and also the souls of the saints already at rest” (Oulton trans., where the passage appears in ch. VI, “He who prays prays not alone”). Origen illustrates this with Raphael presenting the prayer of Tobit and Sarah (Tob 3:16-17; 12:12) and with Jeremiah praying for the people (2 Macc 15:12-16).
28Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses, V, 9 (catecheses delivered at Jerusalem c. 348-350; NPNF, 2nd series, vol. 7, “Lecture 23,” § 9): “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.” French trans. Toutain after Migne, § 9: « Nous faisons ensuite commémoraison de tous ceux qui se sont endormis ; d'abord des patriarches, des prophètes, des apôtres, des martyrs, pour qu'à leur intervention, à leurs prières, Dieu daigne accueillir et exaucer les nôtres. »
29Saint John Damascene, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (De fide orthodoxa, third part of the Fount of Knowledge), book IV, ch. 15, “Concerning the honour due to the Saints and their remains” (PG 94; NPNF trans., 2nd series, vol. 9): “To the saints honour must be paid as friends of Christ [...] You are My friends [Jn 15, 14]”, and further: the saints are the “patrons of the whole race, [who] make intercession to God for us”.
30Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2683, on the saints' intercession as their “most exalted service to God's plan.”
31Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2683 and 2692. Paragraph 2692 recalls that the Church at prayer is assisted by the saints' intercession, especially that of the Virgin Mary.
32