Why Pray to the Saints Instead of Straight to God?

The Short Answer

Catholics do pray straight to God, every day. Asking the saints to pray for us is not instead of that, but as well as it, in the same way that any Christian asks a friend, “Please pray for me.” The saints in heaven are not dead but alive in Christ, closer to God than we are, and still part of His one family. Scripture shows the saints in heaven offering prayers before God, and the earliest Christians asked the martyrs to pray for them.

Many Protestants are uneasy with this. Christ is the one mediator, they point out; why would anyone need another? And how can people in heaven hear our prayers? These are honest questions, and they deserve honest answers.

What the Church Does and Does Not Claim

The Church does not claim:

• That the saints answer prayers by their own power. They pray to God for us; it is God who answers.
• That we must go through the saints to reach God. Every Catholic may and should pray directly to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit. Asking the saints’ prayers is a help, not a requirement.
• That the saints are all-knowing. How the saints in heaven know our prayers is not fully explained; they know them in God, not by their own power.
• That this is contacting the dead. Scripture forbids necromancy, the attempt to summon the dead for knowledge (Deuteronomy 18:11). Asking a saint to pray to God for us is something else entirely.

The Church does claim that “being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness,” and that “they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us” (CCC 956).

Why Catholics Believe It

Christians are told to pray for one another

St Paul urges “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men” (1 Timothy 2:1). St James writes: “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16). Every Christian asks others to pray for them, and no one thinks this takes anything away from Christ.

The saints in heaven are the most righteous people there are. If the prayer of a righteous man on earth has great power, the prayer of a saint who sees God face to face is not less powerful.

The saints are alive, and they pray

Jesus told the Sadducees that God “is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32), for “all live to him” (Luke 20:38). Death does not cut the saints off from Christ, or from His Body, the Church.

The Letter to the Hebrews describes the faithful who have gone before us as “so great a cloud of witnesses” surrounding us (Hebrews 12:1). And in the Book of Revelation, the elders before God’s throne hold “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8). Heaven is not cut off from earth; it is full of prayer for it. Even in Christ’s parables, the dead care about the living: the rich man pleads for his five brothers (Luke 16:27–28), and there is “joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

The early Christians asked the saints’ prayers

The walls of the catacombs of Rome carry inscriptions from the early centuries asking the dead to pray for the living. And by the fourth century the practice was part of the liturgy. St Cyril of Jerusalem, around 350, explained to the newly baptised what happens in the Eucharistic prayer: “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” (Catechetical Lecture 23.9).

Common Objections

”But Christ is the only mediator between God and us.”

Yes: “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). But notice that this verse comes just after St Paul has urged Christians to pray and intercede for all people (2:1). He clearly did not think that praying for one another competed with Christ’s mediation. Christ alone reconciles us to God by His death; all other prayer for one another is a sharing in His work, not a rival to it. Asking a saint in heaven to pray for us is no different in kind from asking a friend on earth.

”How can the saints hear us? Only God is everywhere.”

The saints do not hear us by their own natural powers. Whatever they know of us, they know in God, who can make known to them what He wishes. Scripture shows that those in heaven know what happens on earth: they rejoice over a sinner who repents (Luke 15:10), and the martyrs in heaven know that their blood has not yet been avenged (Revelation 6:9–10). At the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about what He would accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30–31).

”Why not just go straight to God?”

Catholics do. But why does any Christian ask a friend to pray for them, instead of only praying themselves? Because God wants His children to love one another and to help one another, and prayer is one of the deepest ways to do it. Asking the saints’ prayers is that same love extended across death. The Church is one family, in heaven and on earth, and families pray for each other.

In Summary

Christians are told to pray for one another, and the saints in heaven are alive in Christ and full of love for us. Scripture shows them offering prayers before God, and the early Church asked their help. Asking a saint to pray for us takes nothing from Christ, the one mediator. It is the communion of saints: the whole family of God, praying together.

See also Do Catholics Worship Mary? and Aren’t Statues and Images Idolatry?

This article follows the method St Robert Bellarmine used in his Controversies*: state the question fairly, clear away misunderstandings, make the case, then answer each objection. Bellarmine’s own Controversies include a treatise on the saints in heaven and their intercession. See How We Answer Objections.*

Sources

• Scripture: Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Press). Deuteronomy 18:10–11; Matthew 22:32; Luke 9:30–31, 15:10, 16:27–28, 20:38; 1 Timothy 2:1–5; Hebrews 12:1; James 5:16; Revelation 5:8, 6:9–10.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 946–962, especially 956. vatican.va
• St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 23 (Mystagogical Catechesis 5), 9. Tr. E. H. Gifford, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 7.