The “Whys?” of Catholicism: Praying to the Saints

(This was meant to be an All Saints’ Day post, but, well…it’s not now. Ah well. Such is life.)

I know that not everyone likes the Catholic idea of praying to saints. I think sometimes this could simply stem from never hearing an accurate description of what Catholics really believe about it, or from not understanding the reasonings behind it.

(Just as a caveat, I am not a professional apologist, so it’s quite likely that not everything in this post will be worded in the most succinct/least confusing way. Sorry!

Also, one more caveat – please don’t think I’m trying to bash your beliefs if they differ from mine. I’m just explaining my own, and why I think they make sense.)

The main objections I’ve heard/can think of related to praying to the saints are these:

~that it gives honor and glory to the saints which is due to God alone

~even if it’s not wrong, why would you bother when you can simply talk to God directly?

~that it leads to superstitious feelings of “Oh, I have to pray to this saint for this intention or it won’t work”

To answer the first objection, I want to make the distinction that prayer is not worship. Prayer to the saints entails either praising them, asking them for help, or thanking them for something. All of these things are very different from worship. Worship is most certainly due to God alone, and it would be very wrong to worship the saints.

Admiring someone, asking for their help, or thanking them, however, are all things we have no problem doing with our friends all the time, and we certainly wouldn’t think that we were worshiping them or failing to honor God by doing so. There’s no reason why it should be any different when it’s directed toward the saints. (Besides, all the good the saints have done, and all the help they can give us, are from God in any case. Praying to the saints isn’t removing God from the equation – that’s impossible! It’s just talking to people who are much closer to God than we are.)

As to the second point, it is quite true that one can just pray to God (and we should definitely do that as well – building a relationship with the saints should certainly not replace building a relationship with God). It’s been made clear, though, that God likes to work through His creatures, and that He likes for us to help each other (after all, the second greatest commandment – second only to loving God – is to love our neighbor). Jesus Himself did not travel through the world spreading Christianity; He left that for His disciples. In the here and now, God often makes us dependent on others for various things we need. He wants us to help each other. How is asking the saints for help any different?

As for the last point, I would say that yes, it could lead to feelings of superstition, but that doesn’t make the action itself bad. There are many good things that can lead to temptations to bad things. This doesn’t mean you should not do the good, but that you should do the good and resist the temptation to bad.

In any case, it will guard against superstition to remember that prayer to the saints has never been held as necessary to salvation, and therefore there can’t be one set way we “have” to do it.

I hope this article helped you. Thank you for your attention reading it!