Veneration of Saints

Ignatius of Antioch

“My brethren, I am overflowing with love for you, and am exceedingly joyful in watching over you. Yet, in chains for His sake, I am more fearful because I am not yet perfected.  Your prayer, however, will make me perfect for God, so that I may win the lot that has mercifully fallen to me… The prophets also do I love, for they announced the Gospel and hoped in Him and awaited Him. They are saints worthy of love and admiration.” –Letter to the Philadelphians 5:1 (Written 107 A.D.)

Polycarp of Smyrna (69-155 A.D.)

“The blessed Polycarp, although he was, together with those from Philadelphia, the twelfth martyr in Smyrna, he alone is especially remembered by all… He was not only a famous teacher, but also an outstanding witness, whose martyrdom all desire to imitate… Now, with the Apostles and all the just, he is glorifying God the Father Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of our souls and the Shepherd of the Catholic Church throughout the world.’ –The Martyrdom of Polycarp 19:1 (Written in 155 A.D.)

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 of Alexandria 
“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]).

Jacob of Nisibis (Died 337 A.D.)

“Shamuna and Guria, martyrs who made themselves illustrious in their afflictions, have in love required of me to tell of their illustrious deeds. To champions of the faith the doctrine calls me, that I should go and behold their contests and their crowns.” -Homily on the Martyrs, Guria and Shamuna (WORSHIP IN THE EARLY CHURCH, An Anthology of Historical Sources, Volumes 1-4. Lawrence J. Johnson. A PUEBLO BOOK, Liturgical Press Collegeville, Minnesota)

Cyril of Jerusalem:
“Then 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

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]).

“Awake, my harp, your songs in praise of the Virgin Mary! Lift up your voice and sing the wonderful history of the Virgin, the daughter of David, who gave birth to the Life of the World.” –Songs of Praise 1:1 (Written ca 350 A.D.)

“Blessed are you also, Mary, whose name is great and exalted because of your Child. Indeed you were able to say how and where the Great One, Who became small, dwelt in you.”  –Hymns on the Nativity 25:14 (Written in 350 A.D.)
translation by Kathleen McVey, CWS

Gregory of Nazianzus
“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 of Stridon 
“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 of Hippo 
“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]).

“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]).

Victor of Vita (430-486 A.D.)

“The size of the multitude of people from various regions and towns who hastened to meet God’s martyrs is attested by the roads and footpaths which in no way were large enough to hold so many people who crossed the mountain peaks and traversed its pastures. Countless were the people who came down.” –A History of the African Province Persecution, in the Times of Genseric and Huneric, the Kings of the Vandals TIXXXIV. (II. 11). (Written ca. 484 A.D.).  Worship in the Early Church, An Anthology of Historical Sources, Volumes 1-4.  Lawrence J. Johnson.  Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota

Gennadius of Massilia (Died 496 A.D.)

“We believe that the bodies of the saints and especially the remains of the blessed martyrs are to be most highly honored as if they were Christ’s very own members; basilicas are to be named after them.” –Ecclesiastical Dogmas LXxll.  Worship in the Early Church,  An Anthology of Historical Sources, Volumes 1-4.  Lawrence J. Johnson.  Liturgical Press Collegeville, Minnesota

Modestus of Jerusalem (Died 630 A.D.)

“Hail, God-given treasury of the heavenly kingdom! In you, “The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (Jn 1:29) was escorted into our midst, to call together a festival of heaven’s holy angels and the mortals on earth. You were foreordained to be the priceless jewel, stored up in the ‘Church of our ancestors’ (Heb 12:23) on high. Hail, holy Mother of God our Savior, who has come through you to be with us, and we to be in him! He it is who has judged you worthy to be celebrated and venerated by all devout people on earth, and now- even more- to be venerated in heaven by the holy angels as the revered mother of their Lord.” –Encomium on the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, Mary, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, chap 10

“Since you abide in his presence with full freedom of access, pray to him for his Church, that it may be preserved forever in this reverent state of mind. Hail, venerable, immaculate Mother of God! The Lord God came from on high to dwell in your womb as his earthly homeland, without being limited and without leaving heaven behind; now he deems you worthy to come from this earthly, temporal homeland into a better land in heaven, a place also given- through your mediation- to the saints as their longed-for goal.” –Encomium on the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, Mary, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, chap 10

“And perhaps they were amazed to consider how this mortal being had come to be mother of the maker of mortals- to wonder who she might be, and how great are the personal qualities of the one who nurtured God. She contained the uncontainable one, she bore the fire of divinity without being singed, she gave birth to the maker of all, she cradled in her arms him who carries the universe in his hand, she fondled him ‘who looks down on the earth and makes it to tremble’ (Ps 103:32 ILXX]), she fed him “who gives food to all flesh” (Ps 135:25 (LXX]). So they wondered how they might sing her praises, and exalt her journey from this earth to the God who is beyond the universe.” –Encomium on the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, Mary, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, chap 8

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