Mary & the Saints
Catholics do not pray to the saints instead of God. We ask friends who are with God to pray with us and for us.
When Christians ask one another for prayers, no one thinks they are replacing Christ. Catholic devotion to the saints rests on the same instinct, extended beyond death. Those who have died in Christ are alive in him, and the Church on earth and the Church in heaven form one family. The Creed calls this the communion of saints (CCC 946–962).
Veneration is not worship
Worship, or adoration, belongs to God alone. What Catholics give the saints is veneration: honor, gratitude, and a request for their prayers. Mary receives a unique honor among the saints because of her unique role as the Mother of the Lord, but she remains a creature who points to her Son.
What the Church teaches about Mary
- She is the Mother of God, a title affirmed by the Council of Ephesus in 431, because the one she bore is truly God made man.
- She remained a virgin: before, during, and after the birth of Christ.
- She was conceived without original sin, the Immaculate Conception, defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854.
- At the end of her earthly life she was taken up body and soul into heaven, the Assumption, defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
Why we have saints
The saints show that holiness is possible in every century, temperament, and state of life: scholars and farmers, mothers and monks, kings and beggars. When the Church canonizes someone, she declares that this person is in heaven and offers them as an example and an intercessor.
Reading a saint’s life is one of the oldest ways to learn the Gospel. They are what the Gospel looks like when someone lives it.
Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican).