OF THE VENERATION AND INVOCATION OF THE SAINTS.

From - "The teachers handbook to the catechism" by Rev. A. Urban.


We come to-day to the doctrine of the "Veneration and Invocation of
Saints/ Above all things it is necessary that we should know the
difference between angels and saints, for many children take the
saints for angels and the angels for saints. The angels were created
by God as blessed spirits, but the saints were once human beings,
like ourselves. They had to combat temptations from within and
without, as we do, and as a reward for their virtues and constancy
they have been received into heaven.

The Catechism now asks : "What does the Catholic Church teach
us of the veneration and invocation of saints?"

The answer says: "She teaches that it is right and salutary to
venerate the saints and to invoke them." It is not wrong, therefore,
to honor and invoke the saints, it is even very wholesome for us
to do so. The veneration of the saints, indeed, is not made a duty
by the commandments, but it belongs to the Ninth Article of the
creed, which says: "I believe in the communion of saints."

In the explanation of this article we heard that there is a militant,
a suffering and a triumphant part of the Church; that to the last
belong the saints in heaven ; that they pray to God for us, and that
they desire nothing more fervently than that we should one day
be eternally united with God in His glory as they are. The belief
in the intercession of the saints between God and man is most consoling
to human unworthiness and helplessness. I will endeavor to
explain this to you by some examples from life. A child knows
that his father is going to a town of which he has often heard a
great deal. Now, although the father is devoted to the child, still
he is very strict, and the child does not care to tell his father he
would like to go with him. But the child knows what to do. Be
tween him and the strict father stands the gentle, pleading mother,
and to her the child turns, because he knows that the father will
not refuse the mother s request. So the child is allowed to accompany
his father.

The Council at Trent makes it binding upon bishops and priests
of the Catholic Church to support the faithful in the belief in the
invocation and intercession of the saints, the veneration of their relics
and statues. The Church takes her doctrine from Holy Scripture,
from Tradition, and from reason itself.

In the Old Testament God lets the Prophet Jeremias say: "Even
if Moses and Samuel stood before me (and interceded) I should
still have no heart for this people."

The reality and the powerfulness of the intercession of the saints
is acknowledged also by the Holy Fathers Origen, Cyprian, Anthony
and Ephraim.

But reason also tells us that the saints who ever upon this earth
prayed so fervently for their fellow-men, interceded for us likewise in
heaven, where they behold the Majesty of God face to face, and see
more clearly the dangers to which we are exposed. Besides, God
Himself has honored the saints and rewarded their merits, their
virtues, their piety, and their spirit of penance, by receiving them
into heaven. Why, then, should we not venerate those whom God
Himself honors? Christian antiquity bestowed a religious veneration
upon the Blessed Virgin, the holy Apostles and Martyrs, etc. ;
celebrated festivals, sang hymns and songs, accepted many names of
saints in the Canon of the Mass, offered the Holy Sacrifice especially
in their honor, erected churches, and altars in remembrance of them,
and all this to venerate them and to honor God in them, to edify
the faithful and encourage them to imitate their examples of virtue.

The Council of Nice, held in the year 787, speaks thus on the
veneration of saints: "Whosoever does not confess that all the
saints from the beginning until now are worthy of veneration shall
be excommunicated."

The saints are superior works and creatures of God, living members
of Christ, vessels of the Holy Ghost, and are accordingly worthy
objects of our veneration. And if it is right to honor a man on account
of his superiority and virtues, why is it not more reasonable
to honor those who have received the reward of their virtue, the
crown of justice, from the hands of God Himself?

Even that apostate Martin Luther, in a letter to the community
of Erfurt (1522) allows veneration of the saints by writing: "Although
it is not necessary to honor the saints, I do not condemn
those who still honor them."

"What difference is there between the honor which we render to
God and that which we give to the saints?"

I. We adore God alone, i.e., we honor Him alone as the Supreme
Lord and the author of all good ; but we honor the saints only as His
faithful servants and friends.

2. We honor God for His own sake, but the saints on account
of the gifts and talents which God has given them.

We offer to God the most profound reverence and boundless
homage. The saints also do the same in heaven; in a word: we
render to God supreme worship as our Creator, but only secondary
honor to the saints.

As upon earth we give a higher honor to the President than
we do to the other state officials, so do we honor the saints as friends
of God, but not in the same measure as God. Furthermore, God s
perfections are in Himself; but we honor the saints for the perfections
which they have received from God. When we honor the
saints, therefore, we honor God Himself, who gave them His grace
to enable them to lead a virtuous life.

"What should be our principal care in honoring the saints?"
"To become like them by imitating their virtues." That we may
imitate the virtues of the saints it is necessary that we should know
them. We learn to know the virtues of the saints by the stories of
their lives, which are contained in the " Lives of the Saints." This
book ought to be found in every Christian family, for it is an in
exhaustible treasure of grace. In the long winter evenings and on
Sunday afternoons there is no more beautiful or better entertainment
than the reading of the "Lives of the Saints."

We find herein two things, namely, I. That there are saints who
were formerly sinners, as, for instance, St. Mary Magdalene, the
holy Apostle Paul, and there are saints who from their youth lived
in a state of holiness and justice; for instance, St. Aloysius, the
Patron Saint of youth. By reading the lives of the saints, we shall
find that there is no state of life which has not had its saint.
St. Wendelinus was a shepherd, St. Joseph a carpenter. Many of the
saints were hermits, priests, abbots, bishops and popes, others again
were kings, emperors or queens and empresses, as, for instance, St.
Canute, St. Cunigunde, St. Casimir, St. Matilda, St. Helen, St.
Louis, King of France ; St. Edward, King of England, and numerous
others. We see, therefore, that we can be holy and imitate
the saints in every walk of life. Every child and grown person
should know well the life and virtues of his patron saint. The
Church s exhortation to imitate the saints must not, however, be
misunderstood. We are not expected to perform such astonishing
works of penance and mortification as the saints did. But we are
required to love God above all things, and to be ready at all times
to make any sacrifice for His sake. It is not necessary for us to re
tire into a wilderness or desert, but it is sufficient to avoid the tumult
of the world, sensual pleasures and enjoyments which would
lead us to sin. It is not necessary that we should, like St. John the
Baptist in the desert, subsist on locusts and wild honey, but we
should shun an extravagant and sinful excess in living which causes
us to forget the poor.

It is not necessary that we should force ourselves to a perpetual
silence, still we should bridle our tongue, say only that which is necessary
and not indulge ourselves in idle gossip, calumny, detraction,
and tale-bearing. It is not necessary that we should clothe our
selves in a hair shirt, but we should not dress above our station,
or be a slave to fashionable dressing.

It is not necessary that we should scourge ourselves, but we
should learn to hold our sensual desires and inclinations in check.
We are not required to give away all our temporal goods and to
live in direst poverty, but we should not allow our hearts to cling to
money and thereby forget God and eternity.

"What difference is there between the prayers which we say to
God and those which we say to the saints?"

"We pray to God that He may help us through His omnipotence ;
but to the saints that they may assist us through their intercession
with God"

As there is a great difference between the honor which we pay to
God and that which we render to the saints, so also is there a great
difference between the prayers which we say to God and to the
saints. By reason of His omnipotence God Himself can help us in
all our necessities and concerns; but the saints cannot do this, be
cause they are not omnipotent. They can, indeed, intercede for
us with God; as the saints are friends of God, their intercession
is very powerful. In that prayer in which all the saints of heaven
are invoked, the "Litany of the Saints," it always says : "Pray for
us." It never says : "Save us !" Whoever believes that the saints
could assist us by their own power is guilty of sin.

"Whom should we especially venerate and invoke above all the
angels and saints?"

"The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God."

Mary deserves our veneration and esteem above all the angels and
saints, for of all the daughters of Eve she is the chosen daughter
of the heavenly Father, the chaste Bride of the Holy Ghost, the
Virginal Mother of the Divine Son, and the Queen of, Heaven. She
is the only one of all the children of men who was conceived with
out stain of sin, she who is full of grace and blessed amongst women.
She surpasses all the angels and saints in grace and sanctity, and
St. Augustine says of her : "Her dignity is so great because she is
the Mother of God, that she not only surpasses the dignity of man
kind, but that of the angels also."

St. Jerome says: "Just as in comparison with God no one is
good, so there are no saints like Mary in perfection. For this reason
the Catholic Church venerates her above all the saints."

Justly, therefore, does the Church call her a spiritual vessel, i.e.,
a vessel of all virtues, a mirror of justice. With perfect right then
have entire countries, large cities, and invidual communities chosen
her as their Patroness, and placed themselves in an especial man
ner under her protection.

A special day of the week, namely, Saturday, has, too, been devoted
to the honor of the Blessed Virgin, and of the whole year,
the month of May in particular. This month is the month of blossoms
and flowers, and for this reason it is set aside to praise and extol
the loveliest flower of God s garden.

"Ought we to reverence the pictures of Christ and the saints?"

Most decidedly; for if a child honors the portrait of his parents,
we ought far more to hold in veneration the pictures of Christ and
His saints.

The veneration of holy pictures originated in the fourth century.
Before that time the exhibition and veneration of holy pictures was
not so common in the Catholic Church, because it was feared it
might lead the recently converted heathens back to idolatry.

When, through the Emperor Constantine the Great, Christianity
had obtained a firmer foundation and the danger of misconception
in the veneration of pictures was no longer to be feared, this veneration
of pictures and relics became more common. Constantine
was one of the first to give the example, for he caused the holy
cross to be honored above all things and placed everywhere. He
placed in the churches which he had erected costly statues of gold
and silver representing Christ and the Apostles. The veneration
of holy pictures had lasted undisturbed for four centuries, when the
Emperor Leo III. issued an edict in the year 730 ordering the
abolition of pictures throughout the kingdom. The monks were
strictly forbidden to make them, and under pain of death, the law
commanded that all pictures be removed from the churches, public
places, and dwelling houses, and to break and burn them up as idols .
Pope Gregory II. opposed this most resolutely, but in vain. The
attack upon the pictures continued. In Constantinople a riot took
place, and the people killed several stone masons who were sent to
destroy the statues. In Rome, too, the people were worked up to a
frenzy and did the same to the Emperor s statuary as the Emperor
had done with the statues of Christ and His saints; they were
thrown down, and dragged through the mire of the streets. When
the Emperor Leo III. died, in 741, he was succeeded by his son,
Constantine V., who not only walked in his father s footsteps, but
carried his hatred of statues still further. The monks, who zealously
opposed his action, were sewed into sacks and thrown into
the sea, or dragged through the streets, and scourged to death. His
successor, Leo IV., also continued the destruction of images, until
finally, after his death, under the Empress Irene, the war against
the statues ceased, and the General Council of Nice, in the year 787,
gave the decision that the veneration of holy pictures was not sinful,
for the honor was not paid to the picture itself, but to those
whom it represented. If, then, there is no harm in a child venerating
the picture of his parents, neither is there harm in venerating
the pictures of Christ and His saints. What Christian can
pass by a picture with indifference which represents the Saviour
carrying His cross? Certainly every Christian knows well that an
image graven in stone, or carved in wood, or painted upon canvas
or paper, cannot hear his petition nor help him. Neither does a
Christian kneel before an image of the Blessed Virgin or some
other saint, to worship it, but crucifixes and statues remind us of
those whom they represent Christ and the saints. It is, therefore,
not superstition or idol worship, if we kneel before a statue of a
saint to pray. The words of the first commandment, "Thou shalt not
make to thyself any graven image," do not refer to the veneration of
holy images, but to idolatry. For what purpose should we make use
of the pictures of Christ and the saints?

1. For the decoration of our churches. If we were to take the pictures
and statues out of a well decorated church, we should see how
empty and bare the walls would appear.

2. To animate our piety. They exhort us as it were and invite us
to imitate the saints and to live as they did, that we may one day be
glorified as they are.

3. The sight of holy pictures produces in young children especially,
the first religious impressions.

We venerate not only the pictures of the saints but also their
relics or remains.

Relics are parts of a saint s body, as fingers, bones, etc., or certain
things which they used during their lifetime. For this reason in the
early ages of Christianity it was the custom to build churches and
chapels over the tombs of the holy martyrs. But as later, churches
and chapels had to be built in places where there were no graves of
holy martyrs, there were at least relics of the saints placed in the
altar stone of these churches and chapels. The holy sacrifice of the
Mass cannot be offered up upon an altar which does not contain these
relics.

"Why then do we venerate the remains or relics of saints?"

1. Because their bodies were temples of the Holy Ghost and

2. Because God frequently works miracles through them.
When some one dies who in life was dear to us, we keep their

clothes, we take a lock of their hair or we preserve the things which
they used daily as a precious souvenir which we would not part with
for anything in the world. Why should not the relics of the saints
who their whole life long were Temples of the Holy Ghost be dear
and precious to us ? Even in the old law Moses venerated the bones
of the Egyptian Joseph, by taking them with him into the Promised
Land. Furthermore it is proved in the Bible as well as in the his
tory of the Church, that God has worked miracles through them.

By touching the bones of Eliseus a dead man came to life again.
(IV. Kings xiii. 21.)

By touching the hem of a garment which Christ wore a sick
woman was restored to health. (Matth. ix. 20.) Through the
handkerchief and girdle of St. Paul the sick and those possessed by
the devil were healed. (Acts xix. 12.) St. Augustine, the holy Doc
tor of the Church, relates that miracles were worked through the
bodies of the martyrs Gervais and Protase. ("Confessions of St.
Augustine/ ) When, in the year 1129, Paris, the capital of France,
was visited by a terrible pestilence, and no relief came after all the
penitential works and prayers, a procession was made, in which the
relics of St. Genevieve were carried. Her intercession was implored,
and the city was delivered from the terrible scourge.