Veneration of Saints
Honoring the holy dead and asking their prayers, a practice the traditions sharply dispute
Veneration of saints means honoring holy persons who have died in Christ and asking their intercession. The Martyrdom of Polycarp reflects early reverence for martyrs. The traditions differ: Catholics and Orthodox practice it, distinguishing veneration (dulia) from the worship (latria) due to God alone, and ground it in later conciliar teaching. Most Protestants, especially the Reformers, rejected or sharply restricted it, urging that prayer be addressed to God through Christ alone.
How it traveled
- City of GodHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Reply to Faustus the ManichæanHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
- Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from ItGeneva · c. 1564 CEchallenges
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 27.—Concerning the Nature of the Honor Which the Christians Pay to Their Martyrs. But, nevertheless, we do not build temples, and ordain priests, rites, and sacrifices for these same martyrs;
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One Hundred Aphorisms, · John Calvin
58. They err who call on the Saints that are placed beyond this life. 1. Because Scripture teaches that prayer ought to be offered to God alone, who alone knows what is necessary for us. He chooses to
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Book First. of the Knowledge of God the Creator · John Calvin
GOD DISTINGUISHED FROM IDOLS, THAT HE MAY BE THE EXCLUSIVE OBJECT OF WORSHIP. Sections. 1. Scripture, in teaching that there is but one God, does not make a dispute about words, but attributes all h
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John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith · John of Damascus
The ever-virgin One thus remains even after the birth still virgin, having never at any time up till death consorted with a man. For although it is written, And knew her not till she had brought forth
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12. I confess my own fear, for possibly it may be thought to spring from superstition. When I have been angry, or have had evil thoughts in my mind, or some phantom of the night has beguiled me, I do
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 10.—That the Martyrs Who Obtain Many Miracles in Order that the True God May Be Worshipped, are Worthy of Much Greater Honor Than the Demons, Who Do Some Marvels that They Themselves May Be Su
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Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
21. As to our paying honor to the memory of the martyrs, and the accusation of Faustus, that we worship them instead of idols, I should not care to answer such a charge, were it not for the sake of sh
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The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch · John Chrysostom
In the latter part of the century, instances are more frequent. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. Myst. v. (6), says, “Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first, patriachs, pro
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
20. Moreover, the Sophists are guilty of the merest trifling when they allege that Christ is the Mediator of redemption, but that believers are mediators of intercession; as if Christ had only perform
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
Erasmus, though stumbling and walking blindfold in clear light, ventures to write thus in a letter to Sadolet, 1530: “Primum, constat nullum esse locum in divinis voluminibus, qui permittat invocare d
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Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose · Ambrose of Milan
13. Let these triumphant victims be brought to the place where Christ is the victim. But He upon the altar, Who suffered for all; they beneath the altar, who were redeemed by His Passion. I had destin
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The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods · The Ecumenical Councils
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian’s Decretum, Pars I., Dist. xxx., c. vij. Canon XIX. If any of the ascetics, without bodily necessity, shall behave with insolence and disreg
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41. The whole country marvelled and the fame of the great miracle was in everyone’s mouth, even at Salonæ. In Dalmatia, three miles from Diocletian’s great palace (Spalatro). The southern promontory
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Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59) · Thomas Aquinas
On the contrary, It is written (De Eccles. Dogm. xl): "We believe that the bodies of the saints, above all the relics of the blessed martyrs, as being the members of Christ, should be worshiped in all
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
OF PRAYER—A PERPETUAL EXERCISE OF FAITH. THE DAILY BENEFITS DERIVED FROM IT. The principal divisions of this chapter are,—I. Connection of the subject of prayer with the previous chapters. The nature
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
22. Monstrous errors resulting from this fiction. Refutation. Exception by the advocates of this fiction. Answer. 23. Arguments of the Papists for the intercession of saints. 1. From the duty and off
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On Modesty. · Tertullian: Part Fourth
Chapter XXII.—Of Martyrs, and Their Intercession on Behalf of Scandalous Offenders. But you go so far as to lavish this “power” upon martyrs withal! No sooner has any one, acting on a preconceived ar
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
This shows that the martyrs were highly venerated even at this early date, as was indeed most natural, and as is acknowledged by the writers themselves just below. But it does not show that the Christ
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The Letters of St. Jerome · Jerome
Letter XLVI. Paula and Eustochium to Marcella. Jerome writes to Marcella in the name of Paula and Eustochium, describing the charms of the Holy Land, and urging her to leave Rome and to join her old
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 9.—That All the Miracles Which are Done by Means of the Martyrs in the Name of Christ Testify to that Faith Which the Martyrs Had in Christ. To what do these miracles witness, but to this fai
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