C. Prayers to the saints; intercession/mediation of the saints

Note: This list is a work in progress, and may change at any time both in the selection of quotations and the content of the annotations. In the meantime, feel free to offer any suggestions.

MARTYRDOM OF IGNATIUS

“…it came to pass, on our falling into a brief slumber, that some of us saw the blessed Ignatius suddenly standing by us and embracing us, while others beheld him again praying for us, and others still saw him dropping with sweat, as if he had just come from his great labour, and standing by the Lord.” (chap. 7)1

LACTANTIUS

“But if it appears that these religious rites are vain in so many ways as I have shown, it is manifest that those who either make prayers to the dead, or venerate the earth, or make over their souls to unclean spirits, do not act as becomes men, and that they will suffer punishment for their impiety and guilt, who, rebelling against God, the Father of the human race, have undertaken inexpiable rites, and violated every sacred law” (Divine Institutes, Book Two, chap. 18).

Augustine

“This, the catholic faith has known of the one and only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who condescended to undergo death—that is, the penalty of sin—without sin, for us. As He alone became the Son of man, in order that we might become through Him sons of God, so He alone, on our behalf, undertook punishment without ill deservings, that we through Him might obtain grace without good deservings. Because as to us nothing good was due so to Him nothing bad was due. Therefore, commending His love to them to whom He was about to give undeserved life, He was willing to suffer for them an undeserved death.” (Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Book 4, chap. 7)2

  1. In the context, the grief-stricken Christians are tempted to doubt that Ignatius had triumphed even through martyrdom, but had rather been defeated by being thrown to the wild beasts; but receiving visions of Ignatius embracing them and praying for them, with the sweat of his labors still upon him, they are encouraged to rejoice. The import of the vision is not to encourage the Christians that, even after his death, Ignatius is interceding for them, but rather that the labors of martyrdom could not destroy the works that he had done on the earth, when he was faithful to love and pray for all the saints. These works in which he sweated followed after him, and made him joyful in the Lord still after his death. And yet, it is easy to see how, in the coming generations, this assurance could slowly grow to a trust in the ongoing intercession/mediation of the saints (about which, see Lactantius, below). At any rate, the exuberance of a few grief-stricken and sleep-deprived mourners should not be wrested unnaturally to the support of a doctrine which the scriptures and the early fathers spoke against, viz., prayers to the dead saints in the hopes of their favors and intercessions.
  2. Augustine taught the exclusive mediation, satisfaction, merit, etc., of Christ alone.

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