Early Church Fathers on Intercession of Saints
Hermas the Shepherd (80 AD),
“But those who are weak and slothful in prayer, hesitate to ask anything from the Lord; but the
Lord is full of compassion, and gives without fail to all who ask Him. But you, having been
strengthened by the holy Angel, and having obtained from Him such intercession, and not
being slothful, why do not you ask of the Lord understanding, and receive it from Him”
(Chapter 3:5:4)
Clement of Alexandria (208 AD),
“So is he 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.” (Stromata book 7:chapter 12)
Cyprian of Carthage (253 AD),
“Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides always pray for
one another. Let us relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love, that if any one of us, by the
swiftness of divine condescension, shall go hence the 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” (Epistle 56:5)
Cyril of Jerusalem (350AD),
“Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first Patriarchs, Prophets,
Apostles, Martyrs, that at their prayers and intercessions, God would receive our petition”
(Catechetical Lectures 23:9
Ephraim the Syrian (370AD),
“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)
Gregory of Nazianzus (380AD),
“Aye, I am well assured that his 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 which obscured it, and holds intercourse naked with the nakedness of the
prime and purest Mind; being promoted, if it be not rash to say so, to the rank and confidence of
an angel” (Orations 18:4( on the death of his father)
“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)
Gregory of Nyssa (380AD)
[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).
Jerome (406AD)
“You say, in your pamphlet, that so long as we are alive we can pray for one another; but once
we die, the prayer of no person for another can be heard, and all the more because the martyrs,
though they cry for the avenging of their blood, have never been able to obtain their request. If
Apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, when they ought still to be
anxious for themselves, how much more must they do so when once they have won their crowns,
overcome, and triumphed? A single man, Moses, wins pardon from God for six hundred
thousand armed men; and Stephen, the follower of his Lord and the first Christian martyr,
entreats pardon for his persecutors; and when once they have entered on their life with Christ,
shall they have less power than before” ( Against Vigilantius Chapter 6)
John Chrysostom (396AD)
“For he that wears the purple himself goes to embrace those tombs, and, laying aside his pride,
stands begging the saints to be his advocates with God, and he that has the diadem implores the
tent-maker and the fisherman, though dead, to be his patrons” ( Homily 26 on 2nd Corinthians)
“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)
Methodius (305AD)
“Hail to you for ever, Virgin Mother of God, our unceasing joy, for to you do I turn again. You
are the beginning of our feast; you are its middle and end; the pearl of great price that belongs to
the kingdom; the fat of every victim, the living altar of the Bread of Life [Jesus]. Hail, you treasure
of the love of God. Hail, you fount of the Son’s love for man. . . . You gleamed, sweet giftbestowing Mother, with the light of the sun; you gleamed with the insupportable fires of a most
fervent charity, bringing forth in the end that which was conceived of you . . . making manifest the
mystery hidden and unspeakable, the invisible Son of the Father—the Prince of Peace, who in a
marvelous manner showed himself as less than all littleness”
“Therefore, we pray [ask] you, the most excellent among women, who glories in the confidence
of your maternal honors, that you would unceasingly keep us in remembrance. O holy Mother of
God, remember us, I say, who make our boast in you, and who in august hymns celebrate the
memory, which will ever live, and never fade away”
“And you also, O honored and venerable Simeon, you earliest host of our holy religion, and teacher
of the resurrection of the faithful, do be our patron and advocate with that Savior God, whom you
were deemed worthy to receive into your arms. (Oration on Simeon and Anna 14)
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
This it was that the blessed martyrs did in their burning love; and if we celebrate their memories in no mere
empty form, and, in the banquet whereat they themselves were filled to the full, approach the table of the
Lord, we must, as they did, be also ourselves making similar preparations. For on these very grounds
we do not commemorate them at that table in the same way, as we do others who now rest
in peace, as that we should also pray for them, but rather that they should do so for us, that
we may cleave to their footsteps; because they have actually attained that fullness of love, than which, our
Lord has told us, there cannot be a greater. ( TRACTATE 84, JOHN 15:3)