The Biblical Basis of the Invocation of the Saints

Catholicism teaches that invocation of the saints is efficacious. The essence of this invocation is as follows: Those who die in a state of grace -- that is, the saints -- are with God in Heaven; they are able to hear the prayers of the living that are directed to them; and the prayers offered to God by the saints on behalf of the living are effective. This description skips a lot of details, but it represents the basic Catholic dogma.

The charge has been made that iinvocation is a late, and false, addition to the early, and true, Christian faith. This charge is particularly common among Christian Fundamentalists, who believe that what cannot be found in the Bible cannot be taken to be from God.

As a Catholic, I do not accept the doctrine of Sola Scriptura in any of its variations, so an argument against Catholic doctrine based on Biblical silence wouldn't hold much sway with me. In the case of the invocation of saints, however, I think the Bible is far from silent, and firmly on the side of Catholicism.

Consider the essence of the doctrine as described above:

1. The saints are with God in Heaven.

2. The saints are able to hear the prayers of the living.
Jesus taught, "See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. [Matthew 18:10]"

3. The prayers offered to God by the saints on behalf of the living are effective.
St. James wrote, "For the continual prayer of a just man avails much. [James 5:16]"

Now, by themselves these passages do not prove anything. They do, though, show that it cannot be claimed that the statements, "Those who have died in Christ are with Him in Heaven," "The angels in Heaven are aware of what happens on earth," and "Intercessory prayer is effective," are non-biblical, much less contrary to the Bible.

The weakest link in all this, as I see it, is going from "the angels are aware of what happens on earth" to "the saints are able to hear the prayers of the living." Given the former, though, it is not a priori impossible that the latter be true; indeed, inasmuch as in heaven we shall be like angels (see Matthew 22:30), a logical argument can be made to derive the latter from the former.

For me, though, this argument is not necessary, as invocation of the saints is a dogmatic tradition of the Christian Church. For the purposes of this note, the argument isn't strictly necessary, either, since I don't mean to prove the dogma but to show some biblical support for it. Those interested in a more complete defense of the dogma may find material on the subject on Dave Armstrong's "Communion of Saints Apologetics Index Page."

The Web being what it is, I'll finish this with the disclaimer that the above represents my personal interpretation of Catholic teaching and my personal arguments in its favor. Should my arguments be refuted, the dogma taught by the Church still stands.

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Page maintained by Tom Kreitzberg. Comments, suggestions, arguments, and questions are welcome. Last modified December 10, 1997.