Priest George Maximov
1. The Nature of Orthodox Prayers to the Saints
First, it must be clarified that prayers to the saints in the Orthodox Church are not only supplicatory but also eulogistic. For example, canons and the beloved akathists are composed precisely to recall the lives and struggles of the saints, to glorify and bless them for their faithfulness and obedience to God’s will. This is a direct fulfillment of Scripture:
> “Remember your instructors, who preached to you the word of God, and, gazing at the end of their life, imitate their faith.” (Heb. 13:7)
> “Behold, we count them blessed who endured patiently. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end thereof from the Lord; for the Lord is very merciful and gracious.” (James 5:11)
The Theotokos herself prophesied:
> “That He has looked upon the humility of His handmaid, for from now on all nations shall call Me blessed [μακαρίζω].” (Luke 1:48)
In both James and Luke, the Greek verb μακαρίζω means “to bless,” “to extol,” or “to proclaim as blessed.” Yet protestants do not bless either the Mother of God or the saints—and thereby transgress the very Word of God. Even if they refused to ask the saints for intercession, they would still be obligated to read canons and akathists in their assemblies, so as to remember the saints’ examples and glorify them as Scripture commands.
2. Supplicatory Prayers and the Role of Intercession
Secondly, regarding supplicatory prayers: protestants and "jehovah’s witnesses" claim such prayers “violate” the verse:
> “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. 2:5)
But this passage refers specifically to Christ’s redemptive sacrifice—as the very next words state: “Who gave Himself as a ransom for all.” No saint claims to be a mediator in this salvific, atoning sense. However, the Lord repeatedly commands Christians to pray for one another (Matt. 5:44; 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1). Protestants themselves pray for each other, yet do not consider this an usurpation of Christ’s unique mediation. Likewise, when we ask the saints to pray for us, we do not believe they act by their own autonomous power, but through union with God, Whose grace empowers all true intercession.
Sectarians typically object: “These commands apply only to the living! Nowhere does Scripture say the departed saints can pray!” To this, we point to Revelation:
> “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God… And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’” (Rev. 6:9–10)
Here, the Apostle John bears clear witness that the departed saints retain consciousness and the capacity to pray to God.
Sectarians further insist that the dead lose the ability to intercede—but cannot cite a single biblical verse supporting this claim. On the contrary, Christ declared:
> “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.” (Luke 20:38)
Prayer for those in need is an expression of Christian love—and “love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8). They also ask: “How can the departed hear our prayers?” This is understandable when we recall:
> “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (1 Cor. 6:17)
Since the Lord hears all prayers, those united with Him—the saints—participate in His Divine awareness. Scripture itself confirms that the righteous, even after death—which it calls merely a “departure” (2 Tim. 4:6) — remain conscious, united with Christ, and continue to pray.
If protestants truly rejected saintly intercession only because they believed the departed could not pray, they would at least pray to the Prophet Elijah and the Righteous Enoch—both of whom were taken bodily to God without tasting death. Yet they pray to neither. This exposes their true motive: not theological caution, but proud disdain for those whom Scripture calls “friends of God” (John 15:15; James 2:23).
The Apostle Paul writes to believers:
> “You have come… to the Сhurch of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.” (Heb. 12:22–23)
We Orthodox, through prayer and hymnody, truly draw near to these perfected saints and maintain communion with them. Sectarians, however, refuse to approach “the spirits of the righteous made perfect.” It is pride that leads them to say: “Why should I ask a saint to pray for me, when I can pray directly to God myself?”
Yet Scripture repeatedly affirms that God heeds the prayers of the righteous more readily—even when He might not accept the prayer of an ordinary sinner. Recall God’s words to Job’s friends:
> “Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as My servant Job has done.” (Job 42:8)
Likewise, God told Abimelech:
> “Restore the man’s wife… for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live.” (Gen. 20:7)
Both Job’s friends and Abimelech could have prayed themselves—yet God chose to act through the intercession of the righteous.
3. The Veneration of Relics
Sectarians often object to the veneration of relics, assuming this contradicts Scripture. In fact, the opposite is true: Scripture records that God glorifies even the bodily remains of His saints and works miracles through them. Consider:
> “And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites came into the land in the next year.
And it was that, when they were burying one man, then, seeing this band, the buriers threw that man into the grave of Elisha; and he, at his falling, touched the bones of Elisha, and revived, and stood on his feet.” (4 Kings 13:20–21)
God continues to manifest His power through the relics of later saints. Recently, for example, a blind woman in St. Petersburg regained her sight before the relics of the Great Martyr George the Trophy-bearer.
This brings us to the decisive point: the question is not theoretical — 'Do the saints hear us?' or 'Can God act through relics?' — but based on experience. They really do hear us. Not only in antiquity, but also today: countless Orthodox Christians, including me, can testify from personal experience that when we asked the Saints for intercession before God, God answered, often miraculously.
If, as protestants claim, prayers to the saints are displeasing to God, then why does He fulfill them? If direct prayer to God were always successful, and prayers to the saints never, then this practice would have long been abolished. But God confirms this practice by answering such prayers, and sanctions the veneration of relics by working miracles through them.
4. A Final Question
Let us pose one last question to our interlocutors:
If God will say to those who rejected the least of His brethren—“Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41)—what will He say to those who reject His friends, of whom Scripture declares:
> “The world was not worthy of them” (Heb. 11:38),
and who now “stand before the throne of God… crying out with a loud voice” (Rev. 7:9–10)?
To spurn the saints is not merely to disregard tradition—it is to scorn those whom God Himself honors, and whose prayers rise ceaselessly before His throne.