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Home , Communion of saints, Intercession, Veneration

Early of the

Regarding the veneration of the saints, there aren’t many pieces of evidence from the first century. However, there is evidence from the very early period, possibly as early as the first century. It is important to keep in mind that the Apostolic Tradition, while it has roots going back to the first century, developed over time taking on a more elaborated form from its simpler precedents. It is also important to keep in mind that we are talking about a grass roots devotional practice that did not leave much paper trail. Still there are multiple sources that support the Orthodox understanding of the veneration the saints.

Philip Schaff in History of the Christian Vol. II §27 noted that the early catacombs contained inscriptions where the departed are asked to pray for their living relatives (p. 83). What is interesting is a letter from St. to the Church of Smyrna dated AD 155. It briefly says, “Him indeed we adore () as the Son of ; but the we as they deserve (veneration), for their surpassing love to their King and Master, as we wish also to be their companions and fellow-disciples” (pp. 82-83).

The distinction between the worship of Christ and the veneration of the saints is very much the same distinction the and Orthodox Christians use today. This shows the remarkable continuity of tradition with early . It can also be taken as evidence that the distinction between adoration and veneration was not concocted by the Seventh Ecumenical Council but has very early roots.

Mary with

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The Christian catacombs with religious images and symbols in Rome have been dated back to the late second century. One of them contains a fresco that depicts the with the Child on her knees and a picture of a prophet pointing at them. This is not a simple mother and child picture but rather a powerful witness to the as the fulfillment of Old Testament and Mary as the Second Eve.

Gregory Dix in his magisterial The Shape of the Liturgy noted that it was the practice of the early Christians’ to seek the of the saints:

…but invocations of Christian saints who had been Hippolytus’ contemporaries in life have been found on the walls of S. Callistus, which there is good reason to think were scratched there very soon after their burial (p. 346)

Another evidence for the early Christians asking the intercession can be found in Hippolytucs’ commentary on the addressed to the Three Young men mentioned in Daniel:

O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye ; O ye apostles, prophets, and martyrs of the Lord, Bless ye the Lord: praise Him, and exalt Him above all, forever. (in Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. V p. 190)

An interesting journal article was written by David Frankfurter. It states: “The Cult of the Martyrs in Egypt Before Constantine: The Evidence of the Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah” in Vigilaeae Christianae 48 (1994): 25-47. This suggests not only the antiquity but also the early universal use of this practice.

Gregory Dix also noted the eagerness with which the early Christians gathered Polycarp’s right after his martyrdom. Then he notes:

Nothing could better illustrate the unprimitive character of much in protestant polemic against the cultus of the saints and their relics which was sincerely put forward in the sixteenth century as a return to genuine ‘apostolic’ Christianity than the unaffected religious reverence with which his disciples forthwith treated the body and the memory of this last survivor of the apostolic age (pp. 343-344).

This comment about ’s “unprimitive character” is Dix’s indirect way of criticizing the novel character of Protestant theology.

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Communion of Saints

Regarding the suggestion that the phrase “” is ambiguous and subject to multiple readings, one can argue that the scholarly consensus does not support such a position. The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology has this:

The traditional, and probably the best, interpretation refers the phrase to the union of all believers, living or dead, in Christ, stressing their common life in Christ and their sharing of all the of God.

This is further supported by JND Kelly in Early Christian Doctrines (p. 490) and JND Kelly in Early Christian Creeds (pp. 391-2).

Conclusion

One may therefore conclude that both sides of the argument show that the veneration of saints is supported by the practice and teachings of the early Church.

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