What about praying to Mary or the Saints?
Question 60065
The practice of praying to Mary and the saints is one of the most visible differences between Roman Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism. For many Catholics, asking Mary or a canonised saint to intercede on their behalf is as natural and unremarkable as asking a friend to pray for them. For evangelicals, the practice raises profound questions about the nature of prayer, the sufficiency of Christ’s mediation, and the authority of Scripture. What does the Bible actually say about who we should pray to, and why does this matter?
The Biblical Teaching on Prayer
Prayer in Scripture is addressed to God. This is consistent from Genesis to Revelation without exception. The Psalms are addressed to God. The Lord’s Prayer begins with “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Paul’s prayers are directed to the Father through the Son (Ephesians 1:17; 3:14; Philippians 4:6). The access believers enjoy is through Christ: “Through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18). The entire structure of New Testament prayer is Trinitarian, offered to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Spirit, and there is no instruction anywhere in the New Testament to pray to anyone other than God.
The strongest text on this subject is 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” The word “one” (heis) is emphatic. There is one mediator. Not one primary mediator supplemented by secondary mediators. Not one mediator who delegates part of His mediatorial role to His mother or to deceased saints. One. The sufficiency and exclusivity of Christ’s mediation is not a Protestant invention; it is a Pauline declaration under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The Catholic Argument
The Roman Catholic position distinguishes between latria (worship due to God alone), dulia (veneration given to saints), and hyperdulia (the special veneration given to Mary). Catholics argue that they are not worshipping Mary or the saints but asking them to pray on their behalf, in the same way one might ask a living friend to pray. The saints, being in heaven and closer to God, are understood to be more effective intercessors than those still on earth.
The argument has a surface plausibility but collapses under scrutiny. Asking a living friend to pray involves communication between two people who are both alive and present. Praying to a deceased person involves addressing someone who is no longer physically present, assuming they can hear you (which implies a form of omniscience or at least a supernatural awareness that Scripture does not attribute to the dead), and directing to them a form of communication that Scripture reserves for God. The practical difference between prayer to God and “asking” a saint for intercession is invisible. Both involve addressing an unseen being, making requests, expressing devotion, and expecting a response. The Catholic insistence that this is not prayer stretches the definition beyond recognition.
What Scripture Says About the Dead
The biblical data about communication with the dead is clear and severe. Deuteronomy 18:10-12 prohibits any form of seeking communication with the dead, describing it as an abomination to the Lord. Isaiah 8:19 asks pointedly: “Should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?” The assumption throughout Scripture is that the dead are not accessible to the living in the way that prayer to saints requires. Abraham in the parable of Luke 16 could not bridge the chasm between his position and the rich man’s. The dead in Christ are with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23), but nowhere does Scripture suggest they function as mediators, intercessors, or recipients of prayers from those still on earth.
The argument that Revelation 5:8, where the elders offer “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints,” proves that the heavenly saints receive and present prayers to God does not bear the weight placed on it. The passage describes heavenly beings offering prayers to God, not receiving prayers from earth and relaying them. The prayers are of the saints, not to the saints. The distinction is significant.
Mary in Scripture
Mary is honoured in Scripture as the chosen vessel through whom the Son of God entered the world. Her obedient response to Gabriel, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38), is a model of faith and submission. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, called her “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42). These are genuine biblical honours, and evangelicals should not neglect them.
But the biblical Mary is a very different figure from the Mary of Catholic dogma. The Bible says nothing about her sinlessness (the Immaculate Conception, declared dogma in 1854), nothing about her bodily assumption into heaven (declared dogma in 1950), nothing about her perpetual virginity (Matthew 13:55-56 names Jesus’ brothers), and nothing about her role as mediatrix or co-redemptrix. The Marian dogmas are theological constructions built on tradition and magisterial authority, not on biblical evidence. When Jesus was told “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you,” He replied: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:20-21). He consistently redirected attention from His earthly family to the kingdom of God.
So, now what?
Christians should honour Mary as the faithful woman Scripture describes her to be, and they should recognise the genuine faith and sincerity of many Catholics who pray to her and the saints. But sincerity does not validate a practice that Scripture does not authorise and in several places explicitly prohibits. Prayer is to God. The mediator is Christ. Access to the Father is through the Son and in the Spirit. No other mediator is needed, none is authorised, and the sufficiency of Christ’s intercession is not improved by supplementing it with the prayers of departed saints. The writer to the Hebrews states that Jesus “is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). “To the uttermost” leaves no gap that Mary or anyone else needs to fill.
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5
