Intercession of Saints and Angels

In his audio teaching called “What the Early Christians Believed About Images and Prayers to Saints”, David Bercot disputes the Orthodox doctrine of intercession and invocation of saints and angels. He states:

But what about in the second and third centuries? Well again I’m just gonna tell you flatly, there is no record anywhere in the ante-Nicene writings of any Christian praying to a saint or to an angel, that is in the writings before the time of Constantine. There is not even an instant of any Christian who was part of the Church, I mean other than a heretic maybe, asking a deceased Christian to pray for them. There is not even a record, any instance of that happening. In fact, their beliefs show why they wouldn't have even considered such a thing. (David Bercot, "What the Early Christians Believed About Images and Prayers to Saints" YouTube video uploaded by "Scroll Publishing," 54:49, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh65VvPhJcY&t).

Mr. Bercot's claim is flatly incorrect; there are records in the ante-Nicene writings of Christians praying to saints and angels. In fact, several early Christians spoke of the intercession and invocation of the saints and angels, a doctrine also found in Old Testament Judaism. Although the doctrine is disputed by Protestants, there is ample Old Testament and early Christian evidence in favor of intercession of angels and departed saints for the living, as well as the intercession of the living for the dead. First, we will consider the biblical foundation for the doctrine. Secondly, we will consult the Holy Fathers on the subject.

Old Testament

Various Old Testament authors pray to departed saints. Most of the following passages are taken from the Septuagint, which the Orthodox Church has always regarded as Scripture. In the 16^th century, Martin Luther's (1483-1546) Bible was the first major edition to have a separate section called “Apocrypha.” Books and portions of books not found in the Masoretic Text of Judaism were moved out of the body of the Old Testament to this section. The Westminster Confession of Faith, composed during the British Civil Wars (1642–1651), excluded the “Apocrypha” from the canon. Thus, Bibles printed by English Protestants who separated from the Church of England began to exclude these books. All King James Bibles published before 1666 included the “Apocrypha,” but most modern editions of the Bible and reprintings of the King James Bible omit the “Apocrypha” section. How convenient for the Protestants to reject the Scripture which affirms a doctrine they reject, that is, the intercession of the saints!

Written in the Hellenistic period of Judaism and dating from about 300–200 BC, the Book of Enoch contains numerous passages in which those in heaven are praying for those on earth: “And now to you, the holy ones of heaven, the souls of men make their suit, saying, 'Bring our cause before the Most High'” (Enoch 9:3-4); “Here mine eyes saw their dwellings with His righteous angels, And their resting-places with the holy. And they petitioned and interceded and prayed for the children of men, And righteousness flowed before them as water” (Enoch 39:5); “In those days make ready, ye righteous, to raise your prayers as a memorial, And place them as a testimony before the angels, That they may place the sin of the sinners for a memorial before the Most High” (Enoch 99:3); “I swear unto you, that in heaven the angels remember you for good before the glory of the Great One” (Enoch 104:1-2).

2 Maccabees focuses on the Jews' revolt against King Antiochus IV Epiphanes (d. 163 B.C.E.) and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. In light of the Resurrection, Judas Maccabeus made atonement for his fellow Jews who died so that they may be absolved from their sin. The following passage is explicitly speaking about prayers of the living for the dead:

And when he had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection: For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. And also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin. (2 Mac 12:43-45)

When the heathens led by Nicanor set out to fight against Judas Maccabeus and the Jews on the Sabbath day, he shared the following vision in which the martyred high priest Onias intercedes on behalf of Israel, along with Jeremiah the Prophet who died almost 400 years earlier:

That Onias, who had been high priest, a virtuous and a good man, reverend in conversation, gentle in condition, well spoken also, and exercised from a child in all points of virtue, holding up his hands prayed for the whole body of the Jews. This done, in like manner there appeared a man with gray hairs, and exceeding glorious, who was of a wonderful and excellent majesty. Then Onias answered, saying, This is a lover of the brethren, who prayeth much for the people, and for the holy city, to wit, Jeremias the prophet of God. Whereupon Jeremias holding forth his right hand gave to Judas a sword of gold, and in giving it spake thus, Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with the which thou shalt wound the adversaries” (2 Maccabees 15:12-14).

4 Maccabees is an elaboration of the stories of martyrdom in the book 2 Maccabees: that of the woman with seven sons and the scribe Eleazar, who are tortured to death by Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes in an attempt to make them renounce their adherence to Judaism. The work was preserved largely among Christians. The Greek Orthodox Church and the Georgian Orthodox Church printed 4 Maccabees in their Bibles together with the rest of the Old Testament. It was also included in the 1688 Romanian Orthodox Bible. Several portions of 4 Maccabees are written much like an Orthodox Akathist. An Akathist or Acathist Hymn is a type of hymn recited by Orthodox Christians, dedicated to a saint, holy event, or one of the persons of the Holy Trinity. The author of Maccabees prays to Eleazar, the Jewish martyr who died during the persecution of Judaism ordered by King Antiochus Epiphanes (notice the pronoun “you”):

O priest worthy of the priesthood! thou didst not pollute thy sacred teeth; nor make thine appetite, which had always embraced the clean and lawful, a partaker of profanity. O harmonizer with the law, and sage devoted to a divine life! Of such a character ought those to be who perform the duties of the law at the risk of their own blood, and defend it with generous sweat by sufferings even unto death. Thou, father, hast gloriously established our right government by thy endurance; and making of much account our service past, prevented its destruction, and, by thy deeds, hast made credible the words of philosophy (4 Mac 7:6-9).

Also during the same persecution of the Jews, the seven sons of Hannah were commanded to worship an idol. Each refused, and each in turn was slaughtered. The author praises Hannah and her seven sons thus:

O thou mother, who wast tried at this time with bitterer pangs than those of parturition! O thou only woman who hast brought forth perfect holiness! Thy first-born, expiring, turned thee not; nor the second, looking miserable in his torments; nor the third, breathing out his soul. Nor when thou didst behold the eyes of each of them looking sternly upon their tortures, and their nostrils foreboding death, didst thou weep! When thou didst see children's flesh heaped upon children's flesh that had been torn off, heads decapitated upon heads, dead falling upon the dead, and a choir of children turned through torture into a burying ground, thou lamentedst not.... O holy mother of a nation avenger of the law, and defender of religion, and prime bearer in the battle of the affections! O thou nobler in endurance than males, and more manly than men in patience! For as the ark of Noah, bearing the world in the world-filling flood, bore up against the waves, so thou, the guardian of the law, when surrounded on every side by the flood of passions, and straitened by violent storms which were the torments of they children, didst bear up nobly against the storms against religion (4 Mac 15:16-20, 29-32).

Vainly, for your sakes, O sons, have I endured many pangs, and the more difficult anxieties of rearing. Alas, of my children, some of you unmarried, and some who have married to no profit, I shall not see your children, nor be felicitated as a grandmother.... O woman, soldier of God for religion, thou, aged and a female, hast conquered through endurance even a tyrant; and though but weak, hast been found more powerful in deeds and words. For when thou wast seized along with thy children, thou stoodest looking upon Eleazar in torments, and saidst to thy sons in the Hebrew tongue, O sons, noble is the contest; to which you being called as a witness for the nation, strive zealously for the laws of your country. For it were disgraceful that this old man should endure pains for the sake of righteousness, and that you who are younger should be afraid of the tortures.... And the righteous Daniel was cast unto the lions; and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael, were slung out into a furnace of fire; yet they endured through God. You, then, having the same faith towards God, be not troubled. (4 Mac 8,9, 14-17, 21, 22).

O thou mother, who together with seven children didst destroy the violence of the tyrant, and render void his wicked intentions, and exhibit the nobleness of faith! For thou, as an house bravely built upon the pillar of thy children, didst bear without swaying, the shock of tortures. Be of good cheer, therefore, O holy-minded mother! holding the firm hope of your steadfastness with God. Not so gracious does the moon appear with the stars in heaven, as thou art established honourable before God, and fixed in the firmament with thy sons who thou didst illuminate with religion to the stars. For thy bearing of children was after the fashion of a child of Abraham. And, were it lawful for us to paint as on a tablet the religion of thy story, the spectators would not shudder at beholding the mother of seven children enduring for the sake of religion various tortures even unto death” (4 Mac 17:2-7).

7 Holy Maccabee Martyrs

A lengthy section in the Wisdom of Sirach also functions much like an Akathist. In chapters 44-50 of the Wisdom of Sirach there is Akathis-like praise of honored men of the Old Testament, such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham and his sons, Moses, Aaron, Phineas, Joshua, Caleb, the Judges, Samuel, Nathan, David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Josiah, Jeremiah, and the Twelve Prophets. Often the author Sirach even switches to the pronoun “you” instead of “he”, thus speaking to the Old Testament saints directly, such as the Prophet Elijah: “O Elias, how wast thou honoured in thy wondrous deeds! and who may glory like unto thee!” (Sirah 48:4). Also Sirach praises Solomon using the pronoun “you”:

How wise wast thou in thy youth and, as a flood, filled with understanding! Thy soul covered the whole earth, and thou filledst it with dark parables. Thy name went far unto the islands; and for thy peace thou wast beloved. The countries marvelled at thee for thy songs, and proverbs, and parables, and interpretations. By the name of the Lord God, which is called the Lord God of Israel, thou didst gather gold as tin and didst multiply silver as lead. Thou didst bow thy loins unto women, and by thy body thou wast brought into subjection. Thou didst stain thy honour, and pollute thy seed: so that thou broughtest wrath upon thy children, and wast grieved for thy folly. (Sirach 47:14-20)

In the book of Tobit, probably written in the second century BC, is described the intercession of the the angel Raphael (Tob 12:1-15). In the conclusion of the account the angel Raphael says:

Now therefore, when thou didst pray, and Sara thy daughter in law, I did bring the remembrance of your prayers before the Holy One: and when thou didst bury the dead, I was with thee likewise. And when thou didst not delay to rise up, and leave thy dinner, to go and cover the dead, thy good deed was not hid from me: but I was with thee. And now God hath sent me to heal thee and Sara thy daughter in law. I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One” (Tobit 12:12-15).

We see that the Judaism of the time assumed that those saints and angels had some knowledge of what was happening on earth and were praying for them. The early Christians inherited these underlying presuppositions from Judaism.

New Testament

Our Lord Jesus Christ made various statements which relate to intercession of angels in heaven for those on earth. Christ said, “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Lk 15:7). Christ also spoke about guardian angels when He said, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Mt 18:10). Do the guardian angels not intercede for us? Referring to the angels, the author of Hebrews rhetorically asked, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb 1:14). At the pool of Bethesda the Jews brought the sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed because “an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had” (Jn 5:4).

Furthermore, several passages in the gospels relate to the intercession of the saints. On the Mount Tabor, Christ was transfigured, and Moses and Elijah also appeared (Mt 17:1-4). The two Old Testament saints, long deceased, were recognized by the apostles. When our Lord Jesus Christ was hung on the cross, some of those who stood there, having mistaken Christ's words, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” (Mt 27:47). It did not seem unusual to the Jews for Christ to be calling for the Prophet Elijah because, as noted above, the doctrine of intercession and invocation of the saints was part of the Jewish tradition. The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him” (Mt 27:49).

In addition to Moses and Elijah, who appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, Abraham is also alive in Paradise, according to Christ's account of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31). Referring to the patriarch Abraham, Christ said that God “is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living” (Mk 12:27). Old Testament saints such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rehab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets are mentioned in Hebrews 11 for their faith in God.

Referring to these previously mentioned saints, we “are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1). The author of Hebrews continues, speaking of the Church in the following way:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel (Heb 12:22-24).

The New Testament teaching is that the Church has Christ as the one Mediator of the new covenant but many intercessors, including the cloud of witnesses, an innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, in the words of the author of Hebrews. Protestants often reject the doctrine of intercession of the saints and angels based upon the above passage and St. Paul's statement in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” However, in the verses immediately prior to that statement St Paul says:

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

St. James also tells us that the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16). So clearly the fact that Christians are called upon to make supplications, prayers, and intercessions on behalf of others is not a contradiction to Christ being the one mediator of the New Covenant (see Heb 8:6; 9:15, 16; 12:24).

Some interpret 2 Timothy 1:16–18 to support prayer for the dead, which is a likely interpretation if Onesiphorus was deceased. The Apostle Paul wrote: "The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; but when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that Day—and you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus” (2 Timothy 1:16–18).

In the book of Revelation we observe angels and departed saints presenting our prayers to God:

Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand (Revelation 8:3-4).

Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints (Revelation 5:8). 

Early Christians

Approaching the doctrine of intercession and invocation of the saints and angels in early Christianity, there are numerous references found in the lives and writings of the Holy Fathers.

St. Ignatius (c. 35-107) was the bishop of Antioch, disciple of the Apostle John and a companion of St. Polycarp. He was also martyred in Rome. After his martyrdom, St. Ignatius appeared to his disciples who “saw the blessed Ignatius suddenly standing by [them] and embracing [them], while others beheld him again praying for [them], and others still saw him dropping with sweat, as if he had just come from his great labor, and standing by the Lord.” (The Martyrdom of Ignatius, 7, ANF 1.131).

St. Ignatius of Antioch

The Shepherd of Hermas was a Christian allegory of the late first half of the second century, and it was widely read and held in great esteem by many early Christian churches. Hermas is said to have received “intercession” from a “holy angel”:

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 [Hermas], 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?” (Shepherd of Hermas, 3.5.4, ANF 2.35).

During the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193–211), persecution again commenced against the Church. In 202, the emperor issued an edict against both Christianity and Judaism. Eusebius mentions the account of the martyrdom of St. Potamiana, who was famous for the preservation of her chastity and virginity. St. Basilides, one of the officers of the army, led her to death, driving back her insulters and demonstrating much kindness to her. Potamiana exhorted Basilides “to be of good courage, for she would supplicate her Lord for him after her departure, and he would soon receive a reward for the kindness he had shown her.” After being tortured, St. Potamiana and her mother, St. Marcella, were put to death by fire. Burning pitch was gradually poured over parts of her body. For three days after her martyrdom, Potamiana “stood beside [Basilides] by night and placed a crown on his head and said that she had besought the Lord for him and had obtained what she asked, and that soon she would take him with her.” Basilides was asked later by his fellow-soldiers to swear an oath for a certain reason, but he declared that it was not lawful for him to swear at all as a Christian. He was then sentenced to prison and beheaded. (Eusebius, The History of the Church, tr. Arthur Cushman McGiffert (1890), 6.5).

St. Hippolytus (c. 170-236) was a presbyter in the church at Rome and pupil of St. Irenaeus. St. Hippolytus of Rome said, “Tell me, you three boys [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego], remember me, I entreat you, that I also may obtain the same lot of martyrdom with you, who was the fourth person with you who was walking in the midst of the furnace and who was hymning to God with you as from one mouth?” (Commentary on Daniel, 2, 30.1, tr. T.C. Schmidt [2010]).

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215), presbyter in the church and an instructor of new Christians at the Catechetical School of Alexandria, declared: “So is he [a true Christian] 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” (The Stromata, 7.12, ANF 2.546).

Origen (c. 185-255) was bishop of Caesarea, theologian, prolific writer, pupil of Clement of Alexandria, and teacher at the Catechetical School in Alexandria. Origen wrote:

But these pray along with those who genuinely pray—not only the high priest but also the angels who 'rejoice in heaven over one repenting sinner more than over ninety-nine righteous that need not repentance,' and also the souls of the saints already at rest. Two instances make this plain [Tob 12:1-15; 2 Mac 15:13-14]” (On Prayer, chaps. 6, tr. William A. Curtis [originally uploaded to the web by Nottingham Publishing; reformatted by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2008]). . . . . Now request and intercession and thanksgiving, it is not out of place to offer even to men—the two latter, intercession and thanksgiving, not only to saintly men but also to others. But request to saints alone, should some Paul or Peter appear, to benefit us by making us worthy to obtain the authority which has been given to them to forgive sins—with this addition indeed that, even should a man not be a saint and we have wronged him, we are permitted our becoming conscious of our sin against him to make request even of such, that he extend pardon to us who have wronged him” (Ibid., 10).

In the following lengthy passage, Origen affirms intercession of the saints and angels, summarizing much of the biblical data above:

Yet there is a certain helpful charm in a place of prayer being the spot in which believers meet together. Also it may well be that the assemblies of believers also are attended by angelic powers, by the powers of our Lord and Savior himself, and indeed by the spirits of saints, including those already fallen asleep, certainly of those still in life, though just how is not easy to say. In reference to angels we may reason thus: If an angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those that fear Him and shall deliver them, and if Jacob's words are true, not only of himself but to all who have devoted themselves to God, when we understand him to say the angel who delivers me from all evil . . . it is natural to infer that, when a number of men are genuinely met for Christ's glory, that angel of each man—who is round about each of those that fear—will encamp with the man with whose guardianship and stewardship he has been entrusted, so that when saints assemble together there is a twofold church, the one of men the other of angels.

And although it is only the prayer of Tobit, and after him of Sarah who later became his daughter-in-law owing to her marriage to Tobias, that Raphael says he has offered up as a memorial, what happens when several are linked in one mind and conviction and are formed into one body in Christ? In reference to the presence of the power of the Lord with the church Paul says: you being gathered together with my spirit and with the power of the Lord Jesus, implying that the Lord Jesus' power is not only with the Ephesians but also with the Corinthians.

And if Paul, while still wearing the body, believed that he assisted in Corinth with his spirit, we need not abandon the belief that the blessed departed in spirit also, perhaps more than one who is in the body, make their way likewise into the churches. For that reason we ought not to despise prayer in churches, recognizing that it possesses a special virtue for him who genuinely joins in.

And just as Jesus' power and the spirit of Paul and similar men, and the angels of the Lord who encamp round about each of the saints, are associated and join with those who genuinely assemble themselves together, so we may conjecture that if any man be unworthy of a holy angel and give himself up through sin and transgressions in contempt of God to a devil's angel, he will perhaps, in the event of those like him being few, not long escape that providence of those angels which oversee the church by the authority of the divine will and will bring the misdeeds of such persons to general knowledge; whereas if such persons become numerous and meet as mere human societies with business of the more material sort, they will not be overseen. (Origen, On Prayer, 20, tr. William A. Curtis (originally uploaded to the web by Nottingham Publishing; reformatted by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2008).

Earliest known manuscript of Sub tuum praesidium in Greek, dated between 3rd to 4th centuries.

Dated AD 250, the John Rylands Papyrus 470, called “Beneath Your Protection” (Latin: Sub tuum praesidium), is the oldest known extant prayer and hymn to the Virgin Mary as Theotokos. The English translation says, “Beneath your compassion, We take refuge, O Theotokos [God-bearer]: do not despise our petitions in time of trouble: but rescue us from dangers, only pure, only blessed one.”

Also from the mid-third century, in the Catacombs of San Sebastiano are hundreds of graffiti with invocations to the Apostles Peter and Paul: “Paul and Peter, pray for Victor”; “Paul, Peter, remember Timocrates and bless Kina and Esor”; “Peter and Paul, may you keep us in mind and may you save us” (See The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology, ed. David K. Pettegrew, William R. Caraher, Thomas W. Davis [New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019], 92-93). These are just a few examples of very many.

St. Cyprian (c. 200-258) was a bishop of Carthage, North Africa, during a period of aggressive persecution. He declared,

We earnestly exhort as much as we can, dearest brother, for the sake of the mutual love by which we are joined one to another, that since we are instructed by the providence of the Lord, who warns us, and are admonished by the wholesome counsels of divine mercy, that the day of our contest and struggle is already approaching, we should not cease to be instant with all the people in fastings, in watchings, in prayers. Let us be urgent, with constant groanings and frequent prayers. For these are our heavenly arms, which make us to stand fast and bravely to persevere. These are the spiritual defences and divine weapons which defend us. Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides [of death] 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 from here 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. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell (To Cornelius in Exile, Concerning His Confession, 5, ANF 5.352).

Finally, St. Methodius (d. c. 311), bishop of Olympus in Lycia, was author of several theological and moral works. He left us lengthy prayers to the Theotokos and St. Simeon:

Hail to you for ever, virgin mother of God, our unceasing joy, for unto you do I again return 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. Hail, you treasure of the love of God. Hail, you fount of the Son’s love for man. Hail, you overshadowing mount of the Holy Spirit. You gleam, sweet gift-bestowing mother, of the light of the sun; you gleam with the insupportable fires of a most fervent charity, bringing forth in the end that which was conceived of you before the beginning, 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 you, the most excellent among women, who boasts 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 hymns august celebrate the memory, which will ever live, and never fade away.

And do also, O honored and venerable Simeon, you earliest host of our holy religion, and teacher of the resurrection of the faithful, be our patron and advocate with that Savior God, whom you were deemed worthy to receive into thine arms. We, together with you, sing our praises to Christ, who has the power of life and death, saying, You are the true Light, proceeding from the true Light; the true God, begotten of the true God; the one Lord, before ?Your assumption of the humanity; that One nevertheless, after ?Your assumption of it, which is ever to be adored; God of Your own self and not by grace, but for our sakes also perfect man; in ?Your own nature the King absolute and sovereign, but for us and for our salvation existing also in the form of a servant, yet immaculately and without defilement. For You who are incorruption has come to set corruption free, that You might render all things uncorrupt. For Thine is the glory, and the power, and the greatness, and the majesty, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen. (Oration on Simeon and Anna, 14, ANF 5.393).

In conclusion, and contrary to Mr. Bercot's claims, there are records of Christians praying to saints or to angels in the second and third centuries, and in the writings before the time of Constantine. The intercession of saints and angels is found in the Old Testament as a Jewish practice which carried over into early Christianity, and has ben faithfully preserved in the Orthodox Church.