The Saints are our Avengers

Being a Sunday School servant myself, I always enjoy talking about the lives of saints when they come up in lessons. There is a "curriculum" we have to follow throughout the year in my church and it never ceases to amaze me how much the kids enjoy it when I tell them we're talking about a saint and not some old man who was the wisest human being on earth or some other one who had to watch his wife turn into a pillar of salt. Like Medieval Christians, the Coptic Orthodox are fanatic when it comes to saints (we literally based our entire calendar on their lives). But it occurred to me yesterday that Professor Brown's comment on praying to St. Mary actually makes sense. Then I remembered 1 Timothy 2:5 and realized that, technically, we don’t even need to pray to St. Mary because we have Christ.

"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." I think this verse answers the question of what kind of relationship we want with God. If you go back and read the Prayers of St. Anselm to God and Christ, you will see the similarities they share connect one way or another to atonement, to asking God for forgiveness and for help with temptations. This specific prayer can only be requested of Christ and God. The Saints have nothing to do with forgiveness of sins. Having said that, I don't think this should be the limit of our relationship with God, and it was definitely not the only prayer Christians asked of God centuries ago. They read the Beatitudes and saw God being whatever the poor and persecuted needed. As Professor Brown said, the Bible is just like fanfiction for Christians (of any time); you can put God in any situation with you and see Him play out His role. But then you realize that having only two characters in your story might be a bit boring in the long run. And that's where saints come in.

So why do we pray to saints? Well, St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, the Hebrews, and the Ephesians, asking them to pray for him. The saints ask us to pray for them so why shouldn't we ask them to pray for us? I understand this is a lazy answer, but it shows how important it is to ask for intercessions from people besides Christ and God. The Medieval Christians were aware of the status of the saints and knew their Bible as we have made clear in our previous discussions. They understood that God accepted intercessions from saints and martyrs because He said so in the Old and New Testaments. There were many times in the Bible where God addressed people and told them that unless they ask a specific person to pray for them, He will not forgive them; take a look at Abraham and King Abimelech, Job and his friends, and Moses and the Israelites. The list goes on. God accepts intercessions from saints because it benefits humans and benefits Him. Medieval Christians understood this which is why they knew their saints. By praying to them, they are acknowledging their status and thanking God through them. They realized that the saints have favor with God because they have already "fought the good fight and kept the faith." John 12:26 says "if any man serve me, him will my Father honor." There are many ways to serve God, but I believe the most sacrificial would be to dedicate your life on earth to Him which is precisely what the saints did. This is why St. Anselm wrote different prayers to different saints. He knew St. Paul, St. Nicholas, and all the other saints were honored by God because of their lives. Like St. Anselm, Medieval Christians were looking for any way to become closer to God so if they know God likes His saints, they might as well pray to them.

But they didn't just pray to them. Christians in the past (and today) went on pilgrimages to faraway lands just to have a few moments with the relic of a saint. Even though these pilgrims travelled to "see/touch" the saints, the nature of their pilgrimage depended heavily on determination and dedication to finding and experiencing God. Beginning in the early fourth century and lasting until the present day, Christian pilgrimage became rooted in the minds of the masses, the idea that one can experience spiritual transformation through a devotional journey intensifying as more accounts from pilgrims spread throughout the land. Whether it was to strengthen the relationship between themselves and their patron saint, or fill the need for the presence of the divine in their life, pilgrimages played an essential role in the personal and spiritual life of a Medieval Christian. We joked yesterday about how the Medieval Christians can name the saints by one look at an icon just as we can name the different heroes by one look at the comics. This is because the icons of the saints were a significant part of any pilgrimage site, seeing as they reflected a silent language spoken and shared by anyone standing in their presence. However the icons were experienced, they became mediators between the believers and God. The icons were there to help the pilgrim focus his prayer instead of becoming distracted by the hundreds around him seeking that same divine intervention.

Professor Brown ended the discussion yesterday by asking how we can match our devotional life with that of a pilgrim's. I think it begins by understanding the function and importance of saints and their intercessions. I said yesterday that they weren't superheroes and I'd like to take back that answer. They are superheroes, but they also have flaws. That flaw isn't necessarily a bad thing. That flaw is the human nature that was affected by the fall of man. Saints are Steve Rogers after he received the serum. Saints are Clint Barton who's deaf but never missed his target. Saints are Bruce Banner surviving gamma radiation and living to help others and coming to terms with their condition. These superheroes were not super at some point in their lives, but they became super because of that one thing that happened to them. With saints, that thing is God. But just because they are superheroes, doesn't mean that they forgot how it was before they knew God to that degree. This is why asking them to pray for us is important. They lived through what we are living through and understood what it is to be human and to deal with the pain and evil that's in this world.

 

I leave you with the names of Saint Wanas and Saint Abba Nopher in case you ever lose anything and need to find it asap.

MT