On the Veneration of Saints & Relics

THE SAINTS must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the Theologian and Evangelist says: “But as many as received Him, He gave them the power to be made the sons of God” (Jn. 1:12). “Therefore they are no longer servants, but sons: and if sons, heirs also, heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Gal. 4:7; Rom. 8:17). And again, in the holy Gospels the Lord says to the Apostles: “You are my friends … I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth” (Jn. 15:14, 15). Furthermore, if the Creator and Lord of all is called both King of kings and Lord of lords and God of gods (Apoc. 19:16; Ps. 49:1), then most certainly the saints, too, are both gods and lords and kings. God both is and is said to be their God and Lord and King. “For I am,” He said to Moses, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” and God appointed Moses the God of Pharaoh (Ex. 3:6; 7:1). However, I say that they are gods, lords, and kings not by nature, but because they have kept undebased the likeness of the divine image to which they were made – for the image of the king is also called a king, and, finally, because they have freely been united to God and received Him as a dweller within themselves have through association with Him become by grace what He is by nature. How, then, should these not be honored who have been accounted servants, friends, and sons of God? For the honor shown the most sensible of one’s fellow servants gives proof of one’s love for the common Master.

 

These are become repositories and pure dwelling places of God, for “I will dwell in them and walk among them,” says God, “and I will be their God” (2 Cor. 6:16; Lev. 26:12). So, indeed, sacred Scripture says that “the souls of the just are in the hand of God: and death shall not touch them” (Wisd. 3:1). For the death of the saints is rather sleep than death, since “they have labored unto eternity and shall live unto the end,” and “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps. 48:9, 10; 115:15). What then is more precious than to be in the hand of God? For God is life and light, and they that are in the hand of God abide in life and light.

 

Moreover, because through their mind God has also dwelt in their bodies, the Apostle says: “Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you?”; “Now the Lord is the Spirit”; and again: “If any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy” (1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 3:17). How, then, should they not be honored, who are the living temples of God, the living tabernacles of God. These in life openly took their stand with God.

 

In the relics of the saints the Lord Christ has provided us with saving fountains which in many ways pour out benefactions and gush with fragrant ointment (the epithet myroblytus, or “gushing ointment,” is applied to certain saints whose relics exude a fragrant oil). And let no one disbelieve. For, if by the will of God water poured out of the precipitous living rock in the desert, and for the thirsty Sampson from the jawbone of an ass (cf. Ex. 17:6; Judges 15:19), is it unbelievable that fragrant ointment should flow from the relics of martyrs? Certainly not, at least for such as know the power of God and the honor, which the saints have from Him.

 

In the Law, anyone who touched a corpse was accounted unclean (cf. Num. 19:11). But these of whom we speak are not dead. Because Life itself and the Author of life was reckoned amongst the dead, we do not call these dead who have fallen asleep in the hope of resurrection and in the faith in Him. For how can a dead body work miracles? How, then, through them are demons put to flight, diseases driven out, the sick cured, the blind restored to sight, lepers cleansed, temptation and trouble driven away; and how through them does “every best gift come down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17) to them who ask with undoubting faith? What would you not do to find a patron to present you to a mortal king and intercede with him in your behalf? Are not the patrons of the entire race to be honored who make petitions to God in our behalf? Yes, indeed; we must honor them by raising churches to God in their name, by making fruit-offerings, and by celebrating their anniversaries and taking spiritual joy in these, such as will be the very joy of our hosts, but taking care lest in endeavoring to do them honor we may give them annoyance instead. For by some things honor is given to God and they who serve Him rejoice in them, whereas by others He is offended and so, too, are His shield-bearers. “In psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles” (Eph. 5:19), in compunction, and in compassion for the needy, let us faithful do honor to the saints through whom most especially is honor rendered to God. Let us set up monuments to them, and visible images, and let us ourselves by imitation of their virtues become their living monuments and images. Let us honor the Mother of God as really and truly God’s Mother. Let us honor the Prophet John as precursor and baptist, apostle and martyr, for “there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John” (Matt. 11:11), as the Lord said, and he was the first herald of the kingdom. Let us honor the Apostles as brethren of the Lord, as eye-witnesses and attendants to His sufferings, whom God the Father “foreknew and predestined to be made conformable to the image of His son” (Rom. 8:29), “first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly shepherds and teachers” (1 Cor. 12:28). And let us honor the holy martyrs of the Lord who have been picked from every rank and whose corps commander is Christ’s archdeacon, apostle, and protomartyr Stephen; let us honor them as soldiers of Christ who have drunk of His chalice and have been baptized with the baptism of His life-giving death, and as participants in His sufferings and His glory. Let us also honor those sainted fathers of ours, the God-bearing ascetics who have struggled through the more drawn-out and laborious martyrdom of the conscience, “who wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, distressed, afflicted: wandering in deserts, in mountains, and in dens and in caves of the earth: of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11:37, 38). Let us honor the Prophets who preceded the Grace, the patriarchs and just men who announced beforehand the advent of the Lord. Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all these and let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory.

 

~An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book Four, Chapter 15