Yes, Catholics pray to Mary and the saints, but they do not worship them. To “pray to” a saint means to ask that saint to pray for us, just as we ask a friend or a family member to pray for us. Worship, or adoration, belongs to God alone. Below is what the Church teaches, why Catholics ask for the saints’ prayers, the Bible passages behind the practice, answers to common objections, and how to pray to a saint.
The short answer
- Catholics ask Mary and the saints to intercede, that is, to pray to God for us.
- Catholics worship God alone. The Church distinguishes adoration, which is due only to God, from the honor or veneration given to the saints, and the special honor given to Mary as the Mother of God. The Catechism calls the honor paid to holy images a “respectful veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone (CCC 2132).
- Christ is the one mediator. The saints do not replace him; they pray through him, “through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus” (CCC 956).
What “praying to” a saint means
In older English, “to pray” simply meant “to ask,” as in “I pray you, sit down.” When Catholics pray to a saint, they are asking for that saint’s prayers. You can hear it in the words of the most familiar prayer to Mary, the Hail Mary: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” The request is for her prayer, not for anything that only God can give.
Why Catholics ask the saints to pray for them
1. Christians pray for one another. St. Paul asks that prayers be offered for everyone:
I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men:
And St. James adds:
Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.
2. The saints are alive in Christ. Death does not end their life or their love. Jesus said of God:
Now that the dead rise again, Moses also shewed, at the bush, when he called the Lord, The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live to him.
3. The saints in heaven care for us and offer prayers before God. Scripture shows heaven full of witnesses and of the prayers of the saints:
And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us:
And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints:
And another angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God.
And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.
4. Scripture shows the departed praying for the living. In a vision, Judas Machabeus saw the prophet Jeremias, long dead, praying for his people:
Now the vision was in this manner: Onias who had been high priest, a good and virtuous man, modest in his looks, gentle in his manners, and graceful in his speech, and who from a child was exercised in virtues, holding up his hands, prayed for all the people of the Jews:
After this there appeared also another man, admirable for age, and glory, and environed with great beauty and majesty:
Then Onias answering, said: This is a lover of his brethren, and of the people of Israel: this is he that prayeth much for the people, and for all the holy city, Jeremias the prophet of God.
5. The Church teaches it. “When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were ‘put in charge of many things.’ Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world” (CCC 2683). The saints are also our models: by canonizing them, the Church proposes them “as models and intercessors” (CCC 828).
Is praying to Mary worship?
No. Catholics honor Mary more than any other saint because God chose her to be the Mother of his Son. She herself foretold it:
Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
But the Catechism is clear that this devotion “differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration” (CCC 971). At the wedding at Cana, Mary brought a need to her Son and pointed everyone to him:
And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine.
And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come.
His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye.
That is the pattern of every Marian prayer: Mary always leads to Jesus. “We can pray with and to her” (CCC 2679). See the Memorare and total consecration to Mary.
Common objections
“There is only one mediator.”
True, and Catholics believe it with all their hearts:
For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus:
But the same chapter, four verses earlier, asks Christians to make “intercessions” for all people. Praying for one another does not compete with Christ’s mediation; it shares in it. The saints’ prayers, like ours, reach the Father only through Christ.
“Doesn’t the Bible forbid contacting the dead?”
The Bible forbids necromancy, trying to get secret knowledge or power from the dead:
Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard,
Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead.
For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations he will destroy them at thy coming.
The Church forbids it too (CCC 2116). Asking a saint to pray for us is something else: we are not summoning anyone or seeking hidden information. We are speaking to God and to the members of his family who live with him, as the Church has done since the catacombs.
“How can the saints hear millions of prayers?”
The saints are not limited the way we are on earth; they share in God’s life, and it is God who makes their communion with us possible. The Book of the Apocalypse shows the prayers of God’s people being offered in heaven.
“Why not go straight to God?”
Catholics do, above all in the Mass and in personal prayer. Asking for the saints’ prayers does not replace that; it adds to it, just as asking a friend to pray for you does not stop you from praying yourself.
Who can Catholics pray to?
- Mary, the Mother of God and Queen of all saints.
- The angels, especially St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael and our guardian angels.
- Canonized saints, such as St. Joseph, St. Anthony, St. Jude or St. Thérèse, and the blessed.
- Privately, many Catholics also ask the prayers of loved ones who have died in the faith. Public veneration, however, is reserved to those the Church has beatified or canonized.
See patron saints and the saint of the day.
How to pray to a saint
- Begin with God. Make the Sign of the Cross and thank God for the saint.
- Speak simply. Tell the saint what you need, as you would tell a friend.
- Ask for their prayer. “St. Joseph, pray for us.” “Mary, Mother of God, pray for me.”
- Trust God’s answer. The saints pray that God’s will be done, and so should we.
You can also use a traditional prayer: the Hail Mary, the St. Michael prayer, the Litany of the Saints, or a novena to a saint.
A short prayer, written for this page:
Lord God, I thank you for all your saints, who now see you face to face.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, and all you saints of God,
pray for me and for those I love, that we may follow Jesus faithfully
and one day praise him with you in heaven. Amen.
Frequently asked questions
Do Catholics worship saints?
No. Catholics worship God alone. They honor the saints and ask for their prayers.
Do Catholics worship Mary?
No. Catholics honor Mary as the Mother of God and ask her prayers, but this devotion “differs essentially from the adoration” given to God (CCC 971).
Is praying to saints in the Bible?
The Bible teaches that believers should pray for one another (1 Timothy 2:1, James 5:16), that the saints in heaven are alive in God (Luke 20:38), and that the prayers of the saints rise before God’s throne (Apocalypse 5:8, 8:3–4).
Do Catholics have to pray to saints?
No particular devotion is required, but the Church warmly encourages it: “We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world” (CCC 2683).
Why do Catholics pray to Mary so often?
Because she is the Mother of Jesus and the mother of all believers (John 19:26–27), and because her prayers always lead to her Son.
More prayers to the saints
- Prayers to saints for every need
- Hail Mary
- Memorare
- Litany of the Saints
- Patron saints
- All Saints Day
Texts and sources
- Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1, 5; James 5:16; Luke 20:37–38; Hebrews 12:1; Apocalypse 5:8, 8:3–4; 2 Machabees 15:12–14; Luke 1:48; John 2:3–5; Deuteronomy 18:10–12, Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner), public domain.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 828, 956, 971, 2116, 2132, 2679, 2683 (vatican.va).
- The prayer was written for this page.