What can Saints do?

[FutureCatholic1]

ok i have been taught that Sts can intercied on our behalf but that jesus is the only mediator so can Sts do any thing besides pray because i have seen old prayers that ask them to protect them or help them in what sounds like a way other than praying

wondering what the churches position on this is

thank you

 

[DavidFilmer]

i have seen old prayers that ask them to protect them or help them in what sounds like a way other than praying

There are lots of prayers like that. We ask a Saint to protect us, but we don’t stipulate how. The Saint protects us by praying for our protection. Whatever protection (or other benefit) results, however, comes from God alone, not the Saint.

The Bible tells us that the prayers of the righteous are highly effective. Saints are pretty righteous dudes.

Sometimes you hear accounts of Saints (or angels) appearing to someone. A Saint is unable to do this of his own power, but (of course!) it can be accomplished by a miracle of God, when God feels it is appropriate.

 

[SwissGuard25]

My Saint, Maximilian Kolbe, Sacrificed himself for the sake of a prisoner in the Holocaust. The Saints are Shepard’s whose example’s lead us to Christ

 

[FutureCatholic1]

so a st can protect or help by praying but only intervine phisically if God allows them to do so correct

 

[ESMDHokie77]

That’s about right, some saints have appeared to people… through the grace and power of God.

 

[Todd_Easton]

In life, the Apostles Peter and Paul raised the dead and healed the sick and did many other miracles. There is no reason to believe that they lost any of those God-given powers after their deaths. Doesn’t the Bible tells us that the prophet Samuel prophesied after his death (1 Samuel 28:19; Sirach 46:20) and the prophet Elisha raised the dead after his own death? (2 Kings 13:21; Sirach 48:14) Can there be anything wrong in asking a saint, alive or dead, to exercise his God-given power?