The Development of The Practice and Doct

66 COLLOQUIA Manilana
The Development of the

Practice and Doctrine of
the Cult of Saints in the
Catholic Tradition
Jannel N. Abogado, O.P.
I. INTRODUCTION
The practice of the veneration of saints is integral in the

understanding of the Catholic faith. People who are outside the
Catholic tradition dismiss this religious custom because they are
ignorant of the meaning and the truths that it communicates. In order
to give proper explanation of the cult of saints, an inquiry about the
development of its theology and the signiicance that it introduces
to Catholic worship is discussed in this paper. What the Scriptures
and the Church Magisterium say about the cult of saints and what is
the faith that people profess to believe when upholding this practice
are just some of the questions that this article attempts to answer.
The discussion commences with the biblical foundations of the cult,
THE CULT OF SAINTS IN THE CATHOLIC TRADITION 67
then locates its emergence from the early Christian community,

enunciates it as it was continued and cultivated by succeeding
generations of Christians, and inally complements its understanding
with the oficial proclamations of the teaching ofice of the Church.
II. BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS
a) “Communion with the Saints” in the Bible2
The belief in the “communion with the saints” is not an

innovation of the Church inasmuch as it is given witness by the
books of the Holy Scriptures. Scriptural evidences giving testimony
to the reality of the “communion with the saints” are not lacking
both in the Old and the New Testaments. Accounts mentioning
deceased holy men, praying for the welfare of the people on earth
abound in the sacred book. The book of 2 Maccabees (15:12-16),
for example, reveals Judas’ vision about the prophet Jeremiah and
Onias, the high priest, who both had long been dead, uttering prayers
for the deliverance of the Jews who, at that time, were under the
threat of attack from their enemies.3 Likewise, the book of Tobit
(12:12) is succinct in saying that the holy angels of God intercede for
the prayers of Tobit and Sarah, his daughter-in-law.4
The vision of John in the book of Revelation (5:7-9) asserts

the intercessory role of the holy people of God. It speaks of Jesus,
the Lion of Judah,5 the Lamb who was slain, who, because he won
the redemption of the human race by shedding his blood, has earned
the right to break open the seals of the scroll, the record of what is to
happen in the last times. Included in this same vision is the presence
of four living creatures and twenty four elders worshipping the Lamb
and offering “golden cups full of incense” together with the prayers
of the people to God.6 The twenty-four elders and the four living
creatures that give worship to God stand for the representatives of
the human race and the whole nature respectively. We see here both
man and nature engaged in constant praise of God. The presence of
“harps and cups full of incense” (cf. 1 Chro 25; Lk 1:8-9) signiies
that they exercise the priestly ofice of mediation, which is to offer
the prayers of the faithful.9 Furthermore, in Revelation 8:3-4,10 “the

angel is pictured as offering the prayers of the saints in much the
same way as the priests in the temple at Jerusalem would daily take
hot coals from the altar of sacriice and carry them to the holy place
to the golden altar of incense.”11
In addition, the departed holy men and women are aware of

the human affairs on earth. St. Paul, making an allocution about the
demand of discipleship, which involves a sense of utter humiliation
comparable to those condemned to die in the arena, discloses that
the suffering endured by the apostles for the sake of the gospel
will be a spectacle not only for the mortals, but also for heavenly
beings (1 Cor 4:9).12 The awareness of the heavenly beings about the
human situation implies the possibility of interaction between them
and the faithful on earth in terms of spiritual activity, like praying
for the needs of men before the Lord.
Finally, to complete the foundation of this belief in the bible,

a divinely inspired testimony that will guarantee the belief that God
hears the cries of the saints should be cited. In the Old Testament,
the book of Genesis (4:10) has God telling Cain, that the blood of his
brother Abel, whom he murdered, cries to him from the soil. Abel
was the irst of the saints, whose blood is precious in the sight of God
(Ps 107:15), and by virtue of his faith, God vindicated him by having
Cain “cursed and driven from the ground” (Gen 4:11).13
In the vision of John concerning the opening of the ifth seal

in Revelation (6:9-10), he saw the slain martyrs underneath the altar,
which is suggestive that the blood of these holy persons have been
poured out as an offering to God (cf. Lev 4:7). Just like the prayer
of Abel, these martyrs cried out to God for vindication from those
who have inlicted them suffering while on earth. The holy martyrs
wished to see the punishment of their persecutors.14 In reply, they
received the white robe of victory and they were bidden to rest a
little longer, with an assurance that their prayers would be answered
when the number of the righteous was complete.15
b) What does the Bible say about the engraving of images?

Undeniably, the belief in the saints interceding for people

on earth is a biblical truth. But, another equally important issue that
needs to be settled in the bible is whether the idea of making material
representations of God and holy persons does not conlict with the
teachings of the Scriptures. It is one thing to establish that the bible
justiies the cult of saints, and another to say that the engraving of
icons of holy people is not forbidden by Scriptures.
Those who hold the position that God forbids the carving of
images justify their claim by quoting the commandment of God in
Deuteronomy (5:6-9), which states:
I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land

of Egypt, the house of slavery. Do not have other gods
before me. Do not have idols, do not make any igure
of things in the heaven and here on earth below, or in
the waters under the earth. Do not kneel before them or
worship them, because I am Yahweh, am your God, a
jealous God who punishes the children until the third
and fourth generation for the wickedness of their fathers
who hate me.
It is important to note here that Catholics regard the quoted

text, taken as a whole, as the irst commandment of God, but the
Protestants consider it as two separate commandments. For the
latter, it constitutes the irst and the second commandments of God,
namely, “I am Yahweh, your God….do not have other gods before
me” and “Do not make any igures of things in the heaven and the
earth below…” The source of the conlict of interpretations between
the two traditions lies in the separation.
The Protestant makes the instruction not to make graven

images absolute. However, a closer look at the Scriptures reveals
that it is not so, for “there is a notable exception of this prohibition
of images at the very center of the Old Testament, one that concerns
the most sacred places, the gold covering of the Ark Covenant,
which was regarded as the place of expiation.”16 The text of Exodus
(25:17-22) says:
You are to make the mercy Seat of pure gold, two and a
half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide. For the
two ends of the mercy Seat you are to make two golden
cherubim of hammered gold. Make the irst cherub for
one end and the second for the other, and fasten them to
the two ends of the cover so that they may make one piece
with it. The two cherubim are to have their wings spread
upward so that they overshadow the mercy Seat. You must
place the mercy Seat on the top of the ark. Inside the ark
you must place the two tablets that I shall give you. There I
shall come to meet you; there from the above of the mercy
Seat from between the two cherubim on it, I shall give you
all my commands for the people of Israel.
The engraving of images is not absolutely prohibited by

Scriptures. What is inadmissible is the making of images to be
worshipped and served as gods. The Catholic tradition interprets the
precept on the outlawing of images in the light of the commandment
not to worship other gods beside Yahweh. It is a warning for the Jews
not to fall into the religious error committed by their neighboring
countries, the idolatrous worship of bodies of woods and metals
made of human hands. Idolatry was the prevailing practice in ancient
Near East. The people believed that gods entered into the images
upon the sacerdotal consecration, and afterwards dwelt therein. The
precept is directed to protect the Jews from being infected by the
false belief in other gods, and, at the same time, to inculcate in them
the knowledge that there is only one true God to be worshipped,
the God who led them out from the land of Egypt. The prohibition
then is directed against making of images on account of idolatry,
that is, when one makes images to be worshipped as gods, but not if
one regard them as memorials and symbols of some personalities or
events in the past. Other references in the bible concerning images
(Ps 115:3; Deut 4:15-18; Is 40:17-25) reiterate this fundamental
proscription not to make idols to be given praise and worship, which
the Catholic tradition faithfully and irmly upholds.
This interpretation tallies with the Judaic tradition which

held a not so rigid interpretation of the precept on prohibition
of images. Often, our understanding is that the Jews interpreted

the prohibition on images in a radical way. But the “result of
archeological discoveries [reveals] that the ancient synagogues were
richly decorated with representations of scenes from the Bible. They
were by no means regarded as mere images of past events, as a kind
of pictorial history, but as a narrative, which, while calling into
something to mind, makes it present.”17
What about the question on representing God in visible

form? Deuteronomy (4:15) discloses, “You did not see any form
on that day when Yahweh spoke to you at Mount Horeb from the
midst of the ire”. The application of the proscription is true for
Old Testament times where God concealed the mystery of his
presence from the people, but in the New Testament, God has
willed to reveal himself through the form of the Son, the incarnated
Logos. It is on this account that we now represent God in images
because God himself has taken a visible human form, as Pope
John Paul II made clear:
The Law of the Old Testament explicitly forbids repre-

sentation of the invisible and ineffable God by means
of “graven or molten image” (Dt 27:15), because God
transcends every material representation” I am who I
am” (Ex 3:14). Yet in the mystery of the Incarnation,
the son of God becomes visible in person: “When the
fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son born
of a woman” (Gal 4:4). God became man in Jesus Christ,
who thus becomes “the central point of reference for an
understanding of the enigma of human existence, the
created world and God himself.”18
“The complete absence of images is incompatible with faith

in the incarnation of God. God has acted in history and entered into
our sensible world, so that it may become transparent to Him. Images
of beauty, in which the mystery of the invisible God becomes visible,
are an essential part of Christian worship.”19 Hence, the making
of representations of holy personages, either in statues or paintings
is legitimated by the mystery of God becoming man. Moreover,
it does not deny the proscription on the idolatrous worship of

images. Such practice does not promote idolatry because it is not
the image that is given honor or worship, but the holy personality
that it represents.
III. THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE OF THE

VENERATION OF SAINTS20 IN THE CHURCH
a) The Church of Antiquity
The earliest Christian hagiographic document that mentions

about the preservation of a martyr’s body and the celebration
of his heroic death, the day of his entrance into heaven, is the
Martyrdom of Polycarp written about 155-156 AD. The early
Christians clandestinely gathered in the tomb of the martyr, as they
were, at that time, the object of persecution of the state, to celebrate
the anniversary of the saint’s martyrdom. Christians did this until the
issuance the Edict of Milan in 313 by Constantine, which allowed
them to openly venerate the esteemed saints.
The rituals for commemorating the martyrs as practiced by

the early Christians have traces of the ceremonial cult of the dead
by the pagans. The cult of the dead in ancient Rome is sketched
in this study by Bedauin:
Upon the death, the process of the funeral for the body
began. The corpse was washed, perfumed, frequently
dressed in precious clothes, and was then exposed to bed
adorned with lowers. The following day it was taken to
the place of burial…
The funeral tribute was followed by a nine day period of

mourning. This was inished with a sacriice and a funeral
meal. The relatives and friends went several times a year
to visit the tomb, but the classic day of commemoration
of the deceased was the anniversary of the person’s birth.
During these visits they honored the deceased by meals,
libations, lowers and perfumes.21
Accordingly, the external expression of the cult of the saints

was similar to the cult of the dead of the pagans that St. Augustine
had to remind the people not to confuse the cult of the martyrs with
the honor given to the deceased.22 However, it should not be taken
to mean that the Christians simply copied the cult of the dead of the
pagans for the usages and the signiications involved were modiied
by Christians to make it conform to their faith. For instance, the
visit to the tomb of the martyr was no longer a private matter
restricted to the family, but rather a function of the entire ecclesial
community that gathered in the tomb of the saint to celebrate the
saint’s martyrdom. The funeral meal still existed, but it was capped
by the liturgical sacriice of the mass wherein the name of the
saint is included in the prayers. Unlike the pagan practice, which
celebrated the day of the birth of deceased relatives, the memorial
of the anniversary of the saint was commemorated on the day of
his martyrdom, the day of his/her return to the Creator.23 It was no
longer “ancestor worship, but a sense of being connected with their
Christian forebears, believing that the deceased would now be able
to intercede for them from another shore.”24
After the recognition of Christianity by the state, the cult

of the saints gained popularity among the people. Initially, small
oratories were constructed at the tomb of the saints. As the popularity
of the cult became widespread, the need to erect great basilicas,
which could accommodate large number of people who came to
venerate the martyr, became necessary. Scholars have devoted
a great deal to study the reasons of the sudden upsurge of the
popularity of the cult of saints. One of the reasons presented is that
the circumstances of the era disposed the people to readily accept
the need for the intermediary of saints. In a sense, the attitude was
essentially pragmatic. As one author puts it:
What people were interested in were the results the saints

and the relics produced… Who shall blame them in an
age when they had virtually no other resource to help
them deal with an unpredictable but always threatening
and dangerous environment?25
Ancient society was precarious and susceptible to problems,

both manmade and natural caused. The people, especially the poor,
felt helpless and they needed to rely upon someone who is generous
and powerful for their sustenance and protection. They found it
in the power of the saints.26 People went for pilgrimage to invoke
the assistance of the saints to provide solutions to the problems
that they were faced with. The cult gave the people assurance
that they have a powerful protector whom they could turn to for
help in times of need.
Another reason cited is that the ecclesiastical authority

vigorously promoted the cult of saints. The bishops took effort in
spreading the miraculous deeds and the exemplary lives of the saints
in their sermons and in composed literatures. They were responsible
not only for the promotion of the cult but also for its regulation
and as there were cases of abuses. There were people who started
devotion of personalities with objectionable lifestyle when still
living. The trafic and commerce of relics of saints, even of falsely
identiied bodies, became frequent.27 Hence, the bishops had to step
in to exercise control over the cult, especially in the acquisition of
relics of established saints.28 There have been complex reasons that
motivated the bishop to promote the cult. One reason is inancial.
The popularity of the relic cult siphoned in large amount of donations
into the treasury of the Church. The greater the reputation of the saint
in performing miracles, meant more people coming for pilgrimage
and more donation to the Church.
However, the promotion of the cult could not at all be

reduced to economics as the clergy were also concerned with the
spirituality of the people. The passiones, the account of the death
of the martyrs29 and, later on, the vitae, a literature composed to
describe the spiritual virtues of the confessors and their miracles
were read during the feast day commemoration to encourage the
people to pattern their lives after the example set by the saints.
When people read the lives of the saints, they learned not only
their miraculous power, but also the ideal life behavior which they
must emulate. As declared in most prefaces of these hagiographic
literatures, they were written to provide an example of life of
virtue for future generations to imitate.30 The lives of the saints

became the model of the life of sanctity which everyone must try
to cultivate in their life.31 St. Augustine, for example, was moved
to renounce marriage and dedicated his life to God upon reading
the Life of St. Anthony.32
The third reason is conditioned by the belief of the ancients

that there is a great chasm between God and man. God was believed
to be so powerful and awesome that he was seen to be remote and
unapproachable. The longing to bridge the metaphysical distance
which the people felt between them and God was illed in by holy
intermediaries. The role of the saints as intercessors to whom one can
identify as fellow human beings, and relate in terms of the bond of
intimate human relationships made the Christian faith attractable to
the people. This is disclosed in this comment of Hayward:
The belief that worldly success depended upon one’s

right standing in the eyes of the deity was as intrinsic
to polytheism as it was to Christianity, but the insertion
of human mediators added a new human dimension of
personal intimacy with the divine. Paganism did have
deiied heroes,… but they were conceived as ‘gods’, as
beings whose immortality made them other. The martyrs,
on the other hand, had a special relationship with God and
yet remained approachable to ordinary humanity.33
One may ask the question, “Why was God regarded a distant
igure when the mystery of incarnation, the God who became man to
share the experience of humanity to save humankind from sinfulness,
was strongly emphasized by the Fathers?” The answer lies in the
heresy of Arianism which challenged the divinity of Jesus. Arius
taught strongly the oneness of God, that he came to the conclusion
that Jesus is a mere human being. The reason is that, it is impossible
for God to share his divine substance to another being for it would
mean that God is divisible and changeable. The Church, on the
other hand, argued against the position of Arius, pronouncing that,
while Jesus is begotten and not created, he is of the same substance
with the Father.34 The Church “was successful in arguing for an
exalted role of Christ that in effect he became just as metaphysically

distant as God the Father.”35
Generally, the rituals characteristic of the saints’ cult

practiced by the early Christians are not entirely dissimilar to the
rituals of present day Christians. Procession was already held as
part of the ceremonial of the yearly celebration of the feast of the
martyr. The relic of the saint was carried in a procession attended
by people from all ranks of life. Pilgrimage to the shrine of saints
was also a prevalent practice in antiquity. Many men and women
with physical and mental inirmities went to the shrine to obtain
cure. The shrine, which housed the tomb of the saint, became the
destination of pilgrimages. From the fourth century on, the cult of
martyrs which started as a celebration of the local community took
a more universal character as pilgrims from all over the Christian
empire rushed into the basilicas, where the bodies of the saints were
entombed, in order to receive miraculous favors. The relic was no
longer considered as exclusive to a particular Church, but rather it
belonged to the whole Christian world.36
Furthermore, the practice of undertaking a vow as an

obligation to fulfill certain forms of religious observances in
exchange for a divine favor was already existent. Brown describes
the bond between the saint and the devotee that is engendered by
this devotional pledge, using the social categories of the late antique
Rome, in this description:
The saint… held the individual in a tight bond of personal

obligation that might begin, days of hard journey away, in
a need to visit the saint… in one place where it could be
found… and it might end in a palpable and irreversible act
of social dependence, by which the recipient of healing
became the serf of the church in which his invisible
dominus [saint] resided.37
Finally, the ancients believed that miraculous power of the

sacred body of the saint can be transferred to anything that makes
contact with it. According to one ancient account, “before the funeral
of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in 397, crowds of men and women

kept throwing their handkerchiefs and aprons at the body of the
saint in the hope that they would touch it. Such brandea, as they
were called, were prized as wonder-working relics.”38 Another study
cites Pope Gregory the Great as a participant of the said practice
in the following paragraph:
Romans like himself (Pope Gregory the Great) prefer to

create saintly relics by placing objects in proximity to holy objects.
Thus it is a common practice, he says, to place a piece of cloth in
a box and to place that box near a saint’s tomb. When that piece of
cloth is subsequently enshrined in a church, the miracles wrought
by it (the cloth) are as great as if the bodies of the saints had been
brought there. As evidence that this pieces of cloth-called brandea-
were just as good as the original saintly body, Gregory offered yet
another anecdote. At the time of Pope Leo, he says, certain Greeks
(Eastern Christians) had doubted the eficacy of these brandea. To
demonstrate their error, Leo cut one with a pair of scissors, and blood
lowed from the cut just as if it had been a human body.39
While in the Church in the western part of the empire,

relic-centered devotion to the saints was popular, in the east, as they
did not have the privilege to have in their ranks saintly martyrs, the
veneration of the saints in their material representations or icons was
common. The tradition of icon veneration started with the igure of
Jesus and later on extended to Mary and the saints.40 The image cult
became increasingly popular in the 6th-7th century in the East, and
it was from such context that the question about the orthodoxy of the
cult of icons emerged. To this we shall now turn.
b) The Iconoclastic Period
Iconoclasm 41 emerged and its spread propelled by the

following abuses committed by people that distorted the Church’s
teaching on the veneration of icons. There were Christians who
took it as their pious contribution to decorate churches with icons
and believed that such would be sufficient to guarantee their
salvation. Others venerated the icons which could be concluded
as blasphemous practice. They were more concerned with the

image itself than the personages they represent. Likewise, some of
the clergy were excessive in giving importance to the icon at the
expense, sometimes, of the more essential aspects of the Christian
faith. For instance, some of them celebrated the liturgy on the icon
and not on the altar. Another strange case involved priests scraping
the colors of the icon and mixing it with the species of the holy body
and blood of Christ, as if the holy gifts needed to be perfected with
the icons of the saints. Also, some images themselves were the cause
of scandals to the people as artists arbitrarily represented Jesus and
the holy persons according to their own imagination and often with
the tinge of sensuality. The excesses committed in the production
and veneration of icons created scandals among the believers and
motivated some of them to reject the icons all together.42
Some ecclesiastics who acknowledged the orthodoxy of the

icon veneration became too cautious for it became the occasion of
sin of the people. How to solve this problem confronting the Church
became the concern of the ecclesiastical leaders of this age. For
instance, in 598 Serenus (d.601), bishop of Marseilles, ordered the
removal of all the icons in his diocese as they drew people to sin
by the improper worship that they gave them. His action provoked
the disapproval of Pope Gregory the Great (d.604). While lauding
Serenus for not allowing the images to be worshipped, the pope
stressed that the solution applied to the problem by the former,
that is, by destroying the images of saints, was inappropriate.
Gregory makes his point:
We greatly praise the fact that you prohibited the worship

of icons, but we forbid you destroy them. It is necessary
to distinguish between the worship of an icon and the
process of learning through the icon that which must be
worshipped in history. What the Scripture is for man who
knows how to read, the icon is for the illiterate. Through
it, even uneducated men can see what they must follow.
It is the book of those who do not know the alphabet.
It follows that it is used instead of reading, especially
for foreigners.43
Both bishops agreed that images should not be invested

with supernatural power and should not be worshipped, but they
differed in their approach to the solution of the problem. Serenus
thought that the best response should be the removal of the icons
in the church, while Gregory emphasized more the teaching of
the right doctrine and seeing to it that such doctrine is accepted
by the people.44
The problem concerning the veneration of images resulted

into two ecclesiastical councils, namely, the iconoclastic Council
of Hiera in 740 and the Council of Nicea in 787, the Seventh
Ecumenical Council of the Church. The Council of Hiera was called
by Emperor Constantine V, who inherited hatred of the sacred
images from his father Leo III. In this council, the iconoclast bishops
outlined their argument why icons were inadmissible to the Church
and to the Christian faith:
For it should be considered that that lesh was also the

lesh of God the Word, without any separation, perfectly
assumed by the divine nature and made wholly divine.
How could it now be separated and represented apart? So
it is with the human of Christ which mediates between the
Godhead of the Son and the dullness of the lesh. As the
human lesh is at the same time lesh of God and Word,
so is the human soul also soul of God and Word, and
both at the same time, the soul being deiied as well as
the body, and the Godhead remained undivided even in
the separation of the soul from the body in his voluntary
passion. For where the soul of Christ is, there is also his
Godhead; and where the body of Christ is, there too is
his Godhead. If then in his passion the divinity remained
inseparable from these, how do the fools venture to
separate the lesh from the Godhead, and represent it by
itself as the image of a mere human?45
In the teaching of the iconoclasts, it is impossible for the

icon to express the relationship that exists between the two natures
of Christ. The iconoclasts claimed idelity to the teachings of the
preceding ecumenical councils. It allowed them to construe that a
double heresy would be committed when one attempts to make a

material representation of Christ. If one maintains that the human
nature and the divine nature of Christ are represented in the image,
then one is at risk of confusing the two natures of Christ, which
is Monophysitism. On the other hand, if one will say that only
the human nature is depicted in the image, then one is committing
the heresy of Nestorianism for one is separating the humanity of
Christ from his divinity. For the iconoclasts, the true icon must
be of the same nature with the person it represents, or it must be
consubstantial with its model. Hence, they concluded that the only
icon of Jesus Christ is the Eucharist.46
The decree of the Council of Hiera which condemned sacred

images received denunciation from the West. The pope refused to
accept its teachings and decrees. Moreover, not all people in the
East adhered to the decision of the council. Under the leadership
of the monks, not a few faithful continued to venerate icons. The
state reacted with the violent persecution against the monks and
those who promoted the veneration of the icons. Constantine V
was succeeded by Leo IV, a moderate and rather indifferent on the
question of icons. After his death, his wife, Empress Irene, seized
power by serving as regent of the young emperor Constantine VI.
Irene was a supporter of the veneration of sacred images. She wanted
to remedy the division in the empire caused by iconoclasm. And
so, she decided to call an ecumenical council to settle the matter
once and for all. She sent communication to the pope who, in turn,
gave his consent to the convocation of the council and sent two
of his representatives to attend and participate in the deliberation.
The council opened on August 1, 786, in the Basilica of the
Holy Apostles, with the attendance of the young emperor and
the empress-mother. However, the supporters of the iconoclasts
stormed the basilica and attempted to kill Tarasius, the patriarch of
Constantinople. As a result of the skirmish the papal representatives
were recalled to Sicily and the holding of the council was halted.
A year after, the council resumed on September 24, 787 with

335 bishops and two papal legates in attendance. In this council, the
iconoclasts’ position was heard and it was answered point by point
by the fathers. The fathers maintained that no Christological error

is violated in the icon of Christ. They distinguished between the
person and the two natures of Christ, as taught by Chalcedon and
deined that it is not the natures of Christ being represented in the
icon, but rather the person of Jesus, the Logos who was incarnated
in the lesh. “The icon is not an image of the divine nature. It is an
image of a divine person incarnate; it conveys the features of the
Son of God who came in the lesh, who became visible and could
therefore be represented with human means.”47
The council offered the reality of incarnation as the justiica-

tion of iconography. The fact that Jesus could be represented using
matter as means is a witness to the reality that the Logos, the Word
of God, the second person of the Trinity, did assume a human
nature. It did not only give testimony to the sacred mystery of
incarnation as it also pronounced a denial of the docetist position,
which claimed that Jesus has assumed not a real body but only an
illusion. After establishing the biblical and theological foundation
of the veneration of icons, the council now engaged the question,
“How are the icons to be venerated?”
The council made a distinction between worship that is due

to God alone, which is termed as latria, and worship as dulia, the
veneration that is appropriately rendered to Mary and the saints.
The saints are not to be adored, for adoration is applied exclusively
to the persons of the Trinity. The saints are given only reverence.
Furthermore, it also speciied, following the teaching of Basil the
Great, that veneration performed in front of the image is not directed
to the image itself, but to the prototype that the image represents. The
inevitable conclusion of this is that, the person who pays reverence to
the image pays reverence to the holy person represented on it. It will
be of great help to quote here the text of the council.
For, how much more frequently through the imaginal

formation they are seen, so much more quickly are those
who contemplate these, raised to the memory and desire
of the originals of these, to kiss and to render honorable
adoration to them, not however, to grant true latria
according to our faith, which is proper to divine nature

alone; but just as to the igure of the revered and life
giving cross and to the holy gospels, and to other sacred
monuments, let an oblation of incense and lights be made
to give honor to these as was the pious custom with
the ancients. For the honor of the image passes to the
original, and he who shows reverence to the image, shows
reverence to the substance of him depicted in it.48
The period of iconoclasm did not end with the Council of

Nicea II. Leo V ascended to the throne in 813. He initiated a new
wave of oficial iconoclasm49 which ended in 843 with Empress
Theodora, regent to her underage son, convoking a council in
Constantinople. The said council inally restored the veneration of
icons in the East. The arguments forwarded by proponents from
either party were basically repetitions of the old arguments of the
iconoclasts and the orthodox fathers of the irst period; hence it
shall not be repeated here.
Meanwhile in the West, the text of the Council of Nicea II

reached Charlemagne (768-814) poorly translated by his Frankish
theologians. The translation, which is known today as the Libri
Carolini, did not make the carefully established distinction laid down
by Nicea II between the worship of latria due to God alone, and the
worship of dulia proper to the saints, prompting Charlemagne to
reject the decision of the council altogether. However, the Roman
Church under the pontiicate of Pope Hadrian I (772-792) upheld
the decision of the Nicea II on the icons as the veritable teaching
of the Catholic Church.
c) The Medieval Period and the Protestant Reformation
The cult of saints became even more widespread during the

Middle Ages. Miraculous healings and other thaumaturgic powers
attracted the people to cultic veneration. Miracles were considered
by the people as the sign from God that the saint was holy and
worthy of veneration. The people believed that relic is infused with
supernatural power which can be invoked to grant the wish of the
petitioner. Such belief made the people desire to personally possess

relics of saintly igures. Possession of a relic meant a direct way of
accessing saintly power. During this time, the trafic and commerce
of relics became even more rampant.
There were two schools of thought in understanding the

power of the saints during the medieval period. The irst is the
ecclesiastical understanding which maintains that miracles performed
by the saints are expressions of the power of God working through
the saint’s intercession. Medieval theologians offered theological
explanations showing that the cult is faithful to the tradition and the
faith of the Church. St. Thomas, the greatest mind produced by the
Church in this period, for example, reasons out that the veneration
of relics is justiied by their relation to the saints, whose relics they
are. Likewise, images are given reverence not as mindless objects
but because they are images of someone to whom reverence is due.
The ground for worshipping images is the worshipfulness of the
personalities they depict. Moreover, these holy personalities are
venerated not for their own sake but because of their relationship to
God whom they serve. Hence, the worship given to the saints either
in their relics or images redounds to God.50
The second understanding flows from the belief of the

common people that saints have power in themselves independent
from the power of God. The average medieval Catholic believed that
the relics of saints command independent power of its own.51 The
people were less concerned with the questions of doctrinal purity
of the cult. What was more important for them was the supernatural
power that they perceived in the saint’s relic which they could
access. The marvelous deeds of the saint were seen as originating
from the saint himself/herself, from whose body the relic was
taken, and not as mediated by God. Such miraculous favor could
be obtained by physical contact with the relic and also by seeing
them in reliquaries. This popular idea would continue until the
eighteenth century. The Jansenists Synod of Pistoia in 1786 would
address it as an alarming situation in the Church that needed
special attention:
We must remember that in honoring relics we are honoring

the saints, and that the miracles that it pleases God to work
in the presence of the sacred relics are only an invitation
to us to appeal to these holy souls for intercession. Far
from believing that there is any special power that resides
in these relics, the Faithful must be reminded that all
our hopes should be founded on the power and bounty
of God.53
In a way, the Church had a share in the responsibility for

perpetuating the belief in the independent power of the saints
because of the institutionalized practice of selling indulgences
presented to the faithful through the sacred images and relics. The
excessive practices of the cultic veneration of saints paved way to
the Protestant Reformation.
Prior to the discussion of the Protestant Movement, an

important note must be forwarded. During this period, relics and
images of saints were so closely associated. The images were
perceived as if they were relics.54 Such understanding can be
gleaned in the pronouncement made by the faculty of the Sacred
Theology in Paris in 1542: “If relics and garments are honored in
memory of saints, the reason is not less applicable to images.”55
Furthermore, the iconoclastic developments resulting from the
Protestant Movement did not make a distinction between the two.
That John Calvin did not care to make a distinction, while writing
against the relics and images, only reveals the belief of the people
that he was ighting against.56
The Protestant Reformers did not have a uniform view and

approach to the question of images. But the common theological
principle that underlies their effort is the belief in the spiritual
character of Christianity as found in John 4:24: “God is spirit and
those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.” Luther’s
position to image cult was relatively tolerant. He did not approve
of the violent destruction of images in Wittenberg led by Karlstadt
in 1521. He only wished destroyed those images that have become
the objects of worship of the people, but maintained those that
could be used for instruction. He declared in 1528 in the Confession

Concerning the Christ’s Supper:
Images, bells, Eucharistic vestments, church ornament,

altar lights, and the like I regard as things indifferent.
Anyone who wishes may omit them. Images and pictures
taken from Scriptures and from good histories, however,
I consider useful yet indifferent and optional. I have no
sympathy with the iconoclasts.57
In Zurich, Zwingli attacked the image cults and called for

the removal of images in the church. In principle, he had no quarrel
with images with purely decorative and informative use. However,
he argued that if images would be allowed in churches, it would
become an occasion for idolatry among the people granted the
propensity of the human heart to focus on the material world. He
wanted everything that could distract and obscure the centrality of
God as the sole recipient of worship destroyed. In 1524 with the
inluenced of the reform of Zwingli, the magistrates decided that all
images in churches be removed and the walls washed with white
paint so that none of the paintings would be visible.58
The work of Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion,

attacked the cult of images. He based his arguments mainly on his
interpretation of the Old Testament commandment on images. The
engraving of image, according to him, was directly forbidden in the
Scriptures. To the centuries old argument of Pope Gregory the Great
that images were like books to the illiterate, he retorted that Jesus
Christ did not command the use of images as means for instruction.
The only method for preaching as endorsed and practiced by Jesus
was preaching. Moreover, he also forwarded his observation relating
to the propensity of human beings to consider the image itself as
possessing intrinsic value and power. Like Zwingli, he maintained
that images encouraged among the people idolatry, hence they
must be avoided.59 As we can discern, this is a resurrection of
the solution to the image cult by Bishop Serenus of Marseilles
previously discussed.60
The objections raised by the Reformers are centered on two

things. The irst one is the question of idolatry which the Protestants
allegedly observed in the practices of many Catholics. The second
is the ecclesiastically approved practice of associating indulgences
with the relics and the images that turned the gift of grace into
something that could be purchased. With the emphasis given by
the Protestant Reformation on the God-centered faith and the “one
can be saved by faith alone” doctrine, the belief in the mediating
spiritual structures represented by the cult of saints received a
heavy blow. In reaction the Catholic theologians engaged the
Protestant’s demolishing job of the cult both in oral and written
counter arguments. One work that can be cited is the volume of
John Eck, the Dominican preacher who played prominent part in
oral debates against Luther, published in 1522 with the title On
Not Removing Images of Christ and the Saints. In this volume, Eck
denounced the misconceived understanding of the cult of saints
which the Protestant Reformers imputed on Catholics. He defended
the cult of saints writing:
We do not believe the martyrs to be our gods, but rather

that we and they have one God… Christians do not call
venerable images gods, nor they serve them as gods;
nor place hope of salvation in them; nor expect a future
judgment from them. We venerate and worship them
in memory and recollection of the early martyrs; but
we do not serve them or any other created thing with
a divine cult.61
The official response of the Church to the Protestant

Reformation came with the convocation of the Council of Trent.
d) From the Council of Trent to Vatican II
The Council of Trent was convoked in December 1545,

primarily to address the issues raised by the Protestant Reformers.
However, the issue concerning the public cult of saints and the
question of image were only addressed during the twenty ifth
session, which began in December of 1563. The reason being is that,
the early sessions of the council were dominated by Italians which

did not consider iconoclasm as a pressing problem. The inluence
of Protestantism was not much felt in Italy unlike in Germany and
France and in other parts of Europe. During the last session, a large
contingent of French bishops came to participate in the deliberation.
Calvinism was strong in France and it was directly launching a
violent attack upon images. The witness of the destruction of image
in churches given by the French bishops prompted the council
to take the issue of the image cult as a signiicant problem that
needed serious attention.62
The council condemned iconoclasm and encouraged the

bishops to foster the ancient tradition of veneration of saints and
the right use of sacred images in the liturgy of the Church. The
council forwarded two arguments as to why the image cult must
be preserved and promoted in the Church. Actually, they were
reiterations of the teaching of Nicea II and the pedagogical character
of the image argument articulated by Pope Gregory the Great.
Echoing Nicea II, the decree says:
The images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and

of the other saints, are to be placed and retained especially
in the churches, and that due honor and veneration be
extended to them, not that any divinity or virtue is believed
to be in them, for which they are to be venerated, or that
anything is to be petitioned from them, or that trust is to be
placed in images, as at one time done by the gentiles, who
placed their hope in idols (cf. Ps. 134:15f), but because the
honor which is shown them, is referred to the prototypes
which they represent, so that by means of the images,
which we kiss and before which we bare the head and
prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ, and venerate the
saints, whose likeness they bear. This is what was
sanctioned by the decrees of the second council of Nicea
against the opponents of images.63
The second justiication was a long variant of the “image

are like books for the illiterate argument” of Pope Gregory the
Great.
Indeed let the bishops diligently teach this, that by the

accounts of the mysteries of our redemption, portrayed
in pictures or in other representations, the people are
instructed and conirmed in the articles of faith which
should be kept in mind and constantly pondered over.64
The council acknowledged the presence of abuses which

must be removed to purify the cult from all forms of superstition. It
made mention of four abuses which needed to be rectiied. The irst
was about the popular view of the faithful, which held that sacred
images were invested with supernatural power which could be
appealed to by the people for miracles. To correct this, the council
made a deinition of the intercessory role of the saint and their
dependence on the power of God. This is clear in the following
pronouncement of the council.
[T]hen, too, that from all sacred images great proit is

derived not only because the people are reminded of the
beneits and gifts, which are bestowed upon them by
Christ, but also because through the saints the miracles
of God and salutary examples are set before the eyes
of the faithful, so that they may give thanks to God for
those things, may fashion their own lives and conduct
in imitation of the saints, and be stimulated to adore and
love God, and to cultivate piety.65
The second abuse mentioned by the decree concerns with

images or representations that portray false doctrines and furnish an
occasion of error to the uneducated faithful. The decree particularly
notes that when facts and narrative from the Sacred Scriptures are
portrayed, it is necessary that people, especially the unlettered, are
taught that it is not the divinity that is represented, as though it could
be seen by the eyes and portrayed in strokes of colors or igures. The
reference points to the portrayal of complicated issues of the articles
of faith, like the mystery of the Incarnated Word and the relationship
of the three persons in the Holy Trinity which, when depicted in
some concrete means, may suggest a wrong understanding of certain
divine truth to the simple faithful.66
The third form of abuse involves images that are painted or

adorned with beauty exciting to lust. It has reference to the prevalent
aesthetic form propounded by the Renaissance artists which gave
emphasis upon the human form, often expressed in nudity, even
when portraying religious objects.67 During this period, there was
no discernible distinction that could be made between the portrayals
of sacred objects and the depiction of secular subjects. Religious
subjects were portrayed in the nude like secular subjects, provoking
lust and sin from the people that saw them.
Lastly, the tridentine decree addresses the inappropriate

behavior demonstrated by Catholics in relation with the practice
of the cult. Particularly, the council corrects the improper way of
celebrating festivals of saints and the visits to sacred relics, which
often involved perverted forms of revelry and too much drunkenness
of the people. Thus, to put proper order to the celebration of the
cult, the council bestowed upon the bishop the authority to regulate
the practice: “Let do great care and diligence be used herein by
the bishops, as that there be nothing seen that is disorderly, or
that is unbecomingly, or confusedly arranged, nothing that is
profane, nothing that is indecorous, seeing that holiness becometh
the house of God.”68
After the Council of Trent there is no new doctrine about

the saints introduced in the Church even until the advent of Vatican
II. While Vatican II afirms the teachings of the previous councils
on the veneration of the saints, its outstanding contribution is
the exposition of the doctrine of the veneration of saints in the
proper ecclesiological, Christological, Trinitarian and Theocentric
perspectives. This is all outlined in chapter seven of the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church, which deals with the eschatological
nature of the pilgrim Church and her union with the blesseds
in heaven.
According to Vatican II teaching, the cult of saints is

warranted by the doctrine on the “communion of saints”.69 The
doctrine on the “communion of saints” is central in the understanding
of the nature of the Church. The expression “communion of saints” is
not a phrase to refer to the Church triumphant or the Church in glory.

Many mistakenly believe that it is so. Neither its understanding is
conined to the relationship between the pilgrim Church on earth
and the saints in heaven. What makes the reference of this teaching
not easily understood to many is the word “saint”, which, today, has
been technically and exclusively applied to the canonized members
of the Catholic Church. However, in Scriptures, the word refers to
all the faithful, believers in Jesus Christ (cf. Ac 9:32; Rom 1:7; 1
Cor 1:2; Eph 1:1, 15; 2 Cor 1:1; Phil 1:1). All people who believe in
Christ, whether living or dead, can be called a “saint” in its biblical
sense. The “canonized” saint only highlights the fact that, such
blessed personality has been recognized by the infallible teaching
authority of the Church as a person whose life conforms with the
life of Christ through the exercise of charity and the other Christian
virtues, and is therefore proposed a model for Christian living and a
worthy mediator and intercessor before God.
Properly understood then, “communion of saints” points

to that common bond uniting all the members of the Church: the
faithful who are on pilgrimage on earth, the believers who are in the
state of puriication, and the faithful who are in the state of glory.
Hence, it is apt to say that the expression “communion of saints” is
synonymous with the Holy Catholic Church, just as it points to the
fact that the Church is comprised of members in heaven, on earth,
and in purgatory. Lumen Gentium (49) states:
But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims

on earth. Others have died and being purified, while
still others are in glory, contemplating in full light,
God himself, triune and one, exactly as he is. All of us,
however, varying degrees and in different ways share
in the same charity towards God and our neighbors, and
we all sing the one hymn of the glory to our God. All,
indeed, who are of Christ and who have his Spirit form
one Church and in Christ cleave together.
The spiritual union that binds the members of the Church

in the three states is rooted in the love of Christ, the head of the
mystical body. The relationship that exists among the members is

guaranteed by the very fact that they have been incorporated in the
mystical body of Christ, of whom they are members. The unity of
each member with the head necessarily implies their relationship
with one another. Furthermore, this union is reinforced by the
exchange of spiritual activities and the spiritual beneits among the
members. The communication of the spiritual goods is concretely
expressed by the faithful on earth who pray for intercession of the
saints in heaven and who seek to imitate their examples, and also in
their prayer to ease the sufferings of the souls in purgatory. While
the saints in heaven, as they are no longer in need of any merit, pray
for the cause of the souls in purgatory and intercede for the faithful
on earth before God, whom they now see in beatiic vision. Finally,
the souls in purgatory invoke the help of the saints and offer their
suffering for the cause of the faithful on earth.
Between the pilgrim Church and the Church in heaven the

exchange of spiritual goods is both ascending and descending, that
is, “from us to the saints in heaven through their intercession and
from us to them through our veneration.”70 The intercessory role of
the blesseds in heaven does not confuse the position of Christ as the
unique mediator between God and man (cf. Tim 2:5). The saint’s
intercession does not add anything to the dignity and eficacy of
Christ, the one mediator. Rather than obscuring the unique mediation
of Christ, it shows all the more its power inasmuch as the eficacy
of the saint is derived fundamentally from the redemptive merits
of Christ who shares among creatures his role of mediation by
drawing people to cooperate in his work of salvation. Schonborn
has this explanation:
The eficaciousness of the prayers of the saints arises only

from the fact that they are more closely united with Christ,
and are present to the Lord. Their prayers go to the Father
through him, with him, in him. The communion of saints,
the communion of spiritual goods and persons is rooted
in one’s union with Christ. This places on the uniqueness
of Christ’s own mediatorship.71
Moreover, the purpose of sainthood is given a Christocentric

understanding. Christ wants his salviic work completed through the
efforts of the members of his Mystical Body. The mission of Christ
is to facilitate the gloriication of men and women. The end for which
men and women were created is to make them share in the divine
life of God through their being conformed to Christ. To achieve
this end, God elevated eminent members of the Church, whose
heroic exercise of virtue makes Christ shine forth resplendently in
the circumstances in which they live in. These saintly personalities
become examples of Christian life for people to emulate. But in
order that they maybe recognized, God points them out to men and
women by means of miracles which indicates that they are pleasing
to God and God wants them to be the model of Christian life. Christ,
through the activity of the Holy Spirit, inspires the hearts of the
people to express devotion to the saints so that they may become the
inspiration of the people in following Christ.72 This is how Christ,
sitting on the right hand of the Father in heaven, works actively in the
Church to draw people to himself by showing them a safe passage
of salvation through the exemplary lives of his eminent disciples.73
The decree of Lumen Gentium tells us this.
To look on the life of those who have faithfully followed

Christ is to be inspired with a new reason for seeking
the city which is to come (cf. Heb. 13:14 and 11:10),
while at the same time we are taught to know a most safe
path by which, despite the vicissitudes of the world, and
in keeping with the state of life and condition proper to
each of us, we will be able to arrive at perfect union with
Christ, that is, holiness. God shows to men, in a vivid way,
his presence and his face in the lives of those companions
of ours in the human condition who are more perfectly
transformed into the image of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). He
speaks to us in them and offers us a sign of this kingdom,
to which we are powerfully attracted, so great a cloud
of witnesses is there given (cf. Heb. 12:1) and such a
witnesses to the truth of the Gospel.74
The veneration of the saint discloses the mystery of the

Trinity. One cannot dissociate Jesus Christ from the Father. He is
the revelation of the Father and the only way towards the Father.
Approaching Jesus then leads one to communion with the Father.
However, no one can approach Jesus except through the Holy Spirit.
The mystery of God’s eternal decree to allow the people to share
in his own divine life, having Christ as the pattern on which the
lives of the faithful must be conformed, through the working of the
Holy Spirit, is given stress here. Christ motivates the hearts of the
people through the power of the Holy Spirit to imitate the examples
of the saints whose lives relect the virtues of Jesus. It is hoped that
the devotee, like the saints of their devotion, may end up glorifying
God, the source of all holiness and from whom the mission of Jesus
and the Holy Spirit to lead the humanity back to God originates.
The Holy Spirit, whose work is to bring Christ’s work to fulillment,
prompts the heart of the faithful to move towards Christ by allowing
them to see in the lives of the saints the virtues of Jesus whom the
saints have unfailingly given witness.
The cult of saints in no way withdraws one from the worship

of the one God whom the saints themselves offer worship in heaven.
In the liturgy, especially in the Eucharistic sacriice of the mass, we
unite ourselves to the worship of the heavenly Church, “when in
the fellowship of communion we honor and remember the glorious
Mary ever virgin, St. Joseph, the holy apostles and martyrs and all
the saints.”75 The custom of celebrating masses in memory of the
saints must be understood as an offering made not to the saints,
but, as always, a Eucharistic Sacriice offered to God whom we
give thanks for fulilling his promise to the saints. The Church
implores the saints for help that they may pray to God for the
welfare of the pilgrims on earth. United with the saints, the Church
gives praise to God for giving her holy advocates in heaven, and
together they glorify “in one common song of praise, the one
and triune God.”76
Furthermore, so that the faithful may not be misled, the

council teaches emphatically that “every authentic witness of
love, indeed offered by us to those who are in heaven tends to and
terminates in Christ, ‘the crown of all the saints,’ and through him
in God who is wonderful in his saints and is gloriied in them.”77
It is then a grave error to dissociate the saints from the mystery of

Jesus Christ. When saints are dissociated from Christ, they become
idols and the veneration paid to them becomes idolatrous worship.
The council bears in mind here the excesses found in the practice of
saint’s veneration by some people, which need to be rectiied.
After outlining the doctrine of the cult of saints, the decree

expresses now its intention to distil the pious practice from all sorts
of exaggerations and distortions. It clariies that the “authentic cult
of the saints does not consist so much in a multiplicity of external
acts, but rather in a more intense practice of our love, whereby,
for our own greater good and that of the Church, we seek from the
saints ‘example in their way of life, fellowship in their communion,
and the help of their intercession.’”78
As for the veneration of images, Vatican II maintains the

practice of exhibiting images in churches for the people to venerate.
However, it also makes a qualiication that the number of sacred
images should be moderate and they should be positioned properly
in the Church to avoid confusion among the faithful and to avoid a
faulty sense of devotion.79 “Sacred images have a subordinate role
in the liturgy and hence should not be so prominently displayed that
they command the assembly’s complete attention to themselves.
Nor should they be of such gigantic proportion that they dwarf the
altar and become the main focus of attention.”80 Finally, it instructs
bishops that “works of art which are repugnant to faith, morals,
and Christian piety, and which offend true religious sense either
by depraved forms or through lack of artistic merit or because of
mediocrity or pretense, be removed from the house of God and
other sacred places.”81
IV. CONCLUSION
The Catholic tradition traces the foundation of the cult in

the bible. It has been enunciated that there are several undeniable
passages, both from the Old and New Testaments, which mention
the continuous interaction or communion between the living and

the holy dead persons. It also speciies that the position which
teaches the absolute prohibition of engraving images is justiied by
the biblical interpretation that divides the irst commandment into
two separate divine directives, which, as argued by this work, is a
misreading of the text. The reason is that in other chapters of the
bible, God himself directs the people to carve images, for example
to decorate the Ark of the Covenant. The injunction not to make
images is not an absolute prohibition; instead it should be interpreted
in the context of the proscription to adore other gods besides
Yahweh.
The early Church also gave witness to this practice. Initially,

the early Christian community borrowed some rituals from the pagan
cult of ancestors but modiied and gave them new signiicance to
celebrate the cult of martyrs. The cult of saints became popular after
the persecution of the Church, more so when Christianity became
the oficial religion of the empire. In the west, since the church was
privileged to include among their ranks countless martyrs, the cult of
relics was widespread. The ritual of desiring to make a contact with
the holy relics was prevalent because it was deemed miraculous.
Religious processions and pilgrimages to shrines of martyrs were
also common religious practices.
On the other hand, in the eastern part of the empire, the

cult of holy images was the custom. From the east came about
the problem of iconoclasm. Due to some abuses in the practice of
venerating images, some people questioned its orthodoxy and went
to the extreme of destroying images, believing that the said practice
was a form of idolatry. The defenders of orthodoxy forwarded
three reasons for the legitimacy of the practice. First, it argues
that the worship given to the image goes to the prototype or to
the person signiied in the icon. The second reason appeals to the
pedagogical function of images stating that images are like books
to the illiterate. The third reason is Christological. It is by virtue of
the historicity of incarnation that the invisible God is depicted in
material representation. Furthermore, all sacred icons are understood
to signify Christ who is gloriied in them. The period of iconoclasm

has created the distinction between latria, worship due to God alone,
and dulia, veneration appropriately applied to the saints.
The three reasons mentioned were reiterated in the Council

of Trent in the medieval period to address the attack tendered by the
Protestant Reformation against the cult of images. The said council
corrected some abuses such as the belief that images were invested
with supernatural power, images that portray false doctrines, the
inappropriate depiction of holy persons in the nude, and the improper
way of celebrating religious festivals by the people. The Vatican
II did not introduce a new doctrine about the veneration of saints,
but it sets the doctrine in the proper ecclesiological, Christological,
Trinitarian and Theocentric perspectives. Accordingly, the cult
of saints is warranted by the very nature of the Church itself,
characterized by spiritual communion of its members on earth, in
purgatory and in the heavenly abode. The spiritual union of these
three states of being Church is rooted in the love of Christ, its
head. Furthermore, the saints whom the faithful on earth venerate
share in the salviic mission, which the Father has given to Christ
in the Holy Spirit. The saints are examples of Christian life for
people to imitate. They are the cloud of witnesses referred to in
the Letter to the Romans raised by God to become our companions
in our journey as we strive to become faithful disciples of Jesus
on the way to the Father. q
NOTES
1
All biblical passages are taken from Christian Community Bible
(Manila: Claretian Publications, 1997).
2
The phrase “communion with the saints” is used to limit its reference to
the relationship between the saints in heaven and the faithful on earth. As we shall
see later, the “communion of saints” refers to the whole Church, that is, not only
the bond that exists between the sacred beings in heaven and the faithful on earth,
but also including those faithful in the state of puriication.
3
This is what Judas Maccabeus saw in his vision. “He had seen Onias, the
former High Priest, a courteous, good man, humble in his ways distinguished in
his words and exemplary in his irreproachable conduct since childhood. With arms
outstretched, Onias prayed for the whole Jewish community. Then, a gray-haired
and honorable man appeared, praying in the same way, and characterized by
dignity and majesty. Then Onias, the High Priest said to Judas, ‘This is he who
loves your brothers, he who prays without ceasing for the Jewish people and for
the Holy City. He is Jeremiah, the prophet of God.’ And Jeremiah had stretched
out his right hand giving a golden sword to Judas, as he said, “Receive this sword
as a gift from God, with which you shall destroy your enemies.”
4
The holy angel addressed Tobit: “When you and your daughter-in-law
Sarah prayed, I kept the remembrance of your prayer before the Holy One.”
5
The title “Lion of Judah” goes back to the blessing of Jacob to his
sons before his death. He called Judah, the lion’s whelp (Gen. 49:9). It is just
appropriate to call, Jesus, the greatest member of the tribe of Judah. The book 2
Esdras (12:31) speaks of the igure of the lion as the Anointed One, that is, the
Messiah. See William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible - The Revelation of John,
Book 2 (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1960), p.169.
6
“The Lamb moved forward and took the book from the right hand of
him who was seated on the throne. When he took it, the four living creatures and
the twenty four elders bowed down before the lamb. They held in their hands harps
and golden cups full of incense which are the prayers of the holy ones.”
7
William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible - The Revelation of John, Book
1 (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1960), pp.153-154 explains the meaning
of the twenty-four elders thus: “There were so many priests in Israel that they
could not possibly serve in the Temple at one time and so they were divided into
twenty-four different courses (1 Chro 24:7-18). Each of these courses had its
president, known as an elder of the priests… It is suggested that the twenty four
elders stand symbolically for the twenty-four courses of the priests. They present
the prayers of the faithful; to God (Rev 5:8), and that is priestly work. The Levites
were similarly divided into twenty-four courses for the work of the Temple
and they praised God with harps and psalteries and cymbals (1 Chro 25:6-31),
and the elders also have their harps (Rev 5:8). So the twenty-four elders may
stand for the heavenly ideal of the earthly worship of priests and Levites of
the Temple.”
8
William Barclay provides an explanation of the symbolism of the four
living creatures: “The four living creatures, [identiied in the vision of Ezekiel
(Ez 1:6, 10, 22, 26)] stand for everything that is noblest, strongest, wisest and
swiftest in nature. Each has the pre-eminence in his own particular sphere.
The lion is supreme among beasts; the ox is supreme among cattle; the eagle
is supreme among birds; and man is supreme among all creatures. The beasts
represent all the greatness and the strength and the beauty of nature; here we see
nature praising God.” Ibid, p.159.
9
Wilfrid Harrington, OP, Sacra Pagina - Revelation (Minnesota:
Liturgical Press, 1993), p.85.
10
“Another angel came and stood before the altar incense with a golden
censer. He was given much incense to be offered with the prayers of all the
holy ones, on the golden altar before the throne, and the cloud of incense
rose with the prayers of the holy ones from the hands of the angel to the
presence of God.”
11
Robert Mounce, The New International Commentary on the New
Testament - The Book of Revelation (Michigan: Eerdsman Publishing Company,
1997), p.181.
12
“It seems to me that God has placed us, the apostles, in the last place,
as if condemned to death, and as spectacles for the whole world, for the angels
as well as for the mortals.”
13
The meaning of “cursed and driven from the ground” means that, the
earth which he tills no longer produced nourishment and so he will be forced to
settle for a life of perpetual wandering. Keil and Delitzch have this explanation,
“Because the earth has been compelled to drink innocent blood, it rebels against the
murderer, and when he tills it, withdraws its strength, so that the soil yields no fruit;
just as the land of Canaan is said to have spued out the Canaanites, on account
of their abominations (Lev 18:28).” C.F. Keil and F. Delitzch, Commentary on
the Old Testament - Pentateuch, Vol.1 (Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers,
1989), p.114.
14
It is hard to understand the attitude of these holy martyrs to seek
for vengeance against those who persecuted them on earth. But as one author
explains, “We must remember what these men [and women] went through, the
agony of lames, of the arena and the wild beasts, of sadistic torture which they
suffered. We have the right to criticize only when we have gone through the
same agony.” Barclay, The Daily Study Bible - The Revelation of John, Book
2, p.12; What the martyrs pray for here is not personal vengeance, but rather
divine retribution. They place into the hands of God to exercise judgment on their
persecutors. Cf. Harrington, OP, Sacra Pagina- Revelation, p.94.
15
“The meaning [of the phrase ‘until the number of the righteous was
complete’] is not that there is a predetermined number of the saved. Rather,
the idea is that death of martyrs brings the eschaton nearer.” Harrington, OP,
Sacra Pagina - Revelation, p.93.
16
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Art and Liturgy - The Question
of Images,” Adoremus Bulletin, Vol. VII, No.10 (February 2002), p.2,
http://www.adoremus.org/1102TheologyKneel.html, July 7, 2005.
17
Ratzinger, “Art and Liturgy - The Question of Images”, p.2. See also
Morris Kertzer, What is a Jew?, revised by Lawrence Hoffman (New York:
Touchstone), 1996, pp.61-62.
18
JPII, LA, no.5:1.
19
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Art, Image and Artists,” Adoremus
Bulletin, Vol. VIII, No.1, (March 2002), http://www.adoremus.org/
1102TheologyKneel.html, July 7, 2005.
20
The ecclesial understanding of the ideal of sanctity has evolved.
Initially, in the New Testament understanding of saint refers to all the baptized
faithful. But it also acclaims certain individuals who gave witness to their faith
by sacriicing their life for it. An example of this is the story of the martyrdom
of Stephen, the Jewish convert and deacon, in the Acts of the Apostles (6-7).
Martyrdom emerged to become the ideal of sanctity for the irst four centuries
of the Christian era. And the word “saint” was exclusively applied to those who
gave up their life as a testimony to their faith in Jesus. The concept of sanctity
evolved after the era of persecution of Christians. It was extended to the heroic
exercise of virtue, of prayer and of penance. The confessors, ascetics, and the
great defenders of faith against heresy that threatened to destroy its purity were
the ideals of sanctity in the era following the recognition of Christianity by the
state. Going to God then is not only achieved by shedding one’s blood, but also
by an exercise of profound life of prayer and penance. However, the question that
confronted the Church was how to know whether the non-martyr had persevered
to be faithful in God all through out his life? The stamp from God ascertaining the
sanctity of the saint was the posthumous miracles performed through its agency.
Even up to this date this is still the criteria being followed to declare the sanctity
of the saint. During the medieval period, it included missionaries, people who
founded great religious orders and members of such orders who were unfailing in
their practice of the evangelical counsels. At present, it was now extended to any
Catholic who has “welcomed and corresponded unconditionally with the invitation
of God, in such a way that he has lived a life of ever-increasing in union and
conformity with Christ, by means of the heroic exercise of charity and the other
Christian virtues.” Molinari, Saints: Their Place in the Church, p.14.
21
Yvon Bedauin, OMI, “The Cult of the Martyrs, Extension of Cult to the
confessors of Faith and Other Persons in the First Five Centuries,” Canonization:
Theology, History, Process, William Woestman, editor (Canada: Saint Paul
University, 2002), pp.20-21.
22
Ibid., p.22.
23
Ibid.
24
Keith Pecklers. Worship - New Century Theology (Quezon City:
Claretian Publications, 2004), p.141.
25
David Brown, Discipleship and Imagination (London: Oxford
University Press, 2000), p.67.
26
Raymond Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993), p.82-83. He writes: “Senseless
violence and cruelty were common [in ancient society]. Intemperate weather could
easily disrupt agrarian production. An enormous swarm of locusts, a late frost,
a heavy hailstorm, an extended drought… Harsh living conditions, inadequate
nutrition, and the consequent sicknesses and disabilities also reduced people to
a subhuman existence. Most of these people were beyond solution. The poor
had always to rely upon the generosity of the wealthy…. Another response was
reliance upon the power of the saints.”
27
Saints, though in heaven, were believed to be present in their relics
and at their tombs. God worked wonders through their agency. Not all ecclesial
communities, however, did have the privilege to possess relics of saintly igures
and not all people had the resources to travel around and visit shrines of saints.
There was a clamor for an experience of the God working favors through the
agency of a saint entombed in a basilica in Rome by other faithful living far away.
Thus the dismemberment of the saint’s body or the translation of the whole to be
placed in churches which did not have them became a practice. See Brown, The
Cult of Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, p.3.
28
In the beginning, the cult of martyrs and later on the cult of saintly
people started as a spontaneous act of the Christian community. But, because of
the abuses, the bishop started to control over the devotion to saints. The bishop
regulated the emergence of cults by strictly observing that only those saints that
are certain and whose biography are worthy of belief should be venerated. This
existing practice of the bishop to require from promoters of new cults a biography
of the would-be saint and accounts of their miracles was given ecclesiastical
sanction in the Council of Frankfurt in 794. Such procedure, however, was
primarily to establish the reputation of the saint and not a scheme to examine the
worthiness of the so called saint. It continued until 1234 when Pope Gregory IX
forbade the bishops to approve the cult of new saints. Cf. Bedauin, “The Cult of
the Martyrs, Extension of Cult to the confessors of Faith and Other Persons in
the First Five Centuries,” pp.27-28.
29
The Decretum Gelasianum decreed the public reading of the lives
of the saint. Cf. Brown, The Cult of Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin
Christianity, p.79.
30
Paul Anthony Hayward, “Demystifying the role of Sanctity”, The Cult
of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, James Howard-Johnston and Paul
Anthony Hayward, editors (London: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp.123: The
book of Peter Brown entitled Authority and the Sacred argues that the recorded
lives of the saints in the early Christian period are themselves models of Christian
virtue offered to the people as models to be imitated. See Averil Cameron, “On
deining the holy man”, published in the same anthology above, p. 37.
31
See Thomas Head, Hagiography and the Cult of Saints (Cambridge:
University Press, 1990), esp. Chapter 3.
32
Kenneth Woodland, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church
Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why? (New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1990), p.62.
33
Hayward, “Demystifying the Role of Sanctity”, The Cult of Saints in
Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, James Howard-Johnston and Paul Anthony
Hayward, editors, pp.117. See also, Brown, The Cult of Saints: Its Rise and
Function in Latin Christianity, pp.5-6.
34
See Davis, The First Seven Ecumenical Councils, pp.51-69.
35
Brown, Discipleship and Imagination, p.68.
36
The pilgrimage bridged the segregation in the urban society, in the
late antique Rome, between the elite and the masses, the men and the women in
public. Here, the distinction in races and statuses which is overcome by faith, as
taught by St Paul, is made into actuality. An ancient author writes: “The love of
their religion masses Latins and strangers together in one body… the majestic city
disgorges her Romans in the stream; with equal ardor patricians and the plebeian
host are jumbled together, shoulder to shoulder, for the faith banishes distinction
of birth.” Prudentius, Peristephanon 11. 191-192; 199-202 as quoted by Brown,
Discipleship and Imagination, p. 42.
37
Ibid., p.118.
38
Quoted by Woodland, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church
Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why?, p.59.
39
Michael Carroll, Veiled Threats: The Logic of Popular Catholicism in
Italy (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1996), p.164.
40
The justiication for the veneration of icons lies in the mystery of
incarnation - God taking on visible form. This same principle that governs the
representation of the mystery of the God who was incarnated is analogously
applied to the saints signiied in images. The Catechism of the Catholic Church
(no. 1151) explains: “All the signs in the liturgical celebrations are related to
Christ: as are the sacred images of the Holy Mother of God and the saints as well.
They truly signify Christ who is gloriied in them.”
41
Iconoclasm is the “conventional term designating any movement
against religious images or the veneration of such images and, by extension,
movements to overthrow established opinions or practices… The term itself
derives from the Greek eikonoklasia (icon-breaking).” Ken Parry et al. (eds.),
The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,
2000), p.239.
42
See Leonid Ouspensky, Theology of Icon, Vol.1 (New York: St.
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992), especially the chapter on “Pre-iconoclastic
Period,” pp.101-106.
43
Quoted in ibid, p.106.
44
Carroll, Veiled Threats: The Logic of Popular Catholicism in Italy,
p.50.
45
Quoted in Davis, The First Seven Ecumenical Councils, p.363.
46
This study acknowledges that the question on iconoclasm is not purely
doctrinal in nature in that it was also inluenced by the political circumstance
at that time. For example, Ratzinger tells us that it “was important for the
Byzantine emperors not to give unnecessary provocation to Muslims and Jews.
The suppression of images could be beneicial to the unity of the empire and to
relations with the empire’s Muslim neighbors” (Ratzinger, “Art and Liturgy - The
Question of Images”, p.2). It is, however, the conviction of this author that the
primary motivation that started the systematic destruction of the images and the
persecution of those who upheld them was doctrinal in nature. This view is clearly
established in the study of G. Ostrogorsky as quoted in Ouspensky, Theology of
Icon, vol.1, p.120: “A scholarly opinion became widespread, how this happened is
not known, according to which proofs of a Christological order were not used by
the venerators of icons before the iconoclastic council of 754. Only this council’s
recourse to arguments of that type in favor of the iconoclastic thesis would have
forced the Orthodox also to resort to them. If this were really the case, that is,
if the Christological arguments were really put forth by the Orthodox only in
response to similar methods of the adversaries, the whole issue would have been
a dialectical, scholastic exercise at the most, and there would have been no
question of the crucial importance of Christology in the struggle for the icon.
But this was not the case. We maintain that the question of the icon was, from
the beginning, linked by the Orthodox to Christological teaching, whereas their
opponents give them no pretext for this.”
47
Ouspensky, Theology of Icon, Vol.1, p.127.
48
Denz, no.302.
Political and military disasters which were identiied to the reign of

49
iconophile rulers made Leo V decide to launch a crusade against icons. Because
of the setbacks that happened to his predecessors who defended and promoted
the veneration of icons, he thought that such practice was not sanctioned by
God as it brought disaster to the empire. Hence, he justiied himself for ordering
an imperial iconoclasm. See Ken Parry et al. (eds.), The Blackwell Dictionary
of Eastern Christianity, p.240.
50
See S.T. III, q.25.
51
Donald Weisten and Rudolph Bell, Saints and Society: Christendom
1000-1700 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), p.142.
52
John Dillenberger, Images and Relics: Theological Perceptions
and Visual Images in Sixteenth-Century Europe (Oxford: University Press,
1999), p.6.
53
p.169.
54
Ibid., pp.13-14.
55
Quoted in ibid., p14.
56
Ibid.
57
Quoted in ibid., p.92.
58
Ibid., p.93.
59
Ibid., pp.53-54.
60
See the discussion on the iconoclastic period of this chapter.
61
Quoted in Dillenberger, Images and Relics: Theological Perceptions
and Visual Images in Sixteenth-Century Europe, p.186.
62
pp.54-55.
63
Denz, no.986.
64
Ibid., no.987.
65
Ibid. Emphasis added.
66
See Ibid., no.988.
67
p.55.
68
The 25th Session of the Council of Trent, http://history.hanover.edu/
texts/trent/ct25.html, July 31, 2005.
69
It is in this light that we introduce the distinction between the phrase
“communion with the saints” (in heaven) and the phrase “communion of saints”.
The cult of saint which refers to the public veneration of members of the Church
who have been proposed by the Church as worthy examples of piety and Christian
discipleship indicates the former.
70
Schonborn, “The Communion of Saints as three states of the Church:
pilgrimage, puriication, and glory,” p. 173.
71
Ibid.
72
Molinari, Saints: Their Place in the Church, p.156.
73
Vatican II, LG, no.48:2.
74
Ibid., no.50:2.
75
Ibid., no.50:4.
76
Ibid., no.50:4
77
Ibid., no.50:3.
78
Ibid., no.51:1.
79
Vatican II, SC, no.125.
80
Chupungco, A Collection of Talks of Anscar Chupungco, Joseina
Manabat (ed), p.188.
81
Vatican II, SC, no. 124.
BIBILIOGRAPHY
I. DOCUMENTS OF THE CHURCH
Catechism of the Catholic Church. Liberia Editrice Vaticana,

Manila: Word and Life Publications, 1994.
Vatican II. Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church

in the Modern World in Vatican Council II - The Conciliar
and Post-Conciliar Documents, Vol.1, Austin Flanerry (ed.).
Pasay City: Paulines Publishing House, 2001.
____________. Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution of the

Church in Vatican Council II - The Conciliar and Post-
Conciliar Documents, Vol.1, Austin Flanerry (ed.). Pasay
City: Paulines Publishing House, 2001.
___________. Sacrosacntum Concilium: The Constitution on the

Sacred Liturgy. Vatican II in Vatican Council II - The
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2001.
Denzinger, Henry. Enchridion Symbolorum, translated by Roy

Deferrari. London: B. Herder Book, Co., 1957.
John Paul II. Duodecimum Saeculum: Apostolic Letter of John

Paul II on the Occasion of the 1200th Anniversary of
the Second Council of Nicea. December 4, 1987 in http://
www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2DUODE.HTM,
march 3, 2005.
____________. Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists.

Vatican City, 1999.
____________. Novo Millenio Ineuente: Post-Synodal Apostolic

Letter of John Paul II, Jan 6, 2001 in Boletin Ecclesiastico,
Vol.LXXVII, No.824, May-June, 2001, Vicente Cajilig (ed.).
Manila: University of Sto Tomas Publishing House.
____________. Pastores Dabo Vobis, Post-Synodal Apostolic

Exhortation to the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful on the
Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of Present
Day, March 25, 1992. Pasay City: Paulines Publishing
House, 1992.
II. BOOKS
Bluemenfeld-Kosinski, Renate and Szell, Timea (eds.). Images of

Sainthood in Medieval Europe. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1991.
Brown, David. Discipleship and Imagination. London: Oxford
University Press, 2000.
Brown, Peter. The Cult of Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin
Christianity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Buckley, James. Seeking the Humanity of God. Minnesota: The

Liturgical Press, 1992
Carroll, Michael. Veiled Threats: The Logic of Popular Catholicism

in Italy. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press,
1996.
Casel, Odo. The Mystery of Christian Worship. Westminster:

Newman, 1959.
Clendenin, Daniel. Eastern Orthodox Theology: A Contemporary

Reader. Michigan: Bake Books, 1995.
Cunningham, Lawrence. The Meaning of Saints. San Francisco:

Harper and Row Publishers, 1980.
Davis, Leo Donald. The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787)-

Their History and Theology. Minnesota: The Liturgical
Press, 1990.
Dillenberger, John. Images and Relics: Theological Perceptions

and Visual Images in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Oxford:
University Press, 1999.
Duane, Christiansen. World Biblical Commentary - Deuteronomy

1-11. Texas: World Books Publishers, 1991.
Feek, Gordon. The New International commentary on the New

Testament - The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Michigan:
William B Eerdsman Publishing Company, 1991.
Florovsky, Georges. Collected Works of Georges Florovsky,

Vol.III: Creation and Redemption. Massachusetts: Nordland
Publishing Company, 1976.
Francisco, SJ, Jose Mario. “Saints: Let us make them in our image
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(eds.) Gomez, OP, Fausto and Suerte, Filipe. Manila: UST
Faculty of Sacred Theology, 2004, pp.251-261.
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Manila: Logos Publication, Revised and Expanded Edition,
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Grabar, Andre. Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origin.

Princeton University Press, 1968.
Harrington, OP, Wilfrid. Sacra Pagina - Revelation. Minnesota:

Liturgical Press, 1993.
Head, Thomas. Hagiography and the Cult of Saints. Cambridge:

Univesity Press, 1990.
Hiebert, Paul, et al. Understanding Folk Religion. Michigan: Baker

Books, 1999.
Howard-Johnston, James and Hayward, Paul Anthony (eds). The

Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. London:
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Kertzer, Morris. What is a Jew?, Revised by Lawrence Hoffman.

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Lamirande, OMI, Emilen. The Communion of Saints, A. Manson

(trans). New York: Hawthorn Books, 1963.
Male, Emile. The Gothic Image. London: Collins Clear-Type

Press, 1913.
Mayes, A.D. The New Century Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy.

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McBrien, Richard. Catholicism. Minneapolis: Winston Press,

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Mounce, Robert. The New International Commentary on the New

Testament - the Book Revelation. Michigan: William B
Eerdsman Publishing Company, 1997.
Ouspensky, Leonid. Theology of Icon. Crestwood, New York: St.

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Parry, Ken et. al. (eds.). The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern

Christianity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.
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Idea of Christianity. New York: The Crossroad Publishing
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___________.Theological Investigations. New York: Seabury

Press, vol.3, 1974.
Soergel, Philip. Wondrous in his Saints. Los Angeles: University

of California Press, 1993.
Van Dam, Raymond. Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul.
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1000-1700. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
2000.
Woestman, William (ed.). Canonization: Theology, History, Process.

Ottawa, Canada: Saint Paul University, 2002.
Woodland, Kenneth. Making Saints: How the Catholic Church

Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why?.
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III. JOURNALS
Gonzales, OP, Javier. “The Communion of Saints: Its Reality and

Implications” Boletin Ecclesiastico, vol.LXX, pp.396-422.
Schonborn, Christoph. “The Communion of Saints as three states of

the Church: pilgrimage, puriication, and glory,” Communio
15/12, 1988, pp. 167-181.
Schumacher, SJ., John. “Syncretism in Philippine Catholicism”

Philippine Studies, Vol.32/2nd quarter, 1984, pp. 251-272.
Urs von Balthasar, Hans. “Catholicism and the Communion of

Saints,” Communio 15/2, 1988, pp.163-168.
IV. INTERNET
Archbishop Nowak, Edward. “New Evangelization with the

Saints,” L’Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English,
Novemebr 28, 2001, p.3. http://www.ewtn. com.library/
MARY/NWEVNGST.HTML, July 24, 2005.
Martins, Cardinal Jose Saravia, “The Lives of the saints show the
world the divine in the human,” L’Osservatore Romano,
Weekly Edition in English, April 16, 2003, p.9. http://
www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/LIVESAIN.HTM, July
24, 2005.
Melling, David, J. “Aquinas on Adoring the Image of Christ,”

http://www.arimathea.co.uk/aquinas.htm
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Images,” Adoremus Bulletin, Vol. VII, No.10, February
2002, http://www.adoremus.org/1102TheologyKneel.html,
July 7. 2005.
___________. “Art, Image and Artists,” Adoremus Bulletin,

Vol. VIII, No.1, March 2002, http://www.adoremus.org/
1102TheologyKneel.html, July 7. 2004.
___________.”The Theology of Kneeling,” Adoremus Bulletin,

Vol. VIII, No.8, November 2002, http://www.adoremus.org/
1102TheologyKneel.html, July 7. 2005.
St. John Damascene. “Apologia of St. John Damascene Against

Those who Decry Holy Images, Part I,” http://ccel.org/d/
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___________. “Apologia of St. John Damascene Against Those who

Decry Holy Images, Part II,” http://ccel.org/d/damascus/
icons2.html, July 7. 2005.
___________. “Apologia of St. John Damascene Against Those who

Decry Holy Images, Part III,” http://ccel.org/d/damascus/
icons3.html, July 7. 2005.
 Fr. Jannel N. Abogado, OP is a member of the Dominican

Province of the Philippines. He holds a Licentiate/Masteral degree in
Theology from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila and currently
assigned at Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Intramuros, Manila.

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66 COLLOQUIA Manilana

The Development of the

The practice of the veneration of saints is integral in the

then locates its emergence from the early Christian community,

II. BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS

a) “Communion with the Saints” in the Bible2

The belief in the “communion with the saints” is not an

The vision of John in the book of Revelation (5:7-9) asserts

the prayers of the faithful.9 Furthermore, in Revelation 8:3-4,10 “the

In addition, the departed holy men and women are aware of

Finally, to complete the foundation of this belief in the bible,

In the vision of John concerning the opening of the ifth seal

b) What does the Bible say about the engraving of images?

Undeniably, the belief in the saints interceding for people

I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land

It is important to note here that Catholics regard the quoted

The Protestant makes the instruction not to make graven

The engraving of images is not absolutely prohibited by

This interpretation tallies with the Judaic tradition which

of images. Often, our understanding is that the Jews interpreted

What about the question on representing God in visible

The Law of the Old Testament explicitly forbids repre-

“The complete absence of images is incompatible with faith

it does not deny the proscription on the idolatrous worship of

III. THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE OF THE

a) The Church of Antiquity

The earliest Christian hagiographic document that mentions

The rituals for commemorating the martyrs as practiced by

The funeral tribute was followed by a nine day period of

Accordingly, the external expression of the cult of the saints

After the recognition of Christianity by the state, the cult

What people were interested in were the results the saints

Ancient society was precarious and susceptible to problems,

Another reason cited is that the ecclesiastical authority

However, the promotion of the cult could not at all be

virtue for future generations to imitate.30 The lives of the saints

The third reason is conditioned by the belief of the ancients

The belief that worldly success depended upon one’s

exalted role of Christ that in effect he became just as metaphysically

Generally, the rituals characteristic of the saints’ cult

Furthermore, the practice of undertaking a vow as an

The saint… held the individual in a tight bond of personal

Finally, the ancients believed that miraculous power of the

of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in 397, crowds of men and women

Romans like himself (Pope Gregory the Great) prefer to

While in the Church in the western part of the empire,

b) The Iconoclastic Period

Iconoclasm 41 emerged and its spread propelled by the

as blasphemous practice. They were more concerned with the

Some ecclesiastics who acknowledged the orthodoxy of the

We greatly praise the fact that you prohibited the worship

Both bishops agreed that images should not be invested

The problem concerning the veneration of images resulted

For it should be considered that that lesh was also the

In the teaching of the iconoclasts, it is impossible for the

double heresy would be committed when one attempts to make a

The decree of the Council of Hiera which condemned sacred

A year after, the council resumed on September 24, 787 with

by the fathers. The fathers maintained that no Christological error

The council offered the reality of incarnation as the justiica-

The council made a distinction between worship that is due

For, how much more frequently through the imaginal

according to our faith, which is proper to divine nature