Now when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Short answer
Catholics (and Orthodox Christians) ask Mary and the saints to pray for them, as Christians ask one another to pray. They understand this as asking for intercession, not as worship, which belongs to God alone. Most Protestants do not pray to the saints, holding that Scripture gives no example of it and that Christ is the one mediator.
Asking, not worshiping
When Catholics “pray to” Mary or a saint, what they mean is asking that person to pray for them, in the same way a Christian might ask a friend or a congregation to pray. The best-known Marian prayer, the Hail Mary, ends with a request of exactly that kind: pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Catholic teaching draws a firm line between this and worship. Adoration belongs to God alone; Mary and the saints are honored, not adored. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that devotion to Mary “differs essentially” from the adoration given to God (§971), and it describes the saints in heaven as interceding for those on earth (§956). Eastern Orthodox Christians share the practice and make the same distinction. Jesus Himself, quoting Deuteronomy, tells the tempter that God alone is to be worshiped and served (Matthew 4:10), and on that every tradition agrees.
The passages Catholics point to
No single verse instructs Christians to ask the saints for prayer. Catholics see the practice as following from several things Scripture does say.
Christians pray for one another. Paul asks churches to pray for him (Romans 15:30) and urges “intercessions” for all people (1 Timothy 2:1). James adds:
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
Asking others to pray is normal Christian practice; the question is whether it extends to those who have died.
The faithful departed are alive to God. Jesus answers the Sadducees by saying that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to Him” (Luke 20:38). Hebrews, after its long list of faithful men and women, says we are “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1).
Prayers rise before God in heaven. In John’s vision, the elders around the throne hold “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints”:
Now when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Mary’s place in the Gospels. The first half of the Hail Mary is drawn from Luke: Gabriel’s greeting (Luke 1:28, which older translations render Hail, full of grace) and Elizabeth’s blessing, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42). Mary herself says that “all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). At the wedding in Cana she brings a need to her Son and tells the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:1–11). Catholics read Cana as a picture of Mary’s intercession: she asks, and points people to Jesus.
A deuterocanonical vision. In 2 Maccabees 15:12–14, Judas Maccabeus sees in a dream the high priest Onias, who had died, praying for the people, and the prophet Jeremiah, described as one “who prays much for the people and the holy city.” Catholics and Orthodox read this as evidence that Jews before Christ believed the righteous dead pray for the living. Second Maccabees is not in Protestant Bibles, so Protestants do not treat it as Scripture (see Why do Catholic Bibles have more books?).
Why most Protestants disagree
Protestant Christians honor Mary as the mother of the Lord, and most gladly ask living believers to pray for them. Their objections are to asking those who have died, for reasons like these:
- One mediator. Paul writes that there is “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Many Protestants believe prayer addressed to saints, however it is meant, takes a place that belongs to Christ, and that believers can go directly to God through Him (Hebrews 4:16).
- No biblical example. The Bible records believers asking one another for prayer, but never anyone on earth addressing a saint in heaven. Many Protestants hold that a practice of prayer should rest on clear scriptural teaching.
- The readings differ. Protestants often read the “cloud of witnesses” as people whose lives bear witness to faith, not spectators; they note that “saints” in the New Testament often means living believers; and they see Revelation 5 as a vision of heavenly worship, not an instruction.
- The prohibition on contacting the dead. Some point to the law against consulting the dead (Deuteronomy 18:10–12). Catholics answer that asking a saint to pray to God is not divination or seeking hidden knowledge, and Christians weigh that answer differently.
Catholics reply to the first objection with the same chapter: Paul’s call for intercessions in 1 Timothy 2:1 comes just before 2:5, so asking others to pray does not, in their reading, compete with Christ’s unique mediation. Both sides agree that Christ alone saves and that worship belongs to God alone. The disagreement is over whether asking the saints for prayer honors that or risks obscuring it.
Where to go next
The Prayer & worship page gathers Scripture on prayer, including praying for one another.