in such a way that our altars are not set up to any one of the martyrs––
although in their memory––but to God Himself, the God of those martyrs ...
That worship, which the Greeks call latria and for which there is in Latin
no single term, and which is expressive of the subjection owed to Divinity
alone, we neither accord nor teach that it should be accorded to any save
to the one God.”
St. Jerome, Against Vigilantius 6 (406 AD)
“You say in your book that while we live we are able to pray for each
other, but afterwards when we have died, the prayer of no person for
another can be heard; and this is especially clear since the martyrs, though
they cry vengeance for their own blood, have never been able to obtain
their request. But if the Apostles and martyrs while still in the body can
pray for others, at a time when they ought still be solicitous about
themselves, how much more will they do so after their crowns, victories,
and triumphs.”
St. John Damascene, Apologetical Sermons Against those who Reject
Sacred Images 3, 41 (post 725 AD)
“We worship and adore the Creator and Maker alone, as God who by His
nature is to be worshipped. We worship also the Holy Mother of God, not
as God, but as God’s Mother according to the flesh. Moreover, we worship
also the saints, as elect friends of God, and as having gotten ready audience
with Him.”
Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566)
Pt. III, Ch. II: True, there is but one Mediator, Christ the Lord, who
alone has reconciled us to the heavenly Father through His blood, and who,
having obtained eternal redemption, and having entered once into the
holies, ceases not to intercede for us. But it by no means follows that it is
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