A phenomenon of great significance in the patristic period was the rise and gradual development of veneration for the saints, more particularly for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Its full flowering, and the formal definitions sanctioning it, belong to later ages, but the formative beginnings call for a brief treatment.[1] All footnotes reproduced as found in text.
Earliest in the field was the cult of martyrs, the heroes of the faith whom Christians held to be already in God’s presence and glorious in His sight.[2] At first it took the form of the reverent preservation of their relics and the annual celebration of their “birthday”.[3] From this it was a short step, since they were now with Christ in glory, to seeking their help and prayers, and in the third century evidence for the belief in their intercessory power accumulates.[4] In arguing for it Origen appealed to the communion of saints, advancing the view that the Church in heaven assists the Church on earth with its prayers. With the cessation of persecution early in the fourth century the cult was extended to include, in addition to martyrs, other Christians (e.g. confessors, ascetics, virgins) who had been examples of heroic sanctity. By the middle of the same century, according to Cyril of Jerusalem, [5] the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs were commemorated in the liturgy “so that by their prayers and intercessions God may receive our supplications.” When God chastises men, Chrysostom remarked, [6] they should appeal to His saints since they have efficacious access to Him—more efficacious than when they were alive, as Gregory Nazianzen pointed out, [7] because they are now closer to Him. In the following century Leo the Great in the West extolled [8] the Church’s confidence in the prayers and patronage of the saints, whom God had appointed both as an example and as a defense to Christians.
As it steadily established itself, the devotion paid to saints and their relics could not fail to attract the citing censure of critics, pagan (e.g. Julian the Apostate) and Christian (e.g. Vigilantius). In defending it Jerome argued, [9] as other Christians since Origen had done, that if the apostles and martyrs prayed to their fellow-Christians when still alive, it was natural to believe that they would do so all the more now that they were crowned with heavenly glory. While the technical distinction between the latria due to God and the dulia permissible to the saints was only beginning to emerge [10] in the patristic epoch, the consistent teaching of the Church, voiced as much by Polycarp’s devotees [11] as by theologians like Augustine [12] and Cyril of Alexandria, [13] was that while the saints and martyrs deserved honor and devotion, only God could be worshipped. As Theodoret expressed it, [14] after listing benefits commonly sought from the martyrs, Christians do not invoke them as gods, but as godly men who can be their ambassadors and plead for them.
[2] 1 Clem. 5, 4; Hermas, vis. 3, 2, 1; sim. 9, 28, 3.
[3] Mart. Polyc. 18, 2; cf. Cyprian, epp. 12, 2; 39, 3.
[4] E.g. Origen, orat. 31, 5; Cyprian, ep. 60, 5; also funerary inscriptions.
[5] Esp. in Iesu nave hom. 16, 5.
[6] Cat. 23, 9.
[7] Orat. 18, 4.
[8] Serm. 85, 4.
[9] C. Vigil. 6: cf. Origen, exhort. ad mart. 38.
[10] For the distinction see Augustine, quaest. In Hept. 2, 94: cf. de civ. Dei 10, 1, 2; c. Faust. 20, 21
[11] Mart. Polyc. 17, 3.
[12] Serm. 273, 7; de vera rel. 108
[13] C. Iul. Imp. 6 (PG 76, 812).
[14] Graec. affect., cur. 8, 63.
No comments:
Post a Comment