The saints show their love for us by their constant prayers to the Lord in our behalf, and by their miraculous interventions into our lives. Our love for them is shown when we study their lives, tel their story to our friends and relatives and – for those of us who can – preach their messages on their feast days. The holy Fathers have left us with stirring homilies, panegyric eulogies, beautiful hymnal services, and spiritual teachings which honor the saints. We honor beloved saints on their feast days with Divine Liturgies and the offering of pure gifts – bread, candles, incense, oil, icons, vigil lamps, kol yva, etc. We also honor them by dedication churches in their names, painting their holy icons, offering icon stand and reliquaries, etc.
Honoring saints is an ancient practice of our Church. Rejection of this practice is tantamount to rejecting Christ, since it is taught in the Gospel and by the Apostolic tradition. Many contemporary heretics reject the practice of honoring saints with an animosity that reveals the extent of their error. They destroy icons of saints as new iconoclasts. The Seventh Ecumenical Council condemns them, and al who do not honor the saints and ask for their intercessory prayers.
The Orthodox Church, unlike the Western Church, does not proclaim saints. Rather, it recognizes saints. This somewhat newer tradition, is followed to avoid misleading the faithful into honoring as saints those who are not. As faithful of the Orthodox Church we have the unshakable certainty that the Church possesses the whole unadulterated truth, inspired by the Holy Spirit. The synodical Church does not err. This is why one Synod does not refute a previous one, but only confirms it. The Church has never made a mistake in the recognition of a saint.
Where martyrs are concerned, the day of martyrdom is the day of their very first commemoration, and the process of recognition is not applicable. For other saints, the Church patiently awaits heavenly signs indication the presence of divine grace overshadowing the deified person. Saints are revealed by God, not by human effort. This requires a considerable time to pass after their fal ing asleep in the Lord, so that relatives may be out of the way, and reports of witnesses who knew, heard or had concrete evidence of the presence of saints – through visions, appearances of light, miracles, supernatural fragrances, etc. – may be ascertained and confirmed. Many of our saints were honored by the devout faithful long before official recognition by the Church, which subsequently came, as a loving mother, to reward, secure and confirm the faith of her children.
The saints are characterized by the correctness of their lives, their faith, their teaching and their writings. No one can doubt the decisions of the Church and not honor al the saints.
Al who are good wil not necessarily be saved, and al who are saved wil not necessarily become saints.
The tendency to have continuous, group proclamations of saints, after many centuries or even a few years, require great vigilance, prudence and discernment. If someone is a saint and is to be made known, the al -holy God wil in time reveal him. It would be a blessing for the number of saints to increase in our evil days. The saints bring much consolation and encouragement to the souls of the faithful. And it must be remembered that even today there are many saints in the deserts and in the cities. Holiness is the great void in the world, and when holiness disappears altogether, the world itself wil disappear. It is the prayer of the saints that continues to support the world.
The intercessory prayers of the more-than-holy Theotokos, the Mother of God, the Panaghia, the Ever-Virgin, the much lauded and most glorified, the mediations of the bodiless servants of God, the holy angels, the petitions of the honorable, glorious Forerunner and Baptist St. John, the prayers of the prophets and apostles, of the martyrs and of al the saints, are a tremendous help and consolation to the faithful who appeal to them and beseech them. They are the experienced, knowledgeable ones il umined by God, the charismatics, those who are ready and wil ing to be teachers, benefactors and indefatigable servants of philanthropy and charity.
They are the ones who have fought and won, and they help us to fight and win also, and to attain our blessed destiny.The whole world is not as valuable as holiness, even though the world needs holiness, which is the answer to its problems. The value of holiness is incalculable, priceless. Holiness is primarily the faith and forbearance of saints, not a theoretical condition. The faith of saints is what makes them hate every worldly glory and reject every earthly comfort and accommodation. The forbearance of saints makes them obliging in the struggle, patient in the difficulties,m and always ful of hope, as they anticipate only heavenly delight.