Dist. 45, Art. 3, Q. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/45/q/bon-sent-IV-d45-a3-q1
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### Article III. *On the suffrages which the Saints bestow upon the living.*

Next, as to the third article, inquiry is made concerning the suffrages which are bestowed upon the living by the Saints or by the departed. And concerning this three things are asked.

First it is asked, whether the Saints pray for us.

Second, whether the Saints obtain anything for us by their prayers.

Third, whether it is useful for us to ask the Saints.

### Question I. *Whether the Saints pray for us.*

As to the first, then, it is shown that the Saints do pray for us:

1. Because it is said of Christ, who is the Holy of Holies, in Hebrews the seventh: *Always living to make intercession for us*; but the Saints are his imitators: therefore as Christ prays, the Saints also pray.

2. Again, this same thing is proved by that which is said in John the fourteenth: *I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete*; therefore in like manner the Saints pray.

3. Again, the Church commonly prays: "Holy Mary, pray for us," therefore etc.: therefore if she does not ask foolishly, the point is clear, etc.

4. Again, it seems so by reason: because the Saints love us out of charity, therefore they choose and desire our salvation; but it is agreed that they know that salvation cannot be except from God, therefore they choose it through God: therefore since the desire of anything from God is prayer, the point is clear, etc.

**On the contrary:**

1. The Saints either will for us salvation or some other good, or they do not will it. If they do not will it, then they do not pray; if they do will it — but Anselm says in the *Proslogion* that "the Blessed will be omnipotent over their own will, as God is over his": therefore since "no one prays for what he can do of himself," as Augustine says in *On Correction and Grace*; if the Saints are able, they do not pray for our salvation, or else they are not omnipotent, if they are not able.

2. Again, as the Damascene says, "prayer is the ascent of the intellect into God"; but the Blessed are at the term of their contemplation: therefore their intellect does not ascend into God, therefore they do not pray.

3. Again, he is blessed for whom all things turn out according to his wish; whence Augustine in the thirteenth book *On the Trinity* says that "the Blessed man has whatever he wills"; but no one who has whatever he wills prays or asks for anything: therefore the Saints in the fatherland do not pray for us.

Again, if Christ prays for us, it is asked why it is not said in the Litany: *Christ, pray for us*? Therefore if it is not said, it seems that he does not pray for us, and by this neither do the Saints.

Again, it is asked: why is prayer not directed to the Holy Spirit, as it is to the Father and the Son?

> **Conclusion.** The Saints in heaven pray for us.

**I answer:** It must be said that, as the Master says in the text, "the Saints pray for us." — And the ground of this is twofold: one is that they see our need, by which we require to be relieved by others; the other is on account of God's will, because he wills that one member should relieve another, and that the members should be solicitous for one another; whence, since they themselves have been set free, they ought to help others.

*To 1.* To that, then, which is objected, that they can do whatever they will: it must be said that the will is compared to an act in two ways: either to its own act, as "I will to do this"; or to another's act, as "I will that another do this," namely God or man. Whence I say that Anselm's authority is with respect to one's own act, but prayer or the petition for salvation is with respect to the divine act, namely that God should save.

*To 2.* To that which is objected, that the intellect does not ascend into God: it must be said that the intellect is said to ascend into God in three ways: either by a new regard toward God, namely when a man recalls his thought from other things and turns it toward God; and thus it is only in wayfarers. — In another way, by the regard of some lower thing, as when someone considers human misery and implores mercy, that it may relieve the misery; there it is called a regard, not because he looks anew, but because something lower looks toward that; and thus it is in the Blessed, when they ask on our behalf, because then they consider our indigence. — In a third way, on account of the continuation of the first gaze; whence when someone considers God, who is above him, and considers him continuously, he continuously ascends, not because he passes to one thing and another, but because he is borne above himself; and in this way it is continuously in the Blessed. And thus this is clear, because, if prayer is spoken of in the first way, the ascent belongs only to the way; in the second way it belongs to the way and to the fatherland; in the third way only to the fatherland.

*To 3.* To that which is objected, that the Blessed man has whatever he wills: it must be said that the Blessed man wills some things for himself, some things for others. I say therefore that it belongs to the substance of beatitude that he should have everything he wills for himself; but that he should have everything he wills for others does not belong to the substance of beatitude, but to its consummation and well-being; and this will not be until all the elect are glorified. For then each will have what he wills for himself and what he wills for every other; and then beatitude is full. Whence *the Blessed pray only for others, the wretched for themselves and for others; but when the number of the elect has been consummated, they will ask neither for themselves nor for others*.

*To the first incidental question.* To that which is asked last concerning Christ, it must be said that it is for the sake of avoiding the error of Arius, lest we should seem to believe Christ a creature; and lest we should seem to diminish his power, by which he can do all things, we ask of him his *compassion*, not his *prayer*.

*To the second incidental question.* But as to what is asked concerning the Holy Spirit, it must be said that, because he is the Gift in whom all gifts are given, therefore he himself is to be asked for, and a petition is not to be offered to him.