Dist. 45, Art. 3, Q. 2
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-q2
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### Question II. *Whether the Saints obtain anything for us by their prayers.*

In the second place it is asked whether the Saints obtain anything for us by their prayers. And that they do not, seems [to be the case]:

1. Because no one obtains anything from God except one who is in the state of meriting; but the Saints are not in the state of meriting: therefore etc. *If you say* that [it is] not by the merit which is performed then, but by that which preceded; *on the contrary*: this does not resolve it, because according to this, even if they do not ask, we shall nonetheless obtain: therefore their prayer does nothing for us. *Moreover*, they themselves have been sufficiently rewarded for the whole of that which they merited: therefore they did not merit anything else: therefore by reason of preceding merit they do not obtain.

2. Likewise, the Saints in all things conform their will to the divine will: therefore they neither pray nor ask, except what God wills to give; but what God wills to give he will give, even if the Saints do not ask: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, the Saints see whether our prayers are to be heard, and if they are not to be heard, they do not ask: therefore they ask when they are to be heard; but if they were not to ask, the petitions that are to be heard would nonetheless be heard: therefore their prayer does nothing.

**On the contrary:**
1. The Saints on the way obtain grace and many goods for others; but they can do more with God in the fatherland than on the way: therefore they obtain the more.

3. Likewise, the Saints obtain for the living, because they are friends of God; but they are more the friends of God in the fatherland than on the way: therefore they obtain the more efficaciously.

3. Likewise, it is shown *by way of the impossible*: because if they do not obtain and yet pray, as was shown above, then they pray in vain and are wretched, because their will is not fulfilled.

4. Likewise, the Saints work miracles after death just as before: therefore they likewise obtain after death, just as before.

### Conclusion.

> *The prayers of the Saints obtain many good things for us.*

**I respond:** It must be said that the prayers of the Saints obtain many good things for us, as the Master says, "by merit and by affection"; by merit indeed that preceded, whereby they served God most faithfully and attained by their merits so great a station that they merited not only beatitude and glory for themselves, but also to give suffrage to others. — They also supererogated many things by affection: because they were made the friends of God, and "friendship is the same willing

and not-willing"; and when the Saints love someone, they compel God, so to speak, to love [him]. Hence the Blessed Virgin is said to reconcile many sinners to God.

1. To that, then, which is objected, that they are not in the state of meriting; it must be said that this is true *for themselves*. And *moreover*, the hearing is not rendered to a merit which is performed then, but to a merit which preceded. — As to what is objected, that then it would come about without prayer; it must be said that they merited not *simply* that these persons should obtain, but *under a condition*, namely if they themselves should intercede, or others should implore their aid; just as some Saints at their death asked that the Lord would hear those invoking their patronage. — And as to what is said, that their merit is fully rewarded; that is true of *absolute* merit, but as regards *conditioned* merit the condition and the ground of meriting still stands.

2. 3. To that which is objected, that they conform their will to the divine in all things; it must be said that, as Augustine says in *On the Predestination of the Saints*, "we ought to pray for the predestined, because perhaps they are predestined in such a way that they may be granted to our prayers"; and if this whole matter were established for us, that they were foreseen to be saved at our prayers; we ought assuredly to pray for them, and we would pray fruitfully, because they are saved at our prayers. So it is to be understood in the Saints, who see that God has decreed to save us at their prayers; therefore they pray most insistently and obtain.

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