Dist. 45, Art. 3, Q. 3
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-q3
----------------------------------------
### Question III. *Whether it is useful for us to entreat the Saints.*

Thirdly it is asked whether it is useful for us to entreat the Saints. And that it is not seems the case:

1. Because that man who turns to entreating the Saints either is *worthy* to be heard or *not*. If he is *worthy*, he will be heard even without the Saints; if he is *not* worthy, he will not be heard even with the Saints, nor will the Saints entreat on his behalf: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, prayer is a species of *latria*; but « *latria is the worship due to God alone* »: therefore prayer ought to be made to God alone. — *If you say* that it is a species not only of *latria* but also of *dulia*; then, if we ought rather to honor the greater, it seems that *he does ill* who more insistently entreats the lesser; and this seems *folly*, since the greater Saints, such as the blessed Virgin, are more powerful in the sight of God.

3. Likewise, God is more merciful and more present to us than any Saint; but a man would be foolish who, being able to approach the king and finding him kinder than the prince, should leave the king aside and approach the prince: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, the Saints are absent from us; but he is foolish who speaks to one who is absent: therefore he is foolish who asks anything of the Saints. *Perhaps you will say* that they see [it] in God; *on the contrary:* the Angels carry up our petitions; but if they were shining in the Word, they would carry them in vain: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:**

1. We ought to honor the Saints of God; but he who prays to someone honors him: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, the Saints can do more in the court of God than any princes can in the court of the king; but it belongs to wisdom that one wishing to obtain [something] in the king's court should entreat the princes: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, the Church commonly does this; and it is established that she does not err: therefore etc.

### Conclusion.

> God has decreed and willed that we should entreat the Saints.

**I respond:** It must be said that God has decreed and willed that we should entreat the Saints, for a threefold cause, namely on account of *our neediness*, *the glory of the Saints*, and *the reverence of God*. — On account of *neediness* in *meriting*, so that where our own merits should not suffice, those of others may plead for us; on account of neediness in *contemplating*, so that we who cannot look upon the highest light in itself may look upon it in the Saints; on account of neediness in *loving*, because wretched man feels himself more affected toward one Saint than even toward God. Therefore, having compassion on *our neediness*, he willed that we should entreat the Saints. — And by this the first [objection] is plain: because he who before was unworthy entreats the Saints, that by their patronage he may be made worthy.

The *second* cause is *the glory of the Saints*: because God wills to glorify his Saints, he wills through them

to work miracles in bodies and salvation in souls, that we may praise them; and this not only through the highest Saints, but also through the lowest; whence, just as one man is healed bodily by invoking Linus and not by invoking Peter, and another the other way round: so also spiritually. — And thus the second [objection] is plain, because God wills that the honor of dulia be given to all the Saints.

The *third* cause is *the reverence of God*, so that the sinner, who has offended God, may as it were not dare to approach God in his own person, but rather implore the patronage of his friends. — And thus the third objection is plain, because it is sometimes good to draw back from God out of reverence.

4. But to that which is objected, that they are absent; it must be said, according to the Master, that things are revealed [to them] by the Word so far as is expedient for our salvation. — And as to what is said of the Angels, that they offer our petitions to God; this is said because they consult him concerning our petitions, that they may know how they ought to minister toward us. — *But if it be asked* how anyone invokes blessed Peter, since he is dead; it must be said that the *spirit* of Peter is invoked; and since the spirit has a glorious and perfect *being*: therefore, lest we seem to diminish his glory, by a *synecdochic* manner of speech we attribute to the part what belongs to the whole, or the speech which we direct to the soul we attribute to the whole. And thus that [objection] is plain.

---