Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On holiday last year we found that we had lost our spare set of car keys. We had them when at Mass at Buckfast Abbey but did not discover their loss until late the following day. Being a long way from home with only one set of car keys cast rather a shadow over the remainder of the holiday. We asked St Anthony the patron saint of lost things for his prayers. As we set off on our way home, we called in at Buckfast Abbey to see if by chance they had been found. As indeed they had! It had been pouring with rain on the Sunday but someone had found the keys in the car park and handed them in. We thanked St Anthony for his prayers and of course thanked God for hearing his prayers and leading us to the keys.
I asked St Anthony for his prayers once more earlier this year when I realised that I had lost my very special ring. I had been at Sainsburys, so six hours later we thought we would ask whether a ring had been found. It hadn’t. But I went to the packaged meat refrigerator, moved a pack of steak, and there, on a tiny ledge above the vents, was the ring. St Anthony’s prayers had been heard once more.
When I was at school we had a fortnightly celebration of Holy Communion in the chapel. At each service one of the boys was asked to lead the prayers. When it was my turn I asked for the intercession of the saint of the day. Afterwards one of the masters reprimanded me, saying ‘the Church of England does not believe in the intercession of saints’.
Given the church I attended on Sundays I was surprised at this, but he was probably thinking of article 22 of the 39 Articles which states “The Romish Doctrine concerning ……. invocation of Saints is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.” The 39 articles are one of the formularies of the Church of England which bear witness to the faith of the church as set forth in scripture and the creeds. So, was I wrong then and are we wrong now to ask the saints to pray for us?
Evangelicals seem to interpret article 22 as forbidding asking for the prayers of the saints. But Anglo-Catholic parishes like All Saints regularly ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray for us, and in the Litany of the Saints at the Easter Vigil Mass we ask for many individual saints, and indeed all holy men and women, to pray for us. We don’t know what people did or said in their private prayers in the centuries after the 39 Articles were published in 1571. However, in the nineteenth century leaders of the Oxford Movement had sought to show that the Church of England was part of the undivided Catholic Church and issued a series of pamphlets known as Tracts. In Tract 90 John Henry Newman argued that the 39 Articles could be interpreted in a catholic way, and in relation to a number of practices including the invocation of saints he wrote ‘Not every doctrine on these matters is a fond thing, but the Romish doctrine. Accordingly, the Primitive doctrine is not condemned in it, unless, indeed, the Primitive Doctrine be the Romish, which must not be supposed.’ He believed that what the Article could be interpreted as condemning was a corrupt mediaeval ‘Romish’ practice, not the practices of the early church. He also noted that ‘By “invocation” here is not meant the mere circumstance of addressing beings out of sight, because we use the Psalms in our daily service, which are frequent invocations of Angels to praise and bless God’.
Although it is not clear just what those Romish practices were, it may be that they were confusing offering to the saints what properly belongs to God. We do not worship saints nor offer them sacrifices. Worship and sacrifice belong to God alone. Newman quoted St Robert Bellarmine, a sixteenth century Jesuit: “It is not lawful to ask of the saints to grant to us, as if they were the authors of divine benefits, glory or grace, or the other means of blessedness……..we never ask anything else, but that at their prayers, benefits may be granted to us by God”
We don’t know how far clergy were influenced by Newman’s arguments but there is no doubt that later in the nineteenth century catholic practices such as prayers to Mary and the saints became more common in Anglo-Catholic liturgy. In the Apostles creed the Church of England expresses its belief in the communion of saints, the living and dead, in heaven and on earth. We frequently ask someone to pray for us on earth so can there be any difference in asking the saints to pray for us in heaven? But we must avoid all superstition. St Anthony, for example, does not have magical powers, nor is he the keeper of a heavenly lost property office. His prayers may not always be answered as we would wish. But we can ask for his prayers just as week in week out we ask Our Lady, ‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen,’
Blessings
Fr Christopher
All Saints' Church, South Wimbledon 