Page:MaryHelpOfChristians.djvu/27

 to venerate  the  memory  of  the  holy  patriarchs and prophets:  "Let  us  now  praise  men  of  renown, and  our  fathers  in  their  generation" (Ecclus. xliv.  1). "And their  names  continue for  ever,  the  glory  of  the  holy  men  remaining unto  their  children"  (Ecclus.  xlvi.  15).

Reason and  Holy  Scripture,  then,  are  in  favor of the  veneration  of  the  saints. We find  it  practised, therefore,  also  in  the  early  Church. She was convinced  from  the  very  beginning  of  its propriety and  utility. As early  as  the  first  century the  memorial  day  of  the  martyrs'  death  was observed by  the  Christians. They assembled  at the  tombs  of  the  sainted  victims  of  pagan  cruelty and celebrated  their  memory  by  offering  up  the Holy Sacrifice  over  their  relics. We know  this not only  from  the  testimony  of  the  earliest ecclesiastical writers,  as  Origen,  Tertullian,  and St. Cyprian, but  also  from  the  history  of  St. Ignatius  the  Martyr  (d.  107),  and  of  St. Polycarp of  Smyrna  (d.  166). Over one  hundred panegyrics of  various  saints  written  by  St. Augustine  are  still  extant.

And why  should  it  not  be  right  and  useful  to invoke  the  intercession  of  the  saints? Everybody deems it  proper  to  ask  a  pious  friend  for  his prayers. St. Paul  the  Apostle  recommended himself to  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  (Rom. xv.  30),  and  God  Himself  commanded  the