Walking With the Saints
The Communion of Saints in the Celtic Orthodox Church
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”
“Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem… and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”
The saints are not distant myths from a forgotten age. They are witnesses to what God can accomplish in human lives transformed by faith, repentance, prayer, endurance, sacrifice, and holiness in Christ.
Within the Celtic Orthodox Church of the Culdees, the communion of saints means that the Church is one Body in Christ across generations. We remember the saints because their lives encourage us to walk faithfully in our own generation.
This does not mean that the saints replace Christ.
They belong to Him.
Their holiness is His work in them.
Their victories proclaim His grace.
And their place within the heavenly Church points us toward the same Lord whom they served on earth.
The Church in Heaven and on Earth
Scripture does not describe Christian worship as something occurring in isolation from heaven.
Hebrews says that believers have come to:
- the heavenly Jerusalem,
- an innumerable company of angels,
- the Church of the firstborn,
- God the Judge of all,
- “the spirits of just men made perfect,”
- and Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant.
The Christian Church therefore understands herself as one communion gathered around God.
Those still living on earth continue their earthly struggle.
Those who have departed in Christ belong to the hope of resurrection.
The saints are remembered as faithful witnesses who completed that struggle and now belong to the heavenly assembly.
For the complete historical study of how this belief developed from heavenly communion and commemoration into acknowledged intercession, direct invocation, protective language, and the later boundaries placed upon devotion, see:
The Communion of Saints in Early Christian and Celtic Worship: Heavenly Communion, Intercession, Invocation, and the Historical Boundaries of Devotion
That larger study examines the Antiphonary of Bangor, Iona, the Gallican tradition, early Insular prayer books, the Stowe Missal, the Diptychs, prayer for the departed, and the historical development of ora pro nobis and related forms.
Why We Remember the Saints
Scripture itself tells Christians to learn from faithful examples:
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”
And:
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses…”
The ancient Celtic Church preserved the memory of missionaries, confessors, bishops, monks, mothers, kings, poets, martyrs, and holy laborers.
They were remembered not merely because they belonged to history, but because their lives demonstrated:
- courage,
- repentance,
- purity,
- prayerfulness,
- fasting,
- charity,
- missionary zeal,
- endurance under persecution,
- and faithfulness to Christ.
The purpose of studying saints is therefore not merely to know their names.
It is to follow good examples.
Saints in Daily Christian Worship
The remembrance of saints may appear naturally throughout Christian life:
- in morning and evening prayer,
- in Eucharistic worship,
- on feast days,
- in the daily calendar,
- in the Diptychs,
- in historical readings,
- and within private household devotion.
The saints remind the Church that holiness is not theoretical.
Men and women actually lived the Christian life in difficult circumstances and left examples worthy of imitation.
The English Liturgy and the Departed
Within the classical English liturgical tradition, the faithful departed are remembered before God in prayers such as:
“And we also bless Thy holy Name for all Thy servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear…”
The prayer remains directed toward God and ends by confessing Jesus Christ as:
“our only Mediator and Advocate.”
This preserves an important Christian distinction.
The departed may be remembered.
The saints may be honored.
The heavenly Church may be acknowledged.
Yet God remains the center of worship and Christ remains the Mediator of the New Covenant.
The Celtic Missal, Diptychs, and Ancient Commemoration
The older Celtic liturgical world preserved an especially rich practice of named remembrance.
Within Celtic and related Gallican traditions we find:
- commemorations of saints,
- prayers for the living,
- prayers for the departed,
- lists of names,
- Eucharistic remembrance,
- litanies,
- and the Diptychs, the great commemoration of those remembered before God.
The purpose was not to collapse every Christian into the same category.
The living were prayed for.
The departed were commended to God.
The saints were remembered with thanksgiving and, in later forms, their prayers could be requested.
Together these practices expressed the conviction that the Church remains one Body in Christ.
St. Aengus the Culdee and the Daily Memory of the Saints
Few figures represent the Celtic tradition of remembrance better than St. Aengus the Culdee, one of the great Irish martyrologists.
In the opening of his Martyrology, his focus remains firmly upon Christ:
“Sanctify, O Christ! my words:
O Lord of the seven heavens!
Grant me the gift of wisdom,
O Sovereign of the bright sun!”
He continues:
“May I receive the full benefit
Of praising Thy royal hosts.Thy royal hosts I praise
Because Thou art my Sovereign.”
This beautifully summarizes the proper relationship.
The saints are Christ’s royal host.
They are praised because of the Sovereign whom they served.
The ancient Irish martyrologies preserved saints according to the days of the year, embedding historical memory into the daily rhythm of worship.
That same principle continues whenever Christians keep a saints calendar, study the lives of holy men and women, or commemorate the witnesses associated with a particular day.
More Than One Thousand Celtic Saints
The Celtic churches preserved an extraordinary number of saints from Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the wider Celtic Christian world.
Our continuing research includes more than one thousand Celtic saints from the period before Augustine’s mission to England alone, together with later Celtic and Western witnesses.
These may be studied:
- calendrically, according to their feast days,
- chronologically,
- geographically,
- through their surviving Lives,
- through monastic and missionary traditions,
- and through the liturgical sources that preserved their memory.
The purpose is not merely to enlarge a collection of names.
It is to restore awareness of the breadth and depth of the ancient Celtic Christian inheritance.
Intercession Without Losing Christ
Because Christians have sometimes disagreed strongly about the invocation of saints, it is important to distinguish the ancient doctrine itself from later misunderstandings or excesses.
Historic Christianity developed several forms of saintly remembrance:
- worshipping God together with the heavenly saints,
- commemorating them before God,
- acknowledging their prayers,
- asking for their intercession,
- and, in later devotional language, asking for their help or protection.
These expressions are not all grammatically identical, nor did they all become common at the same time.
Neither does the acceptance of saintly intercession mean that every devotional practice ever associated with Mary or the saints must be accepted without examination.
The Church itself repeatedly placed boundaries around these practices.
For the companion study documenting how the Church corrected both excessive devotion and excessive rejection, see:
Church Boundaries on Devotion to Mary and the Saints
That study examines Laodicea, Epiphanius, Augustine, John of Damascus, the iconoclast controversy, Nicaea II, Trent, Vatican II, and later Catholic teaching on abuses, superstition, exaggeration, legitimate honor, and intercession.
The historic principle is neither deification nor erasure.
It is:
Honor without deification.
Intercession without rival mediation.
Remembrance without idolatry.
And all things directed toward the fuller praise of Christ and God.
Walking With the Saints Today
To walk with the saints does not mean attempting to live in the past.
It means remembering those who walked faithfully before us and allowing their examples to strengthen Christian life now.
We remember the missionary because Christians still have a Gospel to proclaim.
We remember the martyr because Christians still need courage.
We remember the monk because Christians still need prayer and discipline.
We remember the faithful bishop because the Church still needs shepherds.
We remember holy families because Christian homes still need examples.
And we remember the departed because Christian love does not suddenly become meaningless at the grave.
The communion of saints therefore remains deeply practical.
It calls Christians to:
- remember,
- learn,
- imitate,
- pray,
- persevere,
- and continue the work handed down by faithful generations before us.
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Study Library and Related Resources
This page serves as a gateway into our wider studies of the saints, Celtic worship, liturgy, and the communion of the Church across heaven and earth.
Foundational Studies
- The Communion of Saints in Early Christian and Celtic Worship
Our full historical study of heavenly communion, intercession, invocation, the Stowe Missal, the A–E framework, and the historical boundaries of devotion. - Church Boundaries on Devotion to Mary and the Saints
A companion study showing how the Church, East and West, corrected both devotional excess and the opposite error of rejecting legitimate honor and intercession. - As the Head Is Inseparable From the Living Body, So Are His Saints
A theological study of the unity of Christ and His Body.
Celtic Liturgical Studies
- The Celtic Missal of Maelruain and the Stowe Tradition
- The Stowe Missal and the Emergence of Direct Saint-Petition
- Prayer for the Departed in the Celtic Church and Early Christianity
- Primitive Worship and the Prayer Book
- studies on the Diptychs, memorial prayer, and Celtic liturgical practice
Celtic Saints and Martyrology
- The Life and Works of St. Aengus the Culdee Hagiographus
- Celtic saints calendars and feast-day studies
- chronological studies of Celtic saints
- regional and monastic saint traditions
- biographies and Vita studies
CelticSaints.org
For continuing study of the Celtic saints themselves, visit:
Our wider work includes more than one thousand Celtic saints from before Augustine’s mission to England, together with later Celtic and Western saints arranged through calendar, historical, and regional study.
Live Commemorations and Future Studies
From time to time we also hold and publish:
- saints-day reflections,
- live commemorations,
- historical presentations,
- liturgical studies,
- feast-day materials,
- calendar resources,
- and continuing research into Celtic and Western saints.
The purpose of these studies is not merely antiquarian.
It is to remember the faithful witnesses of Christ, learn from their lives, and preserve the Christian inheritance they handed down.
- The Communion of Saints in Early Christian and Celtic Worship
Conclusion
The communion of saints is ultimately not a doctrine about replacing Christ with other mediators.
It is a doctrine about the fullness of Christ’s Body.
The saints testify to what His grace accomplished.
The faithful departed remain within the hope of His resurrection.
The earthly Church joins the heavenly Church in the praise of God.
And Christians still living are called to follow the good examples left by those who went before them.
The proper response to the saints is therefore neither fear nor exaggeration.
It is to see them where they belong:
in Christ, belonging to Christ, praising Christ, and pointing the Church toward Christ.
May their examples strengthen us to walk faithfully in our own generation until we too become partakers of:
“the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”