The saints stand as beacons of faith, courage, and unwavering devotion. Venerated across cultures and centuries, these extraordinary individuals are remembered not only for their piety, but also for the impact they had on the Church, inspiring subsequent generations of believers. To appreciate the lives, legacies, and enduring relevance of these holy figures, it is advantageous to consider the experience of the saints in the Church’s prayer, especially in the sacred liturgy.

Much can be gleaned about the Church’s theology of the saints from the texts of her liturgy, particularly the texts for the Solemnity of All Saints, celebrated annually on November 1. In the texts of this particular Mass, we find an exposition of the perennial teachings of our faith with respect to these heavenly intercessors, confirmed elsewhere in the Church’s tradition.

Saints—Reflections of Christ

The Collect, or opening prayer, for Mass on the Solemnity of All Saints begins by venerating the merits of all the saints.¹ In Catholic theology, merit refers to the rewards granted the saints as part of the divine generosity. The merits of the saints, however, refer us to the witness and example of Christ, a sentiment confirmed in the Praenotanda of the Roman Martyrology: “Over the course of time, the lives of the Saints shine forth as a continuation of the memory of the life of Christ, demonstrating the glory of his resurrection in this world, and are presented to the Christian faithful as stars with greater intensity, in that while ‘all things pass away, the glory of the Saints endures.’”² The Collect continues by affirming the central role of the saints as intercessors, leading and encouraging our reconciliation in Christ (see Ephesians 1:10).

The Prayer Over the Offerings during Mass speaks of the saints being “already assured of immortality” (Roman Missal, 973). The Roman Martyrology again confirms that the saints “…are more intimately united with Christ.” In their intimacy and union with Christ, they “witness to the holiness of the Church” while also “ennobling the worship which the Church offers to God, contributing to its edification” (Roman Missal, 973). The immortality that the saints enjoy is their own participation in the merits of Jesus’ resurrection, Christ being the “first fruit” of this mystery (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). The saints, in turn, take the experience of worship to a heightened pitch, contributing to the entire Church in one voice of praise to God.

Towards a Heavenly Homeland

The Preface of the Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints is proper to the solemnity, and it speaks of our “celebrating the festival of the city, the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother” (Roman Missal, 973). In this moment, the Church is directing our attention to heaven, situating our celebration of the saints in the larger experience and hope of heaven, our true home. This resonates with Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical Spe Salvi: “To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and to anticipate the joy of eternal life… this is not a mere dream or illusion.”³ This expectation of heaven is echoed again in the Prayer after Communion, relating our reception of Holy Communion to the hope for heaven: “coming to perfect holiness in the fullness of your love, we may pass from this pilgrim table to the banquet of our heavenly homeland” (Roman Missal, 973). The Mass itself is a participation in our heavenly hope, already experienced in its fullness by the saints in heaven.

Saints in the Roman Canon

The experience of the saints in the Catholic Mass is plentiful. One has only to recall the variety of saints that make up the General Roman Calendar. Additionally, many religious congregations and national episcopal conferences or dioceses add religious or regional saints to their particular calendars. Beyond the calendar, mentions of the saints appear throughout the liturgy, with the Blessed Virgin Mary receiving particular prominence. A curious and unique list of saints that enjoy pride of place in the Mass, however, are those saints in the Roman Canon, or Eucharistic Prayer I. What is the significance of these saints, and why are they included in the official prayer of the Church?

A hallmark of the Roman Canon is the inclusion of the saints in the Communicantes and the Nobis Quoque Peccatoribus. Beginning with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Communicantes, the Church ascribes to her certain prerogatives: glorious, ever virgin, and mother of God.⁴ In the hierarchy of the saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary rightly occupies pride of place. The text moves on to St. Joseph, the universal patron of the Church. Although his inclusion is a later addition to the text of the Roman Canon under Pope Saint John XXIII, devotion to St. Joseph is witnessed to in other prayers of the Mass. The apostles are named immediately after the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, beginning with Peter and Paul. These apostolic witnesses, with the exception of St. Paul, sat with the Lord at the Last Supper when our Lord instituted the Eucharist. The list turns to 12 other saints, martyrs, and early popes, all of Roman pedigree. This list mirrors that of the apostles, and witnesses to the particularly Roman character of the Canon. Only martyr-saints appear in the Canon since devotion to saint-confessors was not as well established in the early Church. The number 12 is particularly significant, since it represents perfection and the universality of the Church.⁵

Beginning with the Nobis Quoque Peccatoribus, the Canon points to 15 other saints, already venerated in Rome where churches in their honor had arisen. The Church desires to relate their witness to the “Holy Apostles and Martyrs” mentioned earlier in the text.⁶ Notable saints in this list include John the Baptist, Stephen, Matthias, and Felicity and Perpetua. Catholics should become familiar with these early witnesses. Saints like Anastasia, for example, are perhaps not as well known but are part of our larger Church. Martyred in the year 304 under the emperor Diocletian, she suffered under her pagan husband for being completely dedicated to works of charity. According to tradition, the popes of the early Church would celebrate the second Mass of Christmas in the church built over the ruins of her home with her feast day also celebrated on December 25.⁷

Litany of the Saints: A Brief History

Litanies are common in the devotional life of Catholics. Many Catholics are familiar with a variety of litanies meant to deepen appreciation among the faithful for Christ and his mysteries: litanies of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Holy Name, of St. Joseph, and for the Dying. The most venerable and easily recognizable litany in our tradition, however, is the Litany of the Saints. This hauntingly beautiful prayer—experienced in the context of many rituals—enjoys a particular pride of place in our lives as Catholics.

Litanies are “a form of prayer consisting of a series of petitions or bidding prayers which are sung or said by a deacon, a priest, or cantors, and to which the people make fixed responses.”⁸ We find instances of litanies in the experience of Israel and the Old Testament, specifically in the Psalms. Litanies have been carried over into the practice of Christianity and are experienced by Catholics on most Sundays in the Kyrie of the Mass. The experiences of litanies in the Christian East are plentiful, with the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom launching almost at once into the Litany of Peace, also called The Great Litany. In the context of Christian liturgy, litanies assume the conscious and active participation of the faithful, drawing them into a deeper experience of the mysteries.

The advent of Christianity and devotion to the saints are almost synonymous. Early Christian hagiographies such as the Martyrdom of Polycarp (155 A.D.) and the later biographies of St. Martin of Tours and St. Benedict, give witness to early Christian devotion to the saints. There exists evidence that an early form of the Litany of the Saints existed in Asia Minor by the third or fourth century. It likely developed later in the Christian West, with evidence of its existence in England and Ireland by the eighth and ninth centuries, respectively. The primitive Litany of the Saints was likely combined with other litanies then in use, one marked by invocations to Christ, and the other marked by the response Te rogamus, audi nos (“We ask you, hear us”).⁹ It was this meeting of litanies that provided the form of what we know today at the Litany of the Saints.

Many invocations of individual saints and other invocations eventually crept into the litany, leading Pope Clement VIII in 1601 to determine the official text of the litany while prohibiting the public use of other litanies unless approved by Rome. In 1969, the Litany of the Saints was updated with the addition of modern saints. The revised version also allows for the addition of the names of other appropriate saints as well as further petitions that may be suitable for a particular occasion.¹⁰

Litany of the Saints Today

Today, the Litany of the Saints finds a home in a number of the Church’s rituals: the celebration of baptism at the Easter Vigil in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, the Order of Baptism for Children, the Commendation of the Dying, the Order of Ordination of Deacons, Priests, and Bishops, the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity, the Rite of Perpetual Profession of Religious Women and Men, the Blessing of Abbots and Abbesses, the Dedication of a Church and an Altar, and on the First Sunday of Lent.¹¹

It is significant that the Litany of the Saints finds a frequent home in rituals and experiences of vocation: either the universal vocation of holiness initiated by baptism and finding its completion in death, or the particular vocations experienced in Holy Orders or Religious Consecration. The beginnings of discipleship, initiated at baptism and accompanied by the saints’ intercession, are confirmed and elevated in the particular vocation of Holy Orders or Religious Consecration with the parallel invocation of the saints in this venerable litany. The conspicuous absence of the Litany of the Saints in the recently revised Order of Celebrating Matrimony, therefore, does seem like a missed opportunity to draw similar connections between baptism and the vocation of marriage.¹²

Witnesses Now and Forever

In the rhythm of the Mass, the saints are not distant historical figures but living witnesses who accompany the Church in her worship. Through the reverent mentions in the Roman Canon and the solemn invocations of the Litany of the Saints, we are reminded that the saints are intimately united with us in the mystery of the liturgy. In honoring the saints, we are drawn deeper into the heart of the Church’s worship, where time and eternity meet, and where we are called to join their eternal song of praise as members of the Body of Christ.

1. Roman Missal: Altar Edition, 3rd ed. (Mahwah, NJ: Magnificat, 2021), 973.
2. Martyrologium Romanum (Vatican City: Typis Vaticanis, 2001), 10. My Translation.
3. Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi: Encyclical Letter on Christian Hope (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2007), 12-13.
4. Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, The Saints Who Pray with Us in the Mass (Kansas City, MO: Romanitas Press, 2017), 16.
5. Cicognani, The Saints Who Pray with Us in the Mass, 16.
6. Cicognani, The Saints Who Pray with Us in the Mass, 26.
7. Cicognani, The Saints Who Pray with Us in the Mass, 30.
8. F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974), s.v. “Litany,” by N. Serarius, S.J.
9. Michael D. Whelan, “The Litany of Saints—Its Place in the Grammar of Liturgy,” Worship 65, no. 3 (1991): 216–223.
10. Ann Ball, A Litany of Saints (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1993), 25.
11. Donald G. LaSalle Jr., “The Litany of the Saints: Practicing Communion with the Holy Ones,” Liturgical Ministry 12, no. 1 (Winter 2003): 20-29; and Paschale Solemnitatis, 23.
12. The USCCB sought a proposed adaptation to include the Litany of the Saints in the revised Order of Celebrating Matrimony as an option following the homily. The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments acknowledged the good intentions which motivated the request, but remarked that such a litany “must be seen as out of harmony with the structure of the marriage celebration through the centuries.” See: USCCB Committee on Divine Worship, Newsletter, July 2015.