In practice, how are Catholic Saints different from Pagan Gods?

Question

Catholics worship one God, but pray to different patron Saints for specific needs. Within the greater mysteries of Paganism is a belief in a divine spirit, but they worship many Gods as specific aspects. In both cases the motivation seems to be to focus the spiritual energy for a specific purpose. So, other than the arogant belief that one system is superior over the other, is there a substantial difference between the two?

Please don't tell me that it's because thePagan Gods don't exist, or that the Catholic God doesn't exist unless you can offer some meaningful proof to back up your claim, and it is relevant to your answer.

I am truly looking for a deep and meaningful understanding of the difference between the two systems. Although I imagine that this is a new concept for many of you which I do hope that you contemplate, that does not negate the fact that I am looking for a real answer from someone who has contemplated these issues before. So please do not leave flippant answers.

Daver's answer just really made me laugh. He expressed that I'm not really looking for understanding while his mind remained closed to any theological possibility other than his own. He makes a good point about intercessory prayer, but others made the same point without being so insulting of the Pagan belief system.

Answer 1

I've seen questions like this a dozen times, and I can understand how someone might draw the wrong conclusions if they don't understand the Catholic faith.

A lot of people attribute prayer exclusively to worship. However, there are several different definitions to the word "prayer". The one most everyone is familiar with is worship prayer, that which goes to God and God alone. There's request prayer, which is asking for something. There's even the kind that you would use among friends, like, "Pray, do tell."

Simply put, everyone who is in heaven is our family. They just happen to be in heaven and not on earth. Prayer to them is request prayer. We're simply asking them to do something for us. It's the same thing as asking a family member here to pray for us.

The type of prayer at issue is worship prayer. In paganism, the prayers given to them ARE for worship, the type of adoration given to a god. This is the difference between pagan prayer and prayers to saints: one is for worship, the other is simply requests.

I think that most people are just not accustomed to thinking of family in spiritual terms, like acknowledging the reality of it, and therefore have a hard time praying to family members who have already made their way to heaven.

Well, I hope my comments were helpful. God bless, and take care.

Answer 2

Pagan Saints

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
In practice, how are Catholic Saints different from Pagan Gods?
Catholics worship one God, but pray to different patron Saints for specific needs. Within the greater mysteries of Paganism is a belief in a divine spirit, but they worship many Gods as specific aspects. In both cases the motivation seems to be to focus the spiritual energy for a specific purpose....

Answer 4

In practice they serve very similar purposes. HOWEVER, Catholic saints are chosen by the Catholic clergy and are all presumed to have first lived as a human being and died, rising to sainthood.

Pagan Gods exist without any sanction from a human organization. My Goddess chose me, spoke directly to me. She is an ancient entity that has existed since the begining of creation.
All saints are under 2000 years old and are ordained by human beings. Saints are the new- kids-on-the-block in comparison to the ancient pagan gods, who existed long before us.

Thats not to say that saints are not holy entities just because they are born from humans. My mother (not a catholic) swears by Saint Christopher.

If you really want a living answer to your question, study Santaria. Pagan gods fused with catholic saints. Well, there you go. Santaria might just render your entire question mute.

Answer 5

Can a Christian use a computer? What will happen to a Christian who uses a computer? The point is: How do you determine the answer to such a question? Do you do it by taking a poll of random people? For your particular question, do you know *why* you want to pray to Catholic saints? Is God more interested in *what* you are doing, or *why* you are doing it? If you think God listens to your prayers, why do you think that praying to God is not sufficient? If you think you need the support from saints, why do you think a particular saint would support you?

Answer 6

There really is not a difference. The God of the Bible commands us not to speak to the dead. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that certain people have died and are now in some sense alive and have some kind of authority over certain areas of our lives. Catholics will deny it to the death but they have placed these 'saints' in a position of godhood. The Bible is very clear that there is only one mediator between God and man and that is Jesus.
When one does just a little research into religious history and where most of the Catholic rituals, feasts and practices came from- it is easy to find the pagan roots. All of the feasts or holidays that are celebrated are pagan in origin and still resemble very closely the pagan traditions.
Unfortunately this is the case with the worship of Mary and all of the saints. The pagans, when converting to Christianity had no desire to give up their female dieties and the dieties that were over the small, specific areas of their lives- instead of converting to Christianity and laying down their false gods and giving up their meat sacrificed to idols, they just christianized their religions, kept things pretty much as they were and just gave them all different names. The goddess Diana became Mary and since in their eyes no one god was big enough to deal with every aspect of our lives, they kept their gods and just called hem pagan saints. Speaking to the dead and petitioning them rather than praying in the name of the one true mediator is completely unbiblical and against the commandments of the one true God.

Answer 7

Catholic Saints are the equivalent to "Minor Gods", where the "Major God" would be God Himself or Mary the Mother.

Pagan Gods, some are seen as "Major Gods" and others as "Minor Gods". There's no set rules to decide which is major or minor, where as in Catholicism, if it's not God or Mary, it's not Major.

Also, when Pagans pray to Gods, they're asking for help to do something. When Catholics pray to Saints, they're asking for something to happen.

Also, certain Saints were actually Pagan Gods beforehand. Such as Brigit, who is actually a Celtic Goddess...

I think that's the difference.


- 17 yo Pagan

Answer 8

This will give you a more accurate answer I believe. God bless.
http://thecripplegate.com/pagan-saints/

Biblically speaking as well, we are never to pray to anyone but God directly. Thus, even if we see "the saints" as a means of communication with God and not as demi-gods, the practice is still completely unbiblical. It really began in 321 AD with Constantine and his attempt to merge all the pagan faiths under the Christian banner thus creating a massive, hybrid church - Roman Catholicism. Mary is called "The Queen of Heaven" by Catholics even though the Bible makes clear she is no god/deity at all. Furthermore, the pagan god Ishtar (pronounced easter - that should make you think) is also called "The Queen of Heaven" in the old testament. Roman Catholicism is wraught with pagan worship. There is reason to believe it is the church Christ refers to in Revelations as the church which fell away giving in to numerous false doctrine and trying to merge them with true doctrine.

God bless. Here is another useful link specifically about Roman Catholics:
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Roman%20Catholicism/catholicism_christian_or_pagan.htm

Answer 9

From what I've been told, Catholics pray to the saints to talk to God for them, they don't worship the saints as gods. When the pagans pray to the different gods, they're praying for something specific FROM that particular god, not for that god to intercede on their behalf with a different god.
Hope that helps somewhat.

Answer 10

The difference is that pagan gods (assuming they exist) have the power to perform the miracles and wonders that are asked for in prayer.

Catholic saints do not have the power to perform miracles. We ask them to pray for us to God for a miracle in our lives. The miracle is not performed by the saint, but by God.

Patron saints are people who are associated with a particular country, occupation, illness, etc because that saint was from that country, was in that occupation, or had that illness and people pray to that particular person because they know that saint is connected to them in some way. This does not mean that someone from Venezuela cannot pray to Saint Patrick