Intercession of saints in the context of "Marian devotions"

Intercession or intercessory prayer is the act of praying on behalf of others, or asking a saint in heaven to pray on behalf of oneself or for others.

The Apostle Paul's exhortation to Timothy specified that intercession prayers should be made for all people.

The Liturgy of Saint James is a form of Christian liturgy used by some Eastern Christians of the Byzantine rite and West Syriac Rite. It is developed from an ancient Egyptian form of the Basilean anaphoric family, and is influenced by the traditions of the rite of the Church of Jerusalem, as the Mystagogic Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem imply. It became the primary Divine Liturgy in the Church of Antioch and Church of Jerusalem in the early fifth century, soon becoming supplanted by the liturgies of Saint Basil and Saint John Chrysostom. It is still the principal liturgy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Maronite Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and other churches employing the West Syriac Rite. It is also occasionally used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Melkite Catholic Church. The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church uses a reformed variant of this liturgy, omitting intercession of saints and prayer for the dead.

The liturgy is attributed with the name of James the Just and patriarch among the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem.

Mariology is the Christian theological study of Mary, mother of Jesus. Mariology seeks to relate doctrine or dogma about Mary to other doctrines of the faith, such as those concerning Jesus and notions about redemption, intercession and grace. Christian Mariology aims to place the role of the historic Mary in the context of scripture, tradition and the teachings of the Church on Mary. In terms of social history, Mariology may be broadly defined as the study of devotion to and thinking about Mary throughout the history of Christianity.

There exist a variety of Christian (and non-Christian) views on Mary as a figure ranging from the focus on the veneration of Mary in Roman Catholic Mariology to criticisms of "mariolatry" as a form of idolatry. The latter would include certain Protestant objections to Marian devotion. There are also more distinctive approaches to the role of Mary in Lutheran Mariology and Anglican Marian theology. As a field of theology, the most substantial developments in Mariology (and the founding of specific centers devoted to its study) in recent centuries have taken place within Roman Catholic Mariology. Eastern Orthodox concepts and veneration of Mary are integral to the rite as a whole, (the theotokos) and are mostly expressed in liturgy. The veneration of Mary is said to permeate, in a way, the entire life of the Church as a "dimension" of dogma as well as piety, of Christology as well as of Ecclesiology. While similar to the Roman Catholic view, barring some minor differences, the Orthodox do not see a need for a separate academic discipline of Mariology, as the Mother of God is seen as the self-evident apogee of God's human creation.

The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (from its first words in Latin), also known as the Angelic Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's subsequent visit to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist (the Visitation). It is also called the Angelical Salutation, as the prayer is based on the Archangel Gabriel's words to Mary. The Hail Mary is a prayer of praise for and of petition to Mary, regarded as the Theotokos (Mother of God). Since the 16th century, the version of the prayer used in the Catholic Church closes with an appeal for her intercession. The prayer takes different forms in various traditions and has often been set to music.

In the Latin Church, the Hail Mary forms the basis of other prayers such as the Angelus and the Rosary. In the psalmody of the Oriental Orthodox Churches a daily Theotokion is devoted to ascribing praise to the Mother of God. In addition, the Eastern Orthodox Churches have a common private prayer quite similar to the Hail Mary, though without the explicit request for intercession. The Eastern Catholic Churches follow their respective traditions or adopt the Latin Church version, which is also used by many other Western groups historically branching from the Catholic Church, such as Lutherans, Anglicans, Independent Catholics, and Old Catholics.

In various religions, a saint is a revered person who has achieved an eminent status of holiness, known as sainthood. The word saint comes from the Latin word sanctus, meaning 'holy', and although saint has been applied in other religious contexts, the word has its origins in Christianity. In Christianity, some religious authorities require that a person undergo a formal process of canonization to be recognized as a saint, such as the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. These churches also hold that a saint may intercede on behalf of the living who invoke them in prayer, a belief which is rejected by Protestants. Outside Christianity, the word saint has been extended to include revered figures in Buddhism, Chinese folk religion, Greek polytheism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, and Zoroastrianism.