HIS BEATITUDE METROPOLITAN ONUPHRY: WE PRAY BEFORE THE RELICS OF SAINTS BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE POWER OF LIFE

Ukrainian Orthodox Church – August 2016

The primate spoke about this on the day of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, August 9, reports the information-education department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry noted that the Lord endowed the Great Martyr Panteleimon with the gift of healing people’s diseases, and after death he helps all who call upon him in prayer.

The primate said that the head of St. Panteleimon is kept on Mt. Athos, and particles of his relics exist throughout the world and people venerate them with special faith.

On this he noted that sometimes Orthodox believers ask: “Why do we pray before bones? What good can they bring us?”

“If a person lived righteously before God,” explained the primate, “then even though he has left the world, he remains a bearer of life.”

According to the archpastor, we venerate holy relics and receive healing from sacred objects precisely because they all have the power of life.”

“The righteous do not die—they live eternally,” he underlined.