Saint worship and the worship of Mary : why devotion to the saints makes sense

A provocative title, an excellent apologetics work. Protestants call it idolatry and modernists see it as quaint superstition, but in these lucid pages written over a century ago, Catholic author Orestes Brownson demonstrates that veneration of Mary and the saints is not merely permissible; it's essential for every Christian who yearns to worship God in spirit and in truth. Worship comes from the Anglo-Saxon word weorthscipe which means "worthy of honor." And Mary and the saints are worthy of honor more than all other created beings. As Christians praise God in the majesty of the heavens and of the earth, so they praise Him by venerating Him in His saints, who are also the work of His hands and whose good deeds are possible only by His grace. Such praise is not idolatrous because idolatry is the act of rendering to created things the worship that is due to God alone. Catholics do