Do Orthodox worship Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos) and the saints?
In our services and in our piety we praise those who were with Christ on earth and whom we know to be “alive” in Christ’s presence now although departed from the body (the saints)! Hebrews 12:1 writes, “…we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” In God and His Church there is no division between the living and the departed. As we pray for one another and ask for one another’s prayers, so we ask the faithful departed to pray for us and we continue to pray for them out of love. After the Holy Trinity, we especially venerate the Mother of God (Theotokos in Greek), the Blessed Virgin Mary. This praise has a biblical basis (Luke 1: 28; 42-43; 48) and is due her because of her unique role as the “birth-giver” of God. By giving honor to the Mother of God we honor the Son whom she bore. We never forget that Our Lord was truly incarnate, that He truly had a human Mother, and a real family history! We reject any notion that Our Lord simply passed through Mary as water through a pipe,
