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Saints As Mediators Of Grace Protecting the World

Saints As Mediators Of Grace Protecting the World

Last updated on: June 18, 2026 at 2:15 am by Henry Karlson

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Saints As Mediators Of Grace Protecting the World 2026-06-18T02:15:59-05:00 Henry Karlson

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The saints mediate grace to the world. Picture: Fra Angelico: The Virgin Mary with the Apostles and Other Saints / Wikimedia Commons

God’s grace works is sent to the world, permeates it, and is activated by people who cooperate with it. Those who do so, those who become holy through it, find the grace they have been given does not just help them, but the world around them. They are to use it, not by taking it in selfishly for their own private good, but by sharing it, using it to help deal with the actions of others, so that in and through them, the world can be protected from the full consequences of everyone’s bad actions. This is why, through the mediation of those who have become holy, through the mediation of the saints, the saints can share the grace needed with the world to slow down, halt, or fix, the harm which grave sins cause to the world, especially the way such sins can join together and form a destructive structure over society which ends up destroying the societies which fall under its control. The saints, in a way, can be said to protect society, and the world at large, but the protection they offer is limited and does not last forever. It is meant to give people time to consider what they have been doing, to repent, and change their ways. It is meant, like all grace, to offer mercy, so that justice can keep to its proper end, which is the promotion of what is good. Eventually, the saints will end their intercession, and the grace they provide will come to an end. How their intercession ends will differ from saint to saint and circumstance to circumstance. Sometimes, it is their presence in a particular place and time which provides the grace, so that when they move on, or die, their protection moves on with them. Sadly, as sin increases in a society, there will be fewer who are holy, and so fewer who are capable of such intercession, and when a saint realizes this, they will realize it is time to move on, lest they face, with the rest of their society, the doom social sin has established for that society. Sometimes, they might just realize it is time to stop offering society their protection, seeing it is doing no good. Often, the protection a particular person is able to give is limited, so that when sin is great, it requires many holy men and women to intercede and share their grace to the world, in order to prevent some great catastrophe from occurring.

Scripture gives us examples of saints intervening for others; perhaps one of the greatest is Moses who was able to stop God’s “wrath” from destroying the children of Israel. Similarly, we sometimes are shown how the presence of saints protect the place they live in. For examples, Genesis presents this to us with the story of Abraham, Lot, and Sodom and Gomorrah. The hellish hate and self-indulgence of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah would have led to their own self-destruction long before it did had it not been for the fact that Lot and his family lived there. When it became so bad that Lot could no longer preserve the city with the share of grace he had, Abraham, and then Lot, was warned of the destruction which was going to take place. Abraham, acting like a holy man, tried to intercede for the cities, adding to Lot’s grace but it was not enough:

Then Abraham drew near, and said, “Wilt thou indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt thou then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” And the LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Abraham answered, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Wilt thou destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him, and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.”

Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it” (Gen. 18: 23-32 RSV).

Abraham, a holy saint, wanted to have Sodom and Gomorrah saved from destruction.He tried to see what he could do to save them. God told him that had there been enough saints living within them, their presence would saved the cities. But, as God indicated, that was not the case. Only Lot and his family were left in Sodom. Lot, it was shown, despite some flaws, probably influenced by where he lived, still followed God and God’s ways; he still sought to live a righteous life as shown in the way he took care of strangers visiting the city. Because his presence was not enough to save the cities, Lot was warned that he, along with his family, would have to leave if they didn’t want to suffer and and experience the destruction which was to come. While we often look to the judgment, and the sin, we often forget how Abraham and Lot both did their best to prevent that destruction, and that, for some time, their mediation was successful. The problem is, the people within Sodom and Gomorrah continued along the path of sin, and their sin continued to increase and get worse, until Abraham and Lot could do no more. Why did God wait so long? Because, Abraham and Lot, and the grace mediated through them, gave the people a chance to repent, to change their ways, and prevent their own destruction (as the presence of and warning of other saints, like Jonah with Nineveh, was able to do). What is important is that holy men and women, thanks to the grace they have been given, can and do serve as mediators of grace, and if there is enough of them, places which would otherwise self-destruct do not, if but for a time. With this line of thought, Rabbi Adin Steinsalts tell us:

The important thing is that, from the point of view of divine justice, the world cannot continue to exist except if there a certain number of persons who justify its existence. As an archetype, we have the story of Abraham and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The question is: Why would any place that is full of wickedness be allowed to perpetuate itself? And the answer is that a minimal number of righteous persons can compensate for the evil of the many and check the course of retribution.[1]

Christians have often understood something similar. When St. Antony the Great died, it was said he had served as a mediator for his time, protecting and preserving many through his prayers, and it was up to his successors to do the same. It is something all who would seek to be saints must understand. To be a saint, they must be looking to the world with love, hoping to protect it instead of cursing it and wanting its destruction. Each saint, in their own way, engages the grace they have been given; by it, they become the salt of the earth, protecting and preserving it, and the people around them, giving everyone a chance for conversion and reformation:

Whenever the saints, in their following Christ, plumb the depths of human existence, there appears the perennial truth of the Gospel. They break the boundaries of their times and become contemporaries of every time and every person in search of their star. And because of this, they are neither ancient nor modern; they are simply true, always true, carriers of that truth that captures the crucial questions of existence in every age, as well as the very truth of Christ. [2]

Now, it is said, the saints, when they die, stop mediating their grace. What that means, though, is that they stop mediating a particular kind of grace, the kind which is found in and with them, the kind in which their presence alone helps bring protection and mercy to those around them. But we must also remember, though they die, they continue to live in Christ. God is a God of the living and not the dead. They are alive in Christ, having been given a new modality of being. They continue, as they did while on earth, to work on our behalf, to mediate for us, especially if we ask for their help. They continue to follow Christ, breaking through the boundaries established by sin, that is, the structures of sin; and in doing so, they continue to share various graces to the world, inspiring those who share in them to be like them, so that those who receive their grace can become holy like them, holy men and women who, in their own way, will work at least to preserve the world for another generation, if not make it a better place.

[1] “After the Bright Light of Revelation: An Interview with Rabbi Adin Steinsalts” in The Inner Journey: Views from the Jewish Tradition. Ed. Rabbi Jack Bemporad (Sandpoint, ID: Morning Light Press, 2007), 13.

[2] Leonardo Boff, Saint Francis. Trans. John W. Diercksmeier (New York: Crossroad, 1989), 1.

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