Catholics - Where did the knowledge of saints come from?

Saints are mentioned in the Bible.

Revelation 5:8, John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."

Obviously the saints in heaven are praying.

The understanding of saints comes from the early Christian Church, before the Bible was compiled. Inscriptions in the Roman catacombs indicate that the early Christians honored and prayed for their deceased relatives and friends.

Tertullian (211AD) Wrote that Christians offered prayer and the Eucharist for the deceased on the anniversaries of their death.

St. Augustine (354AD - 430AD)

Neither are the souls of the pious dead separated from the Church, which even now is the Kingdom of Christ. Otherwise there would be no remembrance of them at the altar of God in the communication of the Body of Christ.

The early Christians, in praying for their dead were expressing their belief that departed brothers and sisters underwent a purification after death ("purgatory"). Their prayers were prayers that God would have mercy on them during this time of healing and purification.

http://www.catholic.com/library/Praying_to_the_Sai...

vhttp://www.catholicapologetics.org/ap070600.htm

one million] for the zillion occasions, The Hail Mary (many times known as the "Angelical salutation", many times its Latin style, the "Ave Maria") is a Biblical prayer (Luke, I, 28). Now, it's biblical and also you item to it? two] We pray to God and his dominions/saints: Rev eight:three Another angel got here and stood on the altar, conserving a gold censer. He used to be given a best volume of incense to present, in conjunction with the prayers of all of the holy ones, at the gold altar that used to be earlier than the throne. four The smoke of the incense in conjunction with the prayers of the holy ones went up earlier than God from the hand of the angel. So, it's transparent that prayers of saints went as much as God.... transparent because the solar will upward thrust the next day to come... Keep on studying. You are simply at the Psalms, that is the prayer part of the bible.

Look up the word Saint. You'll realize that saints are mentioned throughout the Bible.

"Saints" are mentioned several times in the Bible, though it doesn't necessarily refer to people appointed by some special intermediary as such. Saints in the Bible are often simply believers, and often are those martyred or persecuted for their faith.

The idea of sainthood is not described in either the Jewish or Christian scriptures, but there is evidence of Christian veneration of Jesus and his disciples at a very early stage of Christianity. Later, people persecuted and martyred for their Christian faith were also venerated. After the general persecutions ended, people who lived their lives as monks or as generally holy people were also venerated. All of this is believed to have become the basis for the concept of Christian sainthood.

are you sure you read the bible?

the people shall say, Amen.

DEU 27:18 Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen.

DEU 27:19 Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.

DEU 27:20 Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he uncovereth his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.

DEU 27:21 Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.

DEU 27:22 Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say,

DEU 28:32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand.

JER 48:43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.

JER 48:44 He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation

http://www.facade.com/bibliomancy/personal/?UID=63...

Someone else first, or whoever wrote that chapter in the Bible.