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Intercession
Mediatory prayer — Christ as the unique Mediator; the saints as intercessors who pray alongside us.
Intercession (mesiteia, from mesites, mediator; presveia, from presveuo, to intercede) in Orthodox theology distinguishes between Christ as the unique Mediator (mesites, 1 Timothy 2:5) and the saints as intercessors (presveutai) who pray alongside us. The saints do not mediate grace — that is Christ's exclusive role — but they pray for us, as any living Christian might pray for another. The difference between praying to a living friend and praying to a departed saint is temporal, not ontological: in Christ, the living and the dead are one Body.