by
Damien F. Mackey
1. Antediluvian Origins
Worship of famous antediluvian ancestors, both male and female, appears to account for at least some of it. Ancestor worship, or veneration of the dead, is still common today in parts of the world.
We Catholics venerate, as saints, holy dead people, though we do not worship them, but only God.
Some obvious antediluvians who were apotheosised (i.e., raised to the rank of gods) - {see “deified patriarchs” below} - were:
Noah
Probably the Egyptian god, Nu, or Nun:
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=d88f2f9151e47029&hl=en&rlz=1C1RXQR_en-gbAU979AU979&q=god+nu+water&source=lnms&fbs=ABzOT_BwhWbvgbq2-
“Nu ("Watery One") or Nun ("The Inert One in ancient Egyptian religion, is the personification of the primordial watery abyss …”, whose wife, Nut, would then be Noah’s wife: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_aboard_Noah%27s_Ark
“The Genesis Rabba midrash lists Naamah, the daughter of Lamech and sister of Tubal-Cain, as the wife of Noah …”.
Noah was also represented by the Babylonian hero, Ziusudra (Utnapishtim).
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ziusudra
“Ziusudra, in Mesopotamian Religion, rough counterpart to the biblical Noah as survivor of a god-sent flood. When the gods had decided to destroy humanity with a flood, the god Enki (Akkadian Ea), who did not agree with the decree, revealed it to Ziusudra, a man well known for his humility and obedience. Ziusudra did as Enki commanded him and built a huge boat, in which he successfully rode out the flood. Afterward, he prostrated himself before the gods An (Anu) and Enlil (Bel), and, as a reward for living a godly life, Ziusudra was given immortality. See Utnapishtim”.
The name, Noah, Nu, is found again in Manu, who is the Hindu version of Noah:
https://www.skippingstones.org/wp/
“Manu was a sage who dedicated his life to faithfully serving and worshiping Hindu gods. The Lord Vishnu, the preserver in the Hindu trinity, chose Manu to be the survivor of a flood that would cleanse the world”.
There are Noah legends, in fact, from all over the world.
AI Overview
“In Greek mythology, Deucalion is the figurehead of the great flood myth, comparable to Noah's Ark in the Bible”.
Japheth
Noah’s son, Japheth, is said to have been the father of the Indo-Europeans peoples.
Hindu mythology knows him as Pra Japati (Father Japheth), the Lord of Creation.
The Romans knew him as Jupiter (Japheth), who was Zeus to the Greeks, Baal to the Canaanites.
Japheth was, like his father, Noah, an antediluvian who continued to live on into the post-diluvial world. He is one of the eight progenitors of the human race (I Peter 3:20), corresponding to Egypt’s Ogdoad, or eight primordial deities associated with the water chaos.
Tubal Cain
Again a biblical character, a descendant of Cain, and a son of Lamech.
Tubal Cain (Tuval Cain) was a smith, and master of metallurgy.
He is found in Roman mythology under the like name and attributes of Vulcanus, which name we tend to shorten to Vulcan (= TuVALCAIN).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(mythology)
“Vulcan (Latin: Vulcanus, in archaically retained spelling also Volcanus, both pronounced [wʊɫˈkaːnʊs]) is the god of fire …. including the fire of volcanoes, deserts, metalworking and the forge in ancient Roman religion and myth. He is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer. …”.
We meet Vulcan again in Greek mythology as Hephaestus, whom the Greeks, in turn, identified with the Egyptian god, Ptah.
In Norse mythology, this mighty god is known as Thor.
AI Overview
“In mythology, Thor and Vulcan represent similar roles as powerful gods of war and craftsmanship. Thor is the Norse god of thunder and lightning, known for his strength and skill in wielding his hammer, Mjolnir. In Roman mythology, Vulcan (also known as Hephaestus in Greek mythology) is the god of fire, blacksmiths, and artisans, responsible for creating weapons and armor. Both figures are associated with forging, strength, and combat, although their specific roles and characteristics differ slightly within their respective mythologies”.
Adam
Perhaps less obvious may be the first man, Adam, as the Egyptian god, Atum.
https://www.eoht.info/page/Atum%20and%20Adam
“In religio-mythology, Atum and Adam refers to the conjecture that the Biblical man Adam … is a rescript [sic] of the story of the Egyptian god Atum, who, according to Heliopolis creation myth (2500BC) [sic], raised the first earth land mound (benben or pyramid) out of the water or was the first god to come into existence in the Nun, before the land-mound arose.
Overview
In 1861, Daniel Haigh, in his The Conquest of Britain by the Saxons, via citation to the work of “Mr. Osburn”, was making the Atum and Adam connection as follows: (Ѻ)
“The mythology of Egypt supplies most interesting confirmation of this theory that the gods of heathenism were deified patriarchs, and shows the system extended still farther, so as to embrace even their forefathers who lived before the flood. Thus Atum, ‘King of the gods’, ‘Lord of the worlds’, ‘god of the setting sun’, and ‘of the lower world’, the judge of souls departed, whom he calls children, whilst they call him father, is evidently Adam.”
In 1907, Gerald Massey, in his Ancient Egypt, makes the Atum to Adam connection as follows: [1]
-
“The so-called ‘legends of creation’ would be more correctly termed the ‘legend of human evolution’, although in a different sense from that of Darwinian development. As Semite, they came to us in the latest and least genuine form, with no clue to any true interpretation. In a Maori myth, man was created by the god Tiki from red clay. This he kneaded with his own blood, or with red water from the swamps. Man is Atum in Egyptian, Admu in Assyrian, and Adam in Hebrew.”
Later, in his decoding of the story of Cain and Abel, Massey connects Atum and Adam more explicitly as follows: [1]
Atum (father)
Set & Osiris | → Horus (legitimate heir)
Adam (father)
Cain & Abel | → Seth (legitimate heir)
What we are immediately finding is that the primary antediluvian gods were common to the major cultures of the ancient world, though under different names and with their local variations and idiosyncracies.
Some names, like Osiris for instance, appear to connect, as a composite, to a series of biblical characters:
Legends about the Egyptian god, Osiris, appear to have elements in common with the accounts of various biblical (Genesis) characters, such as Noah and Joseph, but also of the baby Moses as narrated in the Book of Exodus. Osiris is considered to be a most ancient of ancient gods. Can we find even earlier (prior to Noah) biblical reminiscences of him?
Osiris has also been likened to Cain, the son of Adam and Eve.
Egyptian myth and religion continue to be a complete puzzle even to the Egyptological experts. Thus we find that the likes of Sir Alan Gardiner and John Walton were at something of a loss to account for (J. Walton): “… the chief cultural content of Egyptian civilization, its religion, its mythological features …”, and (A. Gardiner): “The origin of Osiris remains from me an insoluble mystery”.
Fr. A. Mallon had tried to simplify things when explaining in “The Religion of Ancient Egypt” (Studs. in Comparative Religion, CTS, 1956, p. 3) that whilst the Egyptians were “admittedly polytheistic, with a marked inclination towards idolatry … this plurality was of titles rather than of gods”: … this multiplic¬ity [of gods] was but superficial it was a multiplicity of titles, not of gods. The supreme Creator god was called Atum at Heliopolis; at Memphis, Ptah; at Hermopolis … Thoth; Amon at Thebes; Horus at Edfu; Khnum at Elephantine; but if we examine them minutely, we recognize at once that these divinities have everywhere a like nature, the same attributes and properties, an identical role. They differ only in external imagery and in a few accidental features.
From the point of view of correlating these gods to some extent to the early antediluvian characters of the Book of Genesis, where I think they originated, it does simplify matters whenever there is available an easy phonetic name correlation, such as:
Adam = Atum;
Nu = Noah;
Seth = Seth (Set)
Having said that, I, however - despite the name similarity - cannot see, in the case of Set(h), any positive connection between the biblical patriarch and the Egyptian god.
An interesting historical situation: Some Egyptologists have suggested that the early dynastic ruler of Egypt, Peribsen, had actually tried (in Akhnaton fashion) to introduce monotheism into Egypt. In the case of Peribsen, it was the desert (Hebrew?) god, Seth. Was the name based upon the biblical Seth of whom we read in Genesis 4:26: “To Seth also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then people began to call upon the name of the Lord”?
Neith
The goddess Athena, whose antediluvian origins some would trace to Naamah, the sister of Tubalcain, was, as Neith, a most ancient goddess of the Egyptian pantheon.
In “A black Athena?”, I further wrote of:
… the Greek goddess Athena, whom biblical aficionados would identify in her origins with the biblical Eve, or with Naamah, the wife of Ham. Thus Roy Schulz:
http://www.book.dislib.info/b1-history/4036992-14-compiled-roy-schulz-social-studies-department-imperial-schools-pa.php
…. Naamah was a famous individual in the pre-Flood world. Her brother was Tubalcain, a great military leader, and she took on some of his war-like characteristics. The ancient Greeks, who applied to her the name Athena, pictured her brandishing a spear and regarded her as a goddess of war. She is said to have make a war on the giants during the lifetime of Tubalcain. She had an interesting variety of characteristics because she was also pictured as being a goddess of wisdom as well as of war, in addition to being especially famous as the goddess of weaving or womanly industry. In no connection is she ever pictured as a harlot of prostitution as was Venus of Aphrodite.
This is the woman who Ham married.
She is the one who carried the WAY OF CAIN THROUGH THE FLOOD! The line of Cain did not die with the Flood, as might easily be supposed! A descendant of Cain and Lamech lived on into the post-Flood world. It was none other than this Naamah to whom God calls our attention in Genesis 4:22. This is why her name is in the Bible! From Ham and Naamah came the Negroid stock after the Flood -- the line of Cush (Gen. 10:6). ….
[End of quote]
In Wikipedia, we read of the interesting goddess Neith:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neith
Neith (… also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early goddess in the Egyptian pantheon. She was the patron deity of Sais, where her cult was centered in the Western Nile Delta of Egypt and attested as early as the First Dynasty. …. The Ancient Egyptian name of this city was Zau. ….
Symbolism …
Neith was a goddess of war and of hunting and had as her symbol, two arrows crossed over a shield. However, she is a far more complex goddess than is generally known, and of whom ancient texts only hint of her true nature. In her usual representations, she is portrayed as a fierce deity, a human female wearing the Red Crown, occasionally holding or using the bow and arrow, in others a harpoon. In fact, the hieroglyphs of her name are usually followed by a determinative containing the archery elements, with the shield symbol of the name being explained as either double bows (facing one another), intersected by two arrows (usually lashed to the bows), or by other imagery associated with her worship. Her symbol also identified the city of Sais. ….
This symbol was displayed on top of her head in Egyptian art. In her form as a goddess of war, she was said to make the weapons of warriors and to guard their bodies when they died.
Mackey’s comment: Most interesting here is Neith’s connection with “the Great Flood” and “the primeval waters”:
As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the was scepter (symbol of rule and power) and the ankh (symbol of life). She is also called such cosmic epithets as the "Cow of Heaven", a sky-goddess similar to Nut, and as the Great Flood, Mehet-Weret (MHt wr.t), as a cow who gives birth to the sun daily. In these forms, she is associated with creation of both the primeval time and daily "re-creation". As protectress of the Royal House, she is represented as a uraeus, and functions with the fiery fury of the sun, In time, this led to her being considered as the personification of the primordial waters of creation. She is identified as a great mother goddess in this role as a creator. As a female deity and personification of the primeval waters, Neith encompasses masculine elements, making her able to give birth (create) without the opposite sex. She is a feminine version of Ptah-Nun, with her feminine nature complemented with masculine attributes symbolized with her association with the bow and arrow. In the same manner, her personification as the primeval waters is Mehetweret (MHt wr.t), the Great Flood, conceptualized as streaming water, related to another use of the verb sti, meaning 'to pour'.
Neith is one of the most ancient deities associated with ancient Egyptian culture. Flinders Petrie (Diopolis Parva, 1901) noted the earliest depictions of her standards were known in predynastic periods, as can be seen from a representation of a barque bearing her crossed arrow standards in the Predynastic Period, as displayed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Her first anthropomorphic representations occur in the early dynastic period, on a diorite vase of King Ny-Netjer of the Second Dynasty, found in the Step Pyramid of Djoser (Third Dynasty) as Saqqara. That her worship predominated the early dynastic periods is shown by a preponderance of theophoric names (personal names which incorporate the name of a deity) within which Neith appears as an element. Predominance of Neith's name in nearly forty percent of early dynastic names, and particularly in the names of four royal women of the First Dynasty, only emphasizes the importance of this goddess in relation to the early society of Egypt, with special emphasis upon the Royal House. In the very early periods of Egyptian history, the main iconographic representations of this goddess appear to have been limited to her hunting and war characteristics, although there is no Egyptian mythological reference to support the concept this was her primary function as a deity.
….
It appears from textual/iconographic evidence she was something of a national goddess for Old Kingdom Egypt, with her own sanctuary in Memphis indicated the political high regard held for her, where she was known as "North of her Wall," as counterpoise to Ptah’s "South of his Wall" epithet. While Neith is generally regarded as a deity of Lower Egypt, her worship was not consistently located in that region. ….
Neith's symbol and part of her hieroglyph also bore a resemblance to a loom, and so in later syncretisation of Egyptian myths by the Greek ruling class, she also became goddess of weaving. At this time her role as a creator conflated with that of Athena, as a deity who wove all of the world and existence into being on her loom.
Mackey’s comment: The article proceeds to tell of Neith’s great antiquity:
Neith was considered to be eldest of the gods, and was appealed to as an arbiter in the dispute between Horus and Seth. Neith is said to have been "born the first, in the time when as yet there had been no birth." (St. Clair, Creation Records: 176). In the Pyramid Texts, Neith is paired with Selket as braces for the sky, which places these two deities as the two supports for the heavens (see PT 1040a-d, following J. Gwyn Griffths, The Conflict of Horus and Seth, (London, 1961) p. 1). This ties in with the vignette in the Contendings of Seth and Horus when Neith is asked by the gods, as the most ancient of goddesses, to decide who should rule. In her message of reply, Neith selects Horus, and says she will "cause the sky to crash to the earth" if he is not selected.
AI Overview
“In the ancient world, Wisdom was often seen as a Goddess. Pre-dynastic Egypt called her Neith, for the Libyans and the Greeks she was owl-eyed Athena, the Romans called her Minerva, and throughout the Islamic Middle East she is Al-Hakim”.
Although many of these gods had their origins as human beings in the antediluvian world, they did go on to evolve at their respective cult centres, picking up attributes and legends of later historical heroes, most notably biblical ones.
We have already pointed out the example of Osiris in this regard.
And Gary Greenberg has listed some striking similarities between Neith and the prophetess Deborah: http://ggreenberg.tripod.com/writings/w-neith-deb.htm
Compare elements of this hymn with the Song of Deborah.
1. Deborah and Neith both talk about their role as a mother;
2. Deborah and Neith each talk about how their actions led to an increase in population;
3. In both stories we find a rebellion of new gods battling against heaven;
4. In both stories, the mother, in her role as mother, promise to intervene in the fighting;
5. In both stories, the mother fights on the side of the chief deity;
6. In both stories there is talk about the enemy being struck down; and
7. In both stories the side representing the chief deity wins.
Additionally, we note that in the prose version, Barak is made effective by Deborah’s participation, and, in the Hymn to Neith, Re was made effective and vigorous by the actions of the goddess. ….
Horus, for his part, will absorb elements from the Book of Exodus, from baby Moses:
https://www.thetorah.com/article/moses-is-modeled-on-horus-and-sargon-but-his-story-is-about-king-hezekiah “Moses and Horus are hidden in thickets on the Nile by their mothers … Yet each survives to become a ruler of their people”.
And Moses was as late as c. 1500 BC.
Another point is that the origins of the most ancient gods is primarily biblically-based, in the sense that these were originally biblically attested patriarchs and matriarchs. Therefore they are not essentially western (Greek, Roman), though they were later absorbed into western pantheons.
Take the powerful Greek god, Poseidon, for instance.
His name appears to have been derived from the Ancient Near East, from Pa-Sidon, “He of Sidon”.
In The Odyssey, Poseidon becomes the relentless pursuer of Odysseus (read Tobit); a story that the Greeks (Homer) appropriated from the Book of Tobit, with its demon, Asmodeus.
Again, The Odyssey has the goddess Athena disguised as the mentor of Telemachus (read Tobias), Mentes, appropriating the male appearance, and guidance, of the angel Raphael to/for Tobit and his son, Tobias.
Likewise, The Iliad and The Aeneid, have some striking Greco-Roman appropriations of the thrilling Judith (biblical) drama.
The origins and inspiration are invariably non-western.
Also to be considered are the:
Titans and Titanesses
These appear to overlap, in part, with some of the antediluvian heroes already mentioned (e.g. Japheth/Iapetus):
https://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/titans.html
I. MAJOR TITANS : THE URANIDES & IAPETIONIDES
The most important of the Titan gods were the twelve Uranides (Cronus, Oceanus, Iapetus, Hyperion, Crius, Coeus, Rhea, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Themis and Mnemosyne) and the four Iapetionides (Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius). Of these only … eight … appear in ancient art.
II. MINOR TITANS : THE HYPERIONIDES, COEIDES & CREIONIDES
Many of the children and grandchildren of the Titans also bore the name of Titan.
These included the Hyperionides (Helius, Selene and Eos), the Coeides (Leto, Asteria and Hecate) and the Creionides (Pallas, Astraeus and Perses). The last three were obscure and do not appear in ancient art.
The inspiration for them may again, at least in part, have come from the Bible, from the Giants and the Nephilim of the Book of Genesis.
Prometheus is interesting, he being the father of the Greek Noah, Deucalion (above).
2. Early Post-diluvian Origins
The outstanding character here is Nimrod.
Not too long after the Flood there arose a mighty hunter-conqueror known as Nimrod.
He, too, was divinised.
Nimrod might mark the beginning of a series of heroes and notables down through ancient history who were deified after the Flood, such as the Pharaohs of Egypt, sons of Ra, some Greco-Roman emperors and kings of the New Testament, and wondrous thaumaturgists and sages such as Imhotep, Djedefhor and Amenhotep son of Hapu.
Again, these were largely biblical characters, as we shall find.
Some have made bold to identify Nimrod, a son of Cush, with the god Bacchus, which they render as Bar-Cush, son of Cush. This may, or may not, be true.
AI Overview
“Bacchus is the Roman name for the Greek god Dionysus, who is associated with wine, fertility, ecstasy, and theatre. He is often depicted with vines and grapes, and his followers, the Maenads and Satyrs, are known for their energetic dances. In Roman mythology, Bacchus is considered a versatile and elusive god, bringing joy and revelry, but also capable of vengeance”.
AI Overview
“In some ancient traditions, Nimrod, a figure from the Book of Genesis, was later deified, meaning he was worshipped as a god. Nimrod was a mighty hunter and is also described as the first to be a mighty man on earth. He was also the founder of major cities, including Nineveh and Asshur, and is associated with the construction of the Tower of Babel in some non-biblical accounts. Some accounts portray him as a priest-king who established state worship, including human sacrifice. In some Assyrian and Babylonian traditions, Nimrod was even considered the same as the god Merodach/ Marduk”.
Joseph of Egypt, Imhotep of the Third Dynasty, a true wonder-worker in his own lifetime, was deified and canonised, as, for instance, Imouthes of the Greeks, who was also their Asklepios, the god of medicine and healing.
The Romans knew him as Aesculapius.
And Moses the Lawgiver, the wise sage Djedefhor of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty, was deified after his death.
A similar exalted fate met the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt’s Amenhotep son of Hapu.
And, from the Book of Tobit to which we have previously referred, Tobit’s nephew, Ahikar - the Achior of the Book of Judith - of highest status in the Assyrian empire, has come down in history, much magnified, as a sage, a polymath and a thaumaturgist.
Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu (and perhaps Ahikar) owe much of their later exaltation to the Ptolemaïc period.
3. New Testament notables
The notorious Seleucid king, Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’ becomes a New Testament character only in my revised history that shunts the Maccabean era into the Nativity period of the life of Jesus Christ.
As some Jewish legends have intuited, king Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’ was the very same as the emperor Hadrian, supposedly a Roman, but, in actual fact, a complete Grecophile, who has been called “a mirror-image” of ‘Epiphanes’.
That Hadrian was indeed!
Apparently this brute of a king did not even bother to wait for his death to be deified, for, by taking the epitaph Epiphanes (“God Manifest”), Antiochus actually claimed to be Zeus incarnate.
The right-hand man of the emperor Augustus, Marcus Agrippa, was also deified.
In my revised history, Marcus Agrippa is the same as king Herod (Agrippa) ‘the Great’ of the Nativity era, and emperor Augustus is, once again, ‘Epiphanes’/Hadrian.
A later Herod, wrongly thought to be Agrippa, but actually Antipas (at least in my scheme), will die whilst hopefully embracing apotheosis (Acts 12:21-23):
On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, ‘This is the voice of a god, not of a man’. Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
A painful experience this becoming a god! The emperor Vespasian was somewhat more sensible about it when he allegedly quipped, when dying: ‘Vae, puto deus fio’, which translates as: ‘Oh dear, I think I'm becoming a god’.
Workers of miracles saw the ancient pagans quick to apotheosise (Acts 14:11-13):
The people saw what Paul did. They called with loud voices in the language of the people of Lycaonia, ‘The gods have become like men and have come down to us’. They said that Barnabas was Jupiter. Paul was called Mercury because he spoke more than Barnabas. The god of Jupiter was in a building near the gate leading into the city. The religious leader of that place brought cattle and flowers to the gate. He and many other people wanted to burn these as gifts in an act of worship to Paul and Barnabas.
4. Man-made gods
Not all of the gods were based on famous people, however.
From the most ancient of times people worshipped, as gods, powerful animals.
The Bull was especially popular, at least as early as, say, Çatal Hüyük:
https://semiramis-speaks.com/the-origins-and-evolution-of-the-bull-cult-in-the-ancient-mediterranean/ “In the Ancient Near East the earliest evidence of a bull cult was found at Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia around 7000 BCE” [sic].
That cult passed on to Crete, and to Egypt.
Remember the Golden Calf?
Well, we still have it.
The Fertility Goddess was amongst the most common of the idolatrous images to be found throughout the ancient world.
The enlightened prophet Isaiah, like other prophets of Israel (such as Jeremiah), scathingly described the witless process of setting up one’s own god – a practice that would no doubt have had its inception in antediluvian times (Isaiah 44:9-20):
Idolatry Is Ridiculed
All those who make idols are worthless, and the gods they prize so highly are useless. Those who worship these gods are blind and ignorant—and they will be disgraced. It does no good to make a metal image to worship as a god! Everyone who worships it will be humiliated. The people who make idols are human beings and nothing more. Let them come and stand trial—they will be terrified and will suffer disgrace.
The metalworker takes a piece of metal and works with it over a fire. His strong arm swings a hammer to pound the metal into shape. As he works, he gets hungry, thirsty, and tired.
The carpenter measures the wood. He outlines a figure with chalk, carves it out with his tools, and makes it in the form of a man, a handsome human figure, to be placed in his house. He might cut down cedars to use, or choose oak or cypress wood from the forest. Or he might plant a laurel tree and wait for the rain to make it grow. A person uses part of a tree for fuel and part of it for making an idol. With one part he builds a fire to warm himself and bake bread; with the other part he makes a god and worships it. With some of the wood he makes a fire; he roasts meat, eats it, and is satisfied. He warms himself and says, ‘How nice and warm! What a beautiful fire!’ The rest of the wood he makes into an idol, and then he bows down and worships it. He prays to it and says, ‘You are my god—save me!’
Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth. The maker of idols hasn't the wit or the sense to say, ‘Some of the wood I burned up. I baked some bread on the coals, and I roasted meat and ate it. And the rest of the wood I made into an idol. Here I am bowing down to a block of wood!’
It makes as much sense as eating ashes. His foolish ideas have so misled him that he is beyond help. He won't admit to himself that the idol he holds in his hand is not a god at all.
While the ancient idols were neither gods nor demons, evil spirits would hasten to grasp the opportunity to urge on superstitious types to worship them - even with the dazzlement of pseudo-miracles - so as to lure them away from the one true God.
We Catholics venerate, as saints, holy dead people, though we do not worship them, but only God.
St Pio: The Padre of “Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry!”
The Saint Whose Famous Words Against Worry Encourage Us to Keep Hope at All Times
