Our city is is named after the first British martyr and saint, Saint Alban. Last month Mother Teresa of Kolkata was declared a saint, and October 22nd marks the feast of Saint Pope John Paul ll, recognised by the Catholic Church at Easter 2014.

These three saints could not have been more different in the way they lived and died.

Alban, a young unknown newly converted to Christianity, was executed for his beliefs.

Mother Teresa, was working with the destitute in the slums, and Pope John Paul II, was head of the Catholic church for nearly 30 years. They were both known throughout the world, and died in old age still working.

Yet all are revered as saints, because their lives gave witness to God, and many Catholics pray to them and the many other saints in heaven including our deceased brothers and sisters.

The Bible refers to the prayers of the saints as ‘golden bowls full of incense’. Of course Christians pray directly to Jesus Christ as the one and only mediator between us and God.

But the belief that the saints in heaven can hear our prayers and intercede by passing on our prayers to God, does not violate Christ’s unique role, and, is held by many Christians, particularly Catholics.

St Paul in the Bible asks us - all saints in the making - to pray for others. So we can ask the saints in heaven to do so too.