‘Sacred Scripture records the divine word saying that men will remember the just man forever, for even though he is dead, he yet speaks.
Both in word and deed the Church has for a long time verified the truth of that saying. She is the mother and the nurse of holiness, ever renewed and enlivened by the breath of the Spirit Who dwells in us. She alone conceives, nourishes, and educates the noble family of the just. Like a loving mother, she carefully preserves the memory of and affection for the saints.
This remembrance is, as it were, a divine comfort which lifts her eyes above the miseries of this earthly pilgrimage so that she finds in the saints “her joy and her crown.” Thus she sees in them the sublime image of her heavenly Spouse.
Thus she shows her children in each age the timeliness of the old truth: “For those who love God all things work together unto good, for those who, according to his purpose, are saints through his call.” The glorious deeds of the saints, however, do more than afford us comfort.
In order that we may imitate and be encouraged by them, one and all the saints echo in their own lives the saying of Saint Paul, “I beg you, be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”‘
Wisdom and prayers of saints 