Saints are living members of the Body of Christ.  Their presence is manifested through prayers, icons, and relics.

They remind us and revive in us "the vocation to be saints" (Rom. 1:7).

However, as Fr. John Chryssavgis writes, "saints need to be demystified.  For they are neither super-human nor sub-divine.  They are fully, and only human.  Perhaps this is the deeper reason why they compel the divine."

In the Orthodox Church, Fr. Peter Chamberas notes, saints are "recognized," not "made."  "The recognition of sainthood is... an acknowledgment... of an event that is already an experience and a conviction" in the Church.