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The term '''Mariolatry''' is from the Greek '''Μαρία''' ''Maria'', "Mary", and '''λάτρία''' ''latria'', "worship". Catholicism and Orthodoxy both condemn saint-worship and Mariolatry.<ref>Compare the following articles:

The term '''Mariolatry''' is from the Greek '''Μαρία''' ''Maria'', "Mary", and '''λάτρία''' ''latria'', "worship". Catholicism and Orthodoxy both condemn saint-worship and Mariolatry.<ref>Compare the following articles:

*[https://www.catholic.com/tract/saint-worship Catholic Answers Tract: Saint Worship? (catholic.com)]

*[https://www.catholic.com/tract/saint-worship Catholic Answers Tract: Saint Worship? (catholic.com)]

*[http://home.earthlink.net/~mysticalrose/marian12.html "Mariolatry"? (home.earthlink.net)]</ref>

*[http://home.earthlink.net/~mysticalrose/marian12.html "Mariolatry"? (home.earthlink.net)]</ref> They claim that Mary is reverenced by them as the ''Theotokos'', the God-bearer, not as God.

Many [[Protestantism|Protestants]] have been taught that Orthodox and Catholic Christians worship Mary as God or Goddess (''latria'') apart from or greater than Jesus Christ and above God the Father, and worship (''latria'') all the other saints as a [[pantheon]] of gods, and that they commit [[idolatry]] in reverently showing them respect by bowing to them, to their images and pictures and [[icon]]s, and praying to them for their [[intercession]]. The Protestant teaching that this is all pagan idolatry is based on a [[polemic]]al misrepresentation of the meaning of the word "worship", which has been severely restricted and redefined by Protestant teachers and [[Apologetics|apologists]] since the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] as being strictly limited in meaning to "adoration" only, as has the word "prayer", which broadly meant simply "petition", but has become restricted by them to [[Connotation|connoting]] solely the worship of God or a god, and the word "[[intercession]]" also being strictly limited and restricted by them to mean only "[[mediation]]".<ref>Compare 1 Timothy 2:1-6.</ref> <ref>See [[Five Solas]].</ref> This ''semantical shift'' in meaning has been adduced as proof of the [[Great Apostasy]] of Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

Many [[Protestantism|Protestants]] have been taught that Orthodox and Catholic Christians worship Mary as God or Goddess (''latria'') apart from or greater than Jesus Christ and above God the Father, and worship (''latria'') all the other saints as a [[pantheon]] of gods, and that they commit [[idolatry]] in reverently showing them respect by bowing to them, to their images and pictures and [[icon]]s, and praying to them for their [[intercession]]. The Protestant teaching that this is all pagan idolatry is based on a [[polemic]]al misrepresentation of the meaning of the word "worship", which has been severely restricted and redefined by Protestant teachers and [[Apologetics|apologists]] since the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] as being strictly limited in meaning to "adoration" only, as has the word "prayer", which broadly meant simply "petition", but has become restricted by them to [[Connotation|connoting]] solely the worship of God or a god, and the word "[[intercession]]" also being strictly limited and restricted by them to mean only "[[mediation]]".<ref>Compare 1 Timothy 2:1-6.</ref> <ref>See [[Five Solas]].</ref> This ''semantical shift'' in meaning has been adduced as proof of the [[Great Apostasy]] of Catholicism and Orthodoxy.