asaris

That's really close to being completely false. Some Catholic saints are likely to be revised deities, though most of the cases I'm aware of were local quasi-deities, not Mars or anything like that. But most saints, including most of the saints people pray to, were real people who lived in the Common Era. And the Catholic Church has been making an effort to de-canonize some of the more mythical seeming saints.

On a side note, according to official Catholic teaching, they aren't really praying to the saints the same way you would pray to God. They're asking the saints to intercede for them, the same way you might ask a friend to pray for you. I don't know how often this is the understanding of the average believer, though.

__________________
"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche