Second, the Legio Maria church recognises an active spiritual realm that needs to be dealt with to respond to evil and illness. It is God who gives gifts to people for spiritual healing, sometimes through the saints. The Legio specifically recognise the Catholic saints Catherine of Siena and Bernadette of Lourdes in regard to spiritual healing. The Saints Samson and Julian, and the angel Michael help to “guide Legios with gifts for exorcism and battling witchcraft. In seeking guidance from these holy ones they are in continuity with Catholic theology, but this theology is applied to traditional religious understandings of evil and illness.