Prayer to saints is absent and contradicted among the relevant sources during the thousands of years of history of the Biblical era. It's also widely absent and contradicted among the earliest extrabiblical Christians. For the evidence to that effect, see here.
So, advocates of the practice have resorted to claiming that it's supported by material like the Mount of Transfiguration account in the gospels and Matthew 27:47. They also appeal to various apocryphal documents, anonymous inscriptions and manuscript fragments, etc. I've responded to such arguments in other posts. Since the lack of support for prayer to saints among the earlier church fathers is so problematic for advocates of the practice, they read it into some of those fathers to try to make the practice seem more credible. Among the earlier fathers, Hippolytus is the one who's most abused in this context. And I've addressed those abuses in other posts over the years, like here.
In the remainder of this post, I want to focus on a few other efforts advocates of prayer to saints have made to find the practice in Hippolytus. I'll start by quoting the relevant passage with emphasis added (in bold, italics, and underlining):
"Tell me, you three boys, remember me, I entreat you, that I also may obtain the same lot of martyrdom with you, who was the fourth person with you who was walking in the midst of the furnace and who was hymning to God with you as from one mouth? Describe to us his form and beauty so that we also, seeing him in the flesh, may recognize him. Who was he who in this way orderly described all creation through your mouth, so that you omitted nothing of which is and has been? Having done this for one hour in the furnace, you taught the workmanship of creation. For the Word was with you and was speaking through you, the Word who understands the workmanship of creation." (Commentary On Daniel, 2.30.1-3, found on page 73 of Tom Schmidt's translation here)
I've seen it argued that the highlighted portion above is a prayer to saints, whereas the surrounding context isn't. You can read my previous posts on Hippolytus, like this one, for an explanation of why the surrounding context can't be included. I've also seen it argued that the "remember" and "entreat" terms are evidence that Hippolytus is praying.
As my previous posts, like the one linked above, explain, the context just before and just after the highlighted words of Hippolytus is earthly. That's what section 2.29 of the document is about, the opening reference to "boys" in 2.30 makes more sense in an earthly than a heavenly context, etc. So, making an exception for the highlighted words above creates some discontinuity. It involves a more complicated, less likely interpretation.
It's true that words like "remember" and "entreat" are terms often used in prayer. They're terms of request, and prayer often involves requests. But so do other things. The thief on the cross says "remember me" (Luke 23:42), Paul told the Colossians (not saints in heaven) "Remember my imprisonment." (Colossians 4:18), and so on. The language often occurs in requests that others do something in prayer, and asking somebody to do something in prayer doesn't necessarily involve praying to that person in the sense under dispute. You can ask somebody else on earth to pray for you without thereby praying to that person in the manner under consideration.
Think of what we see in the letters of Cyprian, for example, a contemporary of Hippolytus. Cyprian wrote to people on earth, "I bid you, beloved brethren, ever heartily farewell; and have me in remembrance." (Letter 7:8) And: "have me in remembrance" (Letter 8). And: "you give more when you remember me in prayer" (Letter 15:1). And: "remember me" (Letter 37:2). And: "always and everywhere remember me" (Letter 76:7). Some Christians writing to Cyprian: "I bid you, dearest brother and earnestly desired, ever heartily farewell, and remember us." (Letter 78:3) The "remember" language is widespread in contexts not involving prayer to saints, and one of the contexts in which it often occurs is in asking other people on earth to remember you in prayer. That's what Hippolytus is doing in the portion of his Daniel commentary quoted above. Since the surrounding context is earthly (a rhetorical device involving the earthly activities of Daniel's companions), and that earthly setting adequately explains the highlighted words of Hippolytus, we don't need to and shouldn't propose a changing of the subject to a heavenly scene, only for Hippolytus to then move back to the earthly context just after.
Much the same can be said about "entreat". Go to notes 2 and 4 on page 67 of Tom Schmidt's translation here (section 2.25.4-5 of the commentary). The language is used by Hippolytus in an earthly context, which is likely what he's doing in section 2.30 as well.
I'll close by reiterating something I've said about Hippolytus in my earlier posts. He says a lot about prayer in his commentary. However, the prayers are directed to God, not deceased individuals. It's highly unlikely that he believed in prayer to saints, yet never expressed that view in the contexts most obviously about prayer and only expressed the view so seldom and in a way that looks so much more like a rhetorical device than a prayer. The fact that advocates of prayer to saints keep resorting to such weak argumentation (appealing to the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 27:47, etc.) reflects the weakness of their position.
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