I was reading up Eastern Orthodox theology, and from what I've read is that saints (at least the ones that go through glorification) are venerated and people do ask for their intercession in salvation, but they aren't worshiped.
How do the Orthodox venerate the saints and where do they draw the line between veneration, asking for intercession and actual worship and idolatry?
Hello, and welcome to TAW.
This is a very good question, and it will probably take some discussion to get at the nuances.
I would start by saying this - to venerate is to honor one who is deserving of some honor. Think of a wise grandparent, dearly beloved, highly respected, who you know very well that you can count on for good advice in any question. Especially if your culture is one that respects older people, what you feel for them could be on the order of veneration. It is very common in the Greek culture for children to kiss the hands of their grandparents, as a sign of respect (Greeks kiss a lot, lol). This is something that helped feed into my understanding of veneration. We may kiss the icon of a Saint, often on the hand, in the same way.
Worship - is something entirely different. I can't speak for other people, but worship as I have learned and practiced is only for God, and connected to the "otherness" of God. He is unlike anything created, and nothing created can be worshipped. It's difficult for me to put into words, but all parts of the cosmos, all humans, animals, and even angels, all material things around us, are created. They are not our Creator. They are not Divine. There is absolutely no basis for worshipping them.
I think especially the asking for intercessions has caused a confusion in English. People often shorten it to say that we "pray to the Saints" and because we are taught to pray to God, we confuse prayer with worship. Prayer is not worship. The basis, linguistically, for "pray" is simply to ask. It used to be common English usage to say "I pray thee ... do xyz" when asking another person to do something, meaning only that you are asking. (It was so common that it is basically abbreviated in the words "I prithee ... ") There is absolutely no worship implied. We ask the Saints to pray for us, just as we might ask a living person to pray for us - especially one who we see as very pious, such as our pastor or the elderly lady who is always in church and always praying for people. This is why we particularly ask prayers of the Saints. We KNOW they are holy people, and we know they are present with Christ.
I hope this is a start ...