The dominant feature of foreign speech is the availability of appeals, because they indicate the opposition «addressee – sender», reflecting the speaker’s attitude to the interlocutor, to the environment, certifying the status of a person, and adapting us to the perception of information and to some extent reactions to it. The aim of the article is to characterize the semantic and functional features of vocatives as integral components of foreign speech by the example of prayer texts (458 prayers are analyzed). Very often such constructions in prayers have additional means of dissemination, including artistic definitions, homogeneous affixes, separate members of the speech itself and even predicative units that we rarely find in other speech patterns. Appeals to God, the Mother of God and servants of God (apostles, angels, saints, etc.) are productive in vocative structures. The names of religious attributes, believers and evil spirits are used less actively in this role. In addition, the believer’s constant appeal to higher powers gives the prayer discourse signs of dialogue, although there is no reverse communication.