IN HONOUR OF ALL SAINTS: 741

All Saint´s Day is a day commemorating all the saints of the church, both known and unknown, celebrated on November 1 in the Western churches and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Eastern churches. Its origin cannot be traced with certainty, and it has been observed on varius days in different places. A feast of all martyrs was kept on May 13 in the Eastern Church according to Ephraem Syrus (died c. 373), which may have determined the choice of May 13 by pope Boniface IV when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome as a church in honour of the Blessed Virgin and all martyrs in 609.


The first evidence for the November 1 date of celebration and of the broadening of the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs occurred during the reign of Pope Gregory III (731-741), who dedicated a chapel in St. Peter´s, Rome, on November 1 in honour of all saints. In 800 All Saints Day was kept by Alcuin on November 1, and it also appeared in a 9th-century English calendar on that day. In 837 Pope Gregory IV ordered its general observance.


In medieval England, the festival was known as All Hallows, and its eve is still known as Halloween.




All Souls Day is a day for commemoration of all the faithful departed, those baptized Christians who are believed to be in purgatory because they have died with the guilt of lesser sins on their souls, celebrated on November 2, or November 3 if November 2 is Sunday. Catholic doctrine holds that the prayers of the faithful on earth will help cleanse these souls in order to fit them for the vision of God in heaven.


From antiquity certain days were devoted to intercession for particular groups of the dead. The institution of a day for a general intercession on November 2 is due to Odilo, abbot of Cluny (died 1048). The date, which became practically universal before the end of the 13 th century, was chosen to follow All Saints Day. Having celebrated the feast of all the members of the church who are believed to be in heaven, the church on earth turns, on the next day, to commemorate those souls believed to be suffering in purgatory.


Black vestments are worn, the office of the day is that of the dead, and the Roman liturgy permits every priest to celebrate three requiem masses, one for the intention of the celebrant himself, one for all the faithful departed, and one for the intention of the pope.


The feast was abolished in the Church of England at the Reformation but has been revived in Anglo-Catholic churches.


Also called Ullambana, a major Buddhist festival in China and Japan, among whose purposes are the expression of filial piety to deseased ancestors and the release of spirits from bondage to this world.