Repost: All Souls’ and Saints’ Days

Let me begin with a little etymology. Halloween is an Old English word which literally means All Hallows Eve. Halloween is celebrated on the eve of the 31st of October and derived its name from the feast of the following day – All Hallows Day (Nov. 1), the day dedicated to all the hallows, the saints. All Saints Day, as it is more popularly termed, is a celebration wherein the Church solemnly remembers all the known and nameless saints and martyrs who lived and died for God and have helped in shaping the Christian faith.

Now a little history. The celebration of the day dedicated solely to all saints is as old as Christianity itself. In the early days, the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr’s death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. But as the number of martyrs increased, individual celebrations became impossible. More so when a regular process of canonization of saints was established. The Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. In the sixth century, Pope Boniface IV proclaimed May 13, 610 as a Feastday of All Holy Martyrs. The celebration was held in Rome to honor all martyrs not listed in local records. In his pontificate, Gregory III (731-741) changed the date and the name of the feast. He fixed the date for November 1 and consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and renamed the feast to All Saints/Hallows Day.

Another important celebration for the dead is All Souls Day (Nov. 2). Obviously this day is dedicated to our beloved dead who did not make it to the roster of the saints. It is the day when the faithful are encouraged to pray for dead members of the faith who are believed to be suffering in purgatory in order to help them enter into heaven. The theological basis for All Souls Day is the doctrine that the souls which, on departing from the body, are not perfectly cleansed from venial sins, or have not fully atoned for past transgressions, are not given entrance to Heaven, and that the faithful on earth can help them by prayers, almsgiving and especially by the sacrifice of the Mass.

The history of the Feast of All Souls Day can be traced back to early Christianity. The early Christians entered the names of the faithful departed in the diptychs and prayed for them. Benedictine monks in the sixth century began a customary practice of commemorating their deceased members on the day after the Pentecost by offering masses especially for them. Later on, other monasteries and congregations followed suit. St. Odilo of Cluny (d. 1048) ordered the commemoration of all the faithful departed to be held annually in the monasteries of his congregation. This time the date of the celebration was moved to November 2, the day after All Saints Day. This custom spread and in the thirteenth century, Rome put the feast on the calendar of the entire Church. The date remained November 2 so that all in the Communion of the Saints might be celebrated together.

The Feast of All Saints on November 1st and the Feast of All Souls on November 2nd are days of remembrance, celebration and prayer. It is a time for remembering with respect and affection all those beloved people, now dead, whose lives are intertwined with ours in ways both known and unknown. It is also a time of honoring all the unknown and never-to-be-found persons who have served to shape our lives, and whose influences contributed to what we are and what we are becoming. Thus, even though these days seem to be surrounded with the atmosphere of death, it really is a celebration of life: your life, my life, the life of people we remember, the spiritual life that ties us together and eternal life in the Lord. Those who have gone before us are connected to us and have real effects on us. Knowingly or unknowingly, their lives have shaped and influenced ours. We are what we are in good part because of them. So these days are days of prayer too. The best way to remember the dead, the people of our precious, personal past is in prayer. We pray to the saints while we pray for the departed. Prayer is our strongest link to each other wherever we may be.