The history behind All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days

St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church in Spring set up an altar shrine in 2024 for Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a Catholic tradition that honors and prays for the souls of loved ones who have died. Parish officials said the altar grows every year, and featured four levels with pictures, sacred images, and marigold flowers, all grouped around a statue of the Divine Mercy Jesus. Dia de los Muertos is traditionally observed Nov. 1 to 2. (Photo by James Ramos/Herald)

HOUSTON (OSV News) — It seems unusual that our Church liturgical calendar schedules two major celebrations on days that are back-to-back. But that is precisely the situation with the solemnity of All Saints, a liturgical feast, and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (All Souls), a liturgical observance.

All Saints is a Churchwide holy day of obligation and normally celebrated on Nov. 1. If the first day of November falls on a Saturday or Monday, at least in the U.S., the obligation to attend Mass is abrogated, as it is in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. All Souls’ Day takes place on Nov. 2, unless it falls on a Sunday, then the celebration is held on Nov. 3.

During these early November celebrations, those of us still living (the “church militant”) unite our hearts with, and in a special way remember, the faithful departed, whether they be in heaven (“church triumphant”) or in purgatory (“church suffering”).

All Saints’ Day, which began most likely as All Martyrs’ Day, can be traced to the earliest Christians. By the third century, the followers of Christ were annually honoring their brothers and sisters who had given their lives (martyred) while witnessing for and defending Jesus Christ. Typically, on the anniversary of a martyr’s death, those living would gather to remember and offer prayers at the tomb or place where the deceased had died.

Tombs were sometimes decorated, and altars were built over the tombs. According to Church historian Henry Chadwick, “From the third century the anniversary of a martyr’s death, called his ‘birthday,’ was commemorated at his grave by a celebration.” 

The belief among the first Christians, which continues today, is that believers who died defending Christ were borne by angels to heaven and are face-to-face with the living God, in the presence of the beatific vision. 

In those first centuries, especially during the savage reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305), there were more and more Christians who accepted death at the hands of the Romans rather than deny Christ, rather than worship false gods or the personage of the emperor.

Additionally, others who had publicly confessed their Christian faith (confessors) and somehow survived the Romans were also honored. 

Thus, the number of martyrs and confessors became greater than the opportunities to give each one an anniversary celebration, and the need for a common feast day was recognized. The history of the feast reveals a great deal about the Church’s understanding of the communion of saints. The communion of saints is the Church, both the living and the dead.

Today, All Saints’ Day is a solemnity and (usually) holy day of obligation on which the universal Church honors the martyrs, the saints and the confessors, including all known and unknown, all who have gained the reward of heaven.

All Saints’ Day was not always a solemnity observed by the universal Church, and is not celebrated everywhere on Nov. 1. The feast originated in the earliest centuries of the Church, when Christians commemorated the many martyrs who died at the hands of their Roman persecutors. 

The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, or All Souls’ Day, evolved onto the Church calendar long after All Saints’ Day. Sometime between 998 and 1030, St. Odilo, the abbot at the Benedictine monastery in Cluny, France, encouraged all the monks to pray for the souls of those who had died, those awaiting the joys of heaven. 

He instituted this commemoration on the day after All Saints’ Day, and soon other religious orders and churches began, on that same date, to annually remember all who had died.
Remembering and praying for the faithful departed is tied directly to our belief in purgatory. On All Souls’ Day, the universal Church prays for all those in purgatory, people who were much like us, whose offense may have been less than ours. By pleading for them, we are inspired to lead purer lives.

On that day, and during the entire month of November, we remember our departed brethren as we go to the cemetery where they are buried, attain indulgences for them, give alms, do some good work, ask for Masses to be said in remembrance, all on behalf of those close to us and to others we may have neglected during the year.

We also light candles, and in some parishes, the faithful display pictures of their deceased loved ones in the church or inscribe their names in a special prayer book. Church bells are sometimes rung to remind everyone to pray for the poor souls in purgatory. 

In his final celebration of All Souls’ Day in 2024, Pope Francis joined mourners at a cemetery on the southern outskirts of Rome where he concelebrated Mass for All Souls and made a special visit to a section of the cemetery dedicated to the remains of the unborn. 

The late pope then left a bouquet of white roses at the entrance to the garden where stuffed animals, toys, pinwheels and pots of white chrysanthemums in the shape of a heart stood in contrast to the candles and flowers on other graves. The grave markers have only one date on them.