All Saints Day and All Souls Day

The earliest observance of a feast in honor of all the saints, All Saints Day, is an early fourth-century commemoration of “all the martyrs.” In the early seventh-century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs in Rome, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some twenty-eight wagon-loads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the Roman Pagan gods. The actual building standing today dates back to Ancient Rome. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian Church, intending that the memory of “Mary and all the Saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons.”

All Saints Day honors the obscure as well as the famous — the known and unknown — the canonized and un-canonized “saints” — the saints each of us has known. We honor those who, according to Scripture have fought the good fight, have run the race, and have won the victor’s crown of gold. They have inherited the promise of Heaven, and behold the face of God. They are part of the Church Triumphant, part of the Great Company of Witnesses that intercedes for us before the Throne of God, constantly singing His praises.

The day after All Saints Day, we celebrate All Souls Day — at the beginning of the month dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. It’s not that we pray for the dead only during November. Rather, we should be praying each day for the dead, throughout the year. November is the special time of year when we increase in our efforts and make a concerted effort to foster devotion and intensify in our efforts to remember and pray for the dead.

The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity: If we had no care for the dead, Saint Augustine noted, we would not be in the habit of praying for them.

All Saints Day celebrates those who have reached the goal of Heaven. All Souls Day remembers those who have yet to be purified, and are in need of our prayers. The dead cannot help themselves… the Church Suffering, the Holy Souls in Purgatory are in need of our prayers and sacrifices.

As Scripture says, it is a good, a holy, and pious thought to pray for the dead; to offer prayer and sacrifice on their behalf.  All Souls Day is a beautiful reminder of our “connectedness” with the Church in Heaven, in Purgatory, and here on Earth. Just as we need the intercession of the Saints in Heaven, so too, the Holy Souls depend upon the prayers of the Church Militant [all of us, still “fighting the fight”]. Throughout November, we remember to pray and offer sacrifice for our beloved dead.

Bulletin of St. Isaac Joques Parish, Hinsdale, IL, October 26, 2014