What to know about All Saints Day, the Christian holiday

November 1, 2024 Vaseline blog 0

What to know about All Saints Day, the Christian holiday

As October comes to an end, religious groups far and wide are preparing to celebrate the saints, some widely-known and others more personal.

The Christian holiday All Saints Day comes every year on Nov. 1. It is considered a holy day of obligation in the Catholic church, said Monsignor Walter Rossi, rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC

“The obligation means we need to participate in Mass that day as Roman Catholics,” Rossi told USA TODAY. “We are honoring the people who have gone before us, whom the church considers to be saints.”

These people eventually became saints and led lives that religious groups hope to imitate, he said. To celebrate them, religious groups will gather for Mass and host an intercessory prayer, asking the saints to pray on their behalf.

Rev. Emmanuel Sanchez is an associate pastor at Resurrection Catholic Church, part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He sometimes thinks of All Saints Day as a “triduum on the other side of the year” because it’s one of three consecutive holidays celebrated each year.

Those holidays include:

  • All Hallows Eve (Oct. 31) – Some people dress up as the saints and also attend mass. The holiday has evolved into Halloween as we know it today.
  • All Saints Day (Nov. 1) – People attend mass, pray and sing, and visit shrines and graves of saints.
  • All Souls Day (Nov. 2) – People pray for those who have died, asking the saints to help guide them on their paths to Heaven. People often bring flowers and candles to their graves.

Find out more about All Saints Day and how it came to be below.

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All Saints Day goes back to the third or fourth centuries

During the year 610, the emperor of Rome gifted the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV, Rossi said. The pope then dedicated the Pantheon to Mary, the Blessed Mother and martyrs. That’s how All Saints Day got its formal beginning, Rossi said, but All Saints Day has been traced back to at least the third and fourth centuries.

All Saints Day as it is known today began in 735 when Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica in honor of all the saints. The chapel was meant to house relics of the martyrs and apostles, Rossi said.

“(All Saints Day today) honors all of the saints throughout the church, and it was that same Pope Gregory that eventually assigned November 1 as the feast day of all saints throughout the entire church, and also made it a holy day of obligation, Rossi said.

Sanchez, from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said Pope Gregory III established Nov. 1 as All Saints Day as a reminder that people are not just destined for life on earth, but also in Heaven. He said that recognizing the saints on All Saints Day is a reminder of this life being temporary, continuing after death.

“We…focus on our future life as people who are now resting in the peace of God,” Sanchez told USA TODAY.

How do people celebrate All Saints Day?

In addition to attending mass on All Saints Day, some people dress up as the saints, said Rossi, from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

“The consistent, staple practice has been to pray and invoke the intercession of the saints,” Rossi told USA TODAY. “Other customs would be to go to visit the grave of the saints and bring flowers on that day.”

Because there are only 13 American saints, there aren’t many locations to visit on All Saints Day, Rossi said. However, some of the places people visit include the National Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel in Philadelphia, the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City and the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Rossi added that it’s important to honor the saints because they are “powerful intercessors” who can help believers by praying on their behalf.

“They help us on our journey through life into Heaven, and their example gives us an example of how we should live,” Rossi said. “It’s important to also remember that the saints were not born saints. They were people just like we are. They became saints by the example of their virtuous life. “We too can become saints.”

All Saints Day is a day to recognize saints ‘known and unknown’

Julia Campagna, director of Mission & Campus Ministry at Notre Dame of Maryland University, said religion centers largely around one question: “What happens to us when we die?”

While initially, All Saints Day was a way of honoring martyrs who died in the name of religion and well-known saints such as St. John and St. Peter, some people have started recognizing people in their own lives who have lived in “really devout ways,” Campagna said.

Who people honor on All Saints Day has grown as the church has expanded, she said.

“Today, we think of All Saints Day (recognizing) that anyone can be a saint,” she said. “We talk about the saints, known and unknown, named and unnamed.”

At Notre Dame of Maryland, community members from many religious backgrounds attend Mass because it’s a shared holiday, she said. The university collects names and photos of saints in people’s lives, then hangs the names up in the chapel.

“That can be somebody’s grandma,” she said, adding that people can recognize those who have lived their lives in a way they want to follow.

There is also a communion of saints, which is the recognition that individuals cannot do anything alone, she said.

“The people who have come before us and the people who will come after us, we’re deeply connected,” she said. “We’re deeply connected with each other. For Catholics and many Christians, the opportunity, the invitation, once a year to do that as a practice, as a community together in real life, it kind of helps us through the rest of the year.”

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at [email protected].