What to know about All Saints’ Day, the Christian holiday

On November 1, 2024By Littum

As October draws to a close, religious groups far and wide are preparing to celebrate the saints, some widely known and others more personal.

The Christian holiday comes every year on November 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 have to attend Mass that day as Roman Catholics,” Rossi told USA TODAY. “We honor 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 emulate, he said. To celebrate them, religious groups will gather for mass and host an intercession, asking the saints to pray on their behalf.

Reverend Emmanuel Sanchez is 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 is one of three consecutive holidays celebrated each year.

These holidays include:

All Saints’ Eve (Oct. 31) – Some people dress up as saints and attend mass as well. 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 tombs of saints.
All Souls Day (Nov. 2) – People pray for those who have died and ask 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 Hallows’ Day and how it came to be, below.

All Saints’ Day dates back to the third or fourth century

During the year 610, the emperor of Rome presented 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 consecrated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica in honor of all the saints. The chapel was intended to house the relics of the martyrs and apostles, Rossi said.

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

Sanchez, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said Pope Gregory III established Nov. 1 as All Saints Day as a reminder that people are destined not only for life on earth but also in heaven. He said the recognition of the saints on All Saints’ Day is a reminder that this life is temporary and continues after death.

“We … are focusing on our future lives as people now resting in God’s peace,” 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 of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

“The consistent, fixed 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 tomb of the saints and bring flowers on that day.”

Because there are only 13 American saints, there aren’t many places to visit on All Saints Day, Rossi said. However, some of the places people visit are 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 is 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 is also important to remember that the saints were not born saints. They were human just like we are. They became saints by the example of their virtuous lives. 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 is largely about one question: “What happens to us when we die?”

While All Saints Day was originally a way to honor martyrs who died in the name of religion and well-known saints like St. John and St. Peter, some people have begun to recognize 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 (which recognizes that anyone can be a saint),” she said. “We speak of the saints, known and unknown, named and unnamed.”

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

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

There is also a community 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 are deeply connected,” she said. “We are deeply connected to each other. For Catholics and many Christians, the opportunity, the invitation, once a year to do it as a practice, as a community together in real life, helps us in a way throughout the rest of the year. “

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