All Saints is a solemnity in the Roman Rite on which the Church rejoices in the communion of all the saints already united with God in heavenly glory.
Mystery celebrated
The Church rejoices in the communion of all the saints already united with God in heavenly glory.
The celebration belongs to the Church's objective liturgical worship; its doctrine is expressed in the proper prayers, readings, chants, and ritual observance appointed by the liturgical books.[1]
Date and calendar
It is celebrated on 1 November in the universal calendar.[2]
Its actual observance in a given year follows the universal table of liturgical days, including the rules for concurrence, occurrence, omission, and transfer.[3]
Celebration
The Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours use the propers assigned to the day. The rank determines whether the celebration begins with First Vespers, includes the Gloria or Creed, and supersedes another observance.
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
All Saints, a feast of the highest rank, celebrated on the first of November, having a vigil and an octave, and giving place to no other feast. It is instituted to honour all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the faithful's celebration of saints' feasts during the year. In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. In the fourth century, neighbouring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer relics, to divide them, and to join in a common feast; as is shown by the invitation of St. Basil of Cæsarea (397) to the bishops of the province of Pontus. Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration. In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407). At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a "Commemoratio Confessorum" for the Friday after Easter. In the West, Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary. Gregory III (731–741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV (827–844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself. The octave was added by Sixtus IV (1471–84).[4]
Butler, Lives of the Saints; Lingard, The History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church; Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints; Binder, Allgemeine Realencyklopædie; Binterim, Denkwürdigkeiten; Probst in Kirchenlex., Kellner, Heortologie; Nilles, Kalendarium Manuale untriusque Ecclesiæ.
Francis Mershman.
References
- 1.Lectionary for Mass — The Roman Rite cycle of readings for Sundays, solemnities, feasts, and weekdays
- 2.General Instruction of the Roman Missal — Universal norms for celebrating Mass in the Roman Rite
- 3.Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar — Universal norms governing seasons, Sundays, ranks, precedence, and the calendar
- 4.1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: All Saints