All Saints

All Saints is the feast of the crowd no parish could fit onto its calendar. The named saints are a handful of the baptized who have been recognized. The solemnity is for the rest as well: the unknown holy, the martyrs whose names were never written down, the people who died in friendship with God and now see him. The Gospel of the day is the Beatitudes. That is the Church’s definition of the company she is celebrating. She does not read a list of achievements. She reads poverty of spirit, mercy, purity of heart, and persecution for the sake of righteousness.

The Roman date has a history. In the early seventh century Pope Boniface IV received the Pantheon from the emperor and dedicated it to St. Mary and all the martyrs, a dedication long associated with May 13. In the eighth and ninth centuries a feast of all the saints, not only the martyrs, was kept at Rome on November 1, and Pope Gregory IV extended that date to the whole Church. The November date won. The impulse is the same as the Pantheon: there is not enough room in one building, or on one sanctoral, for everyone who belongs to Christ. So the Church keeps one day for all of them.

November 1 is a solemnity and, in the United States, a holy day of obligation. When it falls on a Saturday or a Monday, the obligation to attend Mass is abrogated by the American norm, while the solemnity is still celebrated. The vestments are white. The Gloria and the Creed are said. The first reading is Revelation 7, the multitude no one can number, from every nation, standing before the Lamb in white robes. The second reading, 1 John 3, says we are God’s children now, and what we shall be has not yet been revealed. All Saints is eschatology, not nostalgia.

The day before is not Halloween in the Church’s book, though the English word comes from All Hallows’ Eve. The day after is All Souls, which is a different theological act: November 1 looks at those who have arrived, November 2 prays for those who are still being purified. Collapsing the two days into a generic festival of the dead loses both. The saints do not need our sacrifice offered for their release. They intercede for us. The holy souls need our prayer. The Church is careful about the order.

Revelation 7:2–4, 9–14, 1 John 3:1–3, and Matthew 5:1–12 are the readings of the day, not a menu. The preface praises God for the city of the saints, and asks that their prayers may bring the Church God’s mercy. The litany of the saints, sung at baptisms, ordinations, and the Easter Vigil, is the music of this solemnity even when a parish does not sing it on November 1. Every name in the litany is a member of the crowd in Revelation 7.