All Saints
Feast day: November 1
All Saints celebrates the countless people of every nation who are in heaven praising the Lamb (01/11)
What is this feast?
All Saints is the day the Church celebrates all the saints in heaven together. Every day of the year, the liturgical calendar remembers one or a few saints. But many, many more people have become saints than the names in the calendar. Today, the Church remembers all of them at once: men and women, old and young, priests, religious and lay people, the famous and the hidden.
The story
In the Book of Revelation, Saint John was shown a vision of heaven. He saw a great crowd that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, holding palm branches in their hands (cf. Rev 7:9). That Lamb is Jesus, who gave his life to save us.
Long ago, Christians celebrated all the martyrs together. At the start of the 7th century, in Rome, an ancient temple was dedicated to Mary and the martyrs. In the 8th and 9th centuries, a feast of all the saints on 1 November was gradually kept in many places. In 835, at the request of Pope Gregory IV, the feast was ordered to be kept throughout the Frankish kingdom, and later throughout the whole Church up to today.
The very next day, 2 November, the Church prays for the faithful departed. These two days, one after the other, remind you that the Church is one big family: those in heaven, those being purified, and us on earth, all united in Christ.
Why does the Church celebrate it?
The Church celebrates this feast to thank God for the countless people who lived God’s love to the full, and to remind us that holiness is not only for a few special people. The Gospel of the day is the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:1-12a), which show us the path the saints walked. The saints also intercede for us before God, like older brothers and sisters who have gone ahead of us.
A lesson for you
- Jesus says that the clean of heart are blessed, for they will see God (cf. Mt 5:8). Keep your heart pure in what you say, what you do and what you watch.
- Learn about your patron saint and ask him or her to pray for you.
- In November, pray for your grandparents and relatives who have died.
Identifying marks
- A white Lamb on a cloud, holding a white banner with a red cross: the Lamb is Jesus, who died and rose again; the banner with the cross is the sign of his victory.
- A virgin in white with a red mantle, holding a palm branch: she stands for the martyrs and for the virgins who belong entirely to the Lord.
- A bishop wearing a miter, holding a book: he stands for the shepherds and the doctors who taught the faith.
- A Vietnamese martyr in a black khăn đóng (traditional Vietnamese headdress) and black áo dài (traditional Vietnamese long tunic), holding a palm branch: the saints of your own homeland are in that crowd too.
- A countless crowd in the background, with halos: the saints of every age and every people, most of them unknown by name.
The text on this page is the saint card in the Catholic Information app, word for word.
Collect this card and read more about the saints in the app