Dear people of Grace,

This week we celebrate one of the seven Principal Feasts of the Church. All Saints’ Day is unique among these in that it is often celebrated on its appointed Feast Day (November 1st) and also observed the following Sunday.

For Episcopalians, a history of the observance of All Saints’ Day is like going on a whirlwind tour of Catholic and Reformation history.

The Bible uses the word “saints” to describe all of the people of God. In the New Testament, the saints, hagioi, typically describe all the members of the Christian community. For example, St. Paul addresses one letter “To the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints throughout Achaia” (2Cor 1.1). The Book of Revelation, however, identifies the saints as persecuted Christians: “And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses [martyrs] to Jesus” (Rev 17.6).

As the Church suffered increasing hostility, sainthood became more synonymous with this latter definition: those who heroically confessed their faith in martyrdom. The Church raised up the lives of these great saints as inspirational examples, demonstrating holy lives which should be imitated. Records of Christians celebrating festivals dedicated to “martyrs for the faith” can be found as early as the third century. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople at the turn of the fifth century, records a “Festival of All Saints” celebrated on the Sunday after Pentecost.

By the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church had adopted two dates, November 1st (All Saints’ Day), dedicated to those remembered as exceptional Christian witnesses, and November 2nd (All Souls’ Day) for the remainder of the faithful departed, those “ordinary” members of the Christian Church who had died.

Integral to this distinction was the doctrine of Purgatory, or the intermediate state in which the deceased undergo purification before they can be admitted into heaven. However, Purgatory was resoundingly opposed as a doctrine by Protestant Reformers, and the English Reformation was no exception. The solution was to integrate the two festivals into one, and All Saints’ Day returned to an observance of the broader definition of New Testament sainthood.

All of this sounds great, but the Episcopal tradition has always prayed for its dead. Why would we do this if they are already saints in heaven?

The Catechism answer is “We pray for them, because we still hold them in our love, and because we trust that in God’s presence those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his love, until they see him as he is” (BCP, p.862). Now that sounds a little like a description of Purgatory, don’t you think? This idea of “continued growth in his love” suggests an intermediate state. The major difference, however, is that we do not label this intermediate state as a separate place from heaven, nor do we believe that our prayers and actions here on earth will speed up full sanctification of our dead relatives. I like to think of prayers for the dead as being a constant reminder that we are all connected as the Communion of Saints, those who, living and dead, will share in the Resurrection on the Last Day.

With the Anglo-Catholic revival in the nineteenth century, observance of All Souls’ Day was restored, although it was renamed “Commemoration of All Faithful Departed.” It is included as a feast day on our liturgical calendar but most parishes, including this one, still combine the two feasts into one celebration: All Saints’ Day.

So, now that you know the story of All Saints’ Day, please join us this Sunday as we “follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you.” (BCP, p.245)

Blessings and peace,
Deacon Nick