All Saints' Day - All Hallows

Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of All Saints, remembering all the saints in heaven, known and unknown, canonized and un-canonized. This ancient tradition dates back to at least the 8th century A.D.

Below is an excerpt from Sermon 18 by St. Bede the Venerable, (7th-8th century A.D.) taken from the Roman Breviary that is a beautiful meditation on this spiritual reality:

Today, dearly beloved, on one solemn day of rejoicing, we celebrate the feast of all the saints in heaven.  In their communion, heaven exults; in their triumph, holy Church is crowned with glory.  Their testimony becomes more glorious with honor in proportion to the intensity of their agony.  As the battle waxed fiercer, the greater was the glory which came to those who fought; the more terrible their tortures, the more illustrious the triumph of their martyrdom; the greater their torments, the greater their rewards.  As our holy mother the Catholic Church- now spread far and wide throughout the whole world- has been taught by Christ Jesus her Head, not to fear shame, or the cross or death, but to become stronger and stronger, not by resisting but by enduring, so has she breathed into her children, welded by the cruel prison into a glorious band, a triumphant spirit equal to her own in its fire and in courage to carry on the conflict.

O mother Church truly holy, whose glory God deigns to illumine, whom the glorious blood of conquering martyrs adorns, whom the white robes of virgins clothe with an inviolate confession of faith, roses and lilies are not wanting to your garlands.  Dearly beloved, let each one of us fight that he may gain the high dignity of one or the other of these honors, either the white crown of virginity, or the red crown of martyrdom.  In the heavenly camps, both peace and war have their own garlands with which the soldiers of Christ are crowned.


All Holy Saints of Heaven, Pray for Us!