All Souls

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
November 2

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, known as All Souls' Day, is observed on November 2nd, the day after the great feast of All Saints. If All Saints celebrates the triumphant Church, those who have already reached the fullness of beatitude, All Souls turns the Church's prayer toward the suffering Church, those souls who have died in the state of grace but who have not yet completed their purification and stand in need of the prayers of the faithful on earth.

The doctrine of purgatory, which gives All Souls' Day its theological foundation, holds that those who die in God's grace but with the remnants of sin unhealed, the venial sins unrepented and the temporal punishment due to sin not yet fully satisfied, undergo after death a process of purification that prepares them for the full vision of God. This process, though painful, is one of love and hope rather than despair, for those in purgatory are certainly saved and their union with God is assured; only the time of purification remains uncertain.

The Church has always believed that the prayers of the living can assist the dead in this purification. Saint Paul prays for a deceased friend in the Second Letter to Timothy. The Second Book of Maccabees records that Judas Maccabeus made an expiatory offering for the dead. The inscription on the tombs in the Roman catacombs frequently asks the living to pray for the dead. The offering of Mass for the dead is one of the most ancient practices of the Church.

The feast was instituted by Saint Odilo of Cluny in 998 for all the monasteries of the Cluniac congregation and gradually spread to the universal Church. On this day and throughout November, the Church offers special prayers, Masses, and indulgences for the souls in purgatory, particularly those who have no one to pray for them. It is a day of great charity, extending the love of the living beyond the grave to those who await the face of God.