All Saints Day: You Were Created to Become a Saint
Blame Diocletian. Or thank him, depending on how you look at it.
It had been the Early Church’s custom to solemnly honor each martyr on the anniversary and at the place of death. Diocletian’s Great Persecution (303-311), during which he ordered the murder of more than 20,000 Christians, left far too many martyrs to honor separately.
Still, the Church felt every martyr deserved veneration, and so she appointed a common day for all. Common days were observed as far back as the early 300s AD, but it wasn’t until the 700s that Pope Gregory III established the common day — Nov. 1 — and consecrated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica to all saints.
Since then, Nov. 1 has been known as All Saints Day.
I absolutely love this feast day. For me, it’s such a hope-filled one because it’s a reminder that there are oodles upon oodles of saints in heaven upon which we can call for intercession. So, many, in fact, that we don’t (perhaps can’t) know all their names.
How’s that for a morale booster?
It gives me hope in another way as well. There are so many saints in heaven that we don’t, or perhaps can’t, know all their names.
Who are all those saints?
They once were people like you and me. They were regular people who lived on this earth and did their best to love God and accept his love in return. They are folks who lived ordinary lives with extraordinary love for God.
