The commemoration of all the faithful departed is celebrated by the
Church on 2 November, or, if this be a Sunday or a feast of the first
class, on 3 November. The Office of the Dead must be recited by the
clergy and all the Masses are to be of Requiem, except one of the
current feast, where this is of obligation. The theological basis for
the feast is the doctrine that the souls which, on departing from the
body, are not perfectly cleansed from venial sins, or have not fully
atoned for past transgressions, are debarred from the Beatific Vision,
and that the faithful on earth can help them by prayers, almsdeeds and
especially by the sacrifice of the Mass. In the early days of
Christianity the names of the departed brethren were entered in the
diptychs. Later, in the sixth century, it was customary in Benedictine
monasteries to hold a commemoration of the deceased members at
Whitsuntide. In Spain there was such a day on Saturday before Sexagesima
or before Pentecost, at the time of St. Isidore (d. 636). In Germany
there existed (according to the testimony of Widukind, Abbot of Corvey,
c. 980) a time-honoured ceremony of praying to the dead on 1 October.
This was accepted and sanctified by the Church. St. Odilo of Cluny (d.
1048) ordered the commemoration of all the faithful departed to he held
annually in the monasteries of his congregation. Thence it spread among
the other congregations of the Benedictines and among the Carthusians.
Of the dioceses, Liège was the first to adopt it under Bishop Notger (d.
1008). It is then found in the martyrology of St. Protadius of Besançon
(1053-66). Bishop Otricus (1120-25) introduced it into Milan for the 15
October. In Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, priests on this day say
three Masses. A similar concession for the entire world was asked of
Pope Leo XIII. He would not grant the favour but ordered a special
Requiem on Sunday, 30 September, 1888. In the Greek Rite this
commemoration is held on the eve of Sexagesima Sunday, or on the eve of
Pentecost. The Armenians celebrate the passover of the dead on the day
after Easter.
BARING-GOULD, Lives of the Saints; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints (2 Nov.); LINGARD, The history and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church (reprint, London, 1899); GUMMERE, Germanic Origins (New York, 1892); BINDER, Allgemeine Realencyklopædie; BITERIM, Denkwürdkigkeiten; KELLNER, Heortologie (Freiburg, 1901), II, 180, 181; PROBST in Kirchenlex.; RINGHOLZ, Der hl. Odilo von Cluny (Bruenn, 18856); NILLES, Kalendarium Manuale utriusque Ecclesiæ (2d ed., Innsbruch, 1896).
FRANCIS MERSHMAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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