All Saints’ Day

In the early years of Christianity many martyrs died for their faith. In order to preserve the memory of the faith of these Christians, the church set aside special days to honour them. By the late fourth century, this common feast was celebrated in Antioch.

However, Pope Boniface IV is officially credited with the establishment of All Saints’ Day in order to honour all the Saints at one time , consecrating the Pantheon at Rome to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs on 13 May in 609AD. This day was originally called the feast of all Holy Martyrs. Later, in 837AD, Pope Gregory III changed the name to the Feast of All Saints, also the date of the celebration to 1 November. In English the traditional name for All Saints’ Day was All Hallows Day. (A Hallow was a hoppy person). The eve of the feast, 31 October, is still commonly known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween.

There are two definitions of Saint. The first relates to Christians, whose lives we remember because it encourages us in our own faithfulness. The second, a saint is anyone whose life is washed clean by the righteousness
of Christ, received as an undeserved gift. For Luther, we are “simil justis et peccator” (which means ”simultaneously saint and sinner”)

The Bible doesn’t tell us to pray to the saints or through the saints. Rather, we can find inspiration in their stories of God’s faithfulness.

“God is faithful” “The Lord is good, trust Him”
“His grace is sufficient in their trials and sufficient for you today.”

Pastor Darryl

Photo by Mark Pan4ratte on Unsplash