Today
the Church honors all the Saints who live now in heaven with Jesus, His Father
and the Holy Spirit.
The
earliest observance of this day was a commemoration of “all the Martyrs” in the
fourth century. Later, when
Christians were free to worship according to their conscience, the Church
acknowledged other paths to sanctity besides dying for the Faith. In the early
centuries the only criterion for sainthood was popular acclaim, even when the
bishop's approval became the final step in placing a commemoration on the
calendar. The first papal canonization occurred in 993 AD; the lengthy process
now required to prove extraordinary sanctity took shape over the past 500
years. Today's feast honors the obscure as well as the famous—the saints each
of us have known and are invited to imitate. Pope Francis said today, “The saints are not distant, but
love and understand us. They are happy and want to help us to be happy with
them in Paradise.”
“After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no
one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing
white robes and holding palm branches in their hands....
One of the elders said to me, ‘These are the ones who have
survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.’”
-Revelation 7:9, 14
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