All Souls

All Souls, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is the day on which the whole Church prays for the souls of the dead who have died in God's grace but are not yet fully purified, that they may be cleansed of every remaining stain and admitted to the vision of God. Fittingly following the solemnity of All Saints, it expresses the Church's ancient faith in purgatory and in the power of prayer, almsgiving, and above all the Sacrifice of the Mass offered for the departed.

The custom of setting aside a single day for all the faithful departed was spread through the influence of St. Odilo, abbot of Cluny, who around the year 998 decreed its observance in his monasteries, from where it passed to the entire Latin Church. On this day the faithful visit cemeteries, pray for their loved ones, and remember that the bonds of charity are not broken by death, for the living and the dead are one in Christ. It is kept each year on 2 November.