Sacred Calendar
The Roman year ordered for memory, penance, feasts, saints, and the daily pilgrimage of the faithful.
Calendar standard
Pre-1955 Roman usage
The calendar follows the universal Roman year under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X, with the Roman Martyrology preserved as a distinct daily witness.
The day is presented for prayer, recollection, study, and perseverance in the City.
Daily observance
Today in the City of God
The Church keeps this day in holy time. The Pilgrim's Companion gathers the feast, daily quote, Martyrology, meditation, prayer, and related chapters into one daily path through the City.
Choose a date
Daily observance
All Saints
Sunday, November 1, 2026
Season: Time after Pentecost
The day is set within the Roman year so its feast, Martyrology, daily quote, prayer, and reading path may be received together without blurring their proper sources.
Today's pilgrimage
All Saints
Rank: Double of the First Class
Color: white
Quote for the day
St. John
“I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations.”
Apocalypse 7:9, Douay-Rheims
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - November 1
The Festival of All Saints, which pope Boniface IV., after the dedication of the Pantheon, ordained to be kept generally and solemnly every year, in the city of Rome, in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and of the holy martyrs. It was afterwards decreed by Gregory IV. that this feast, which was then celebrated in many dioceses, but at different times, should be on this day perpetually and solemnly kept by the whole Church in honor of all the Saints. — At Terracina, in Campania, the birthday of St. Caesarius, deacon, who was for many days detained in prison, afterwards put into a sack with St. Julian, priest, and then precipitated into the sea. — At Dijon, St. Benignus, a priest, who was sent to France by blessed Polycarp to preach the Gospel. After he had been subjected to many most grievous torments, by the judge Terentius, under the emperor Marcus Aurelius, he was finally condemned to have his neck struck with an iron bar and his body pierced with a lance. — The same day, St. Mary, handmaid. Accused of professing the Christian religion, in the time of the emperor Adrian, she was subjected to cruel scourging, to torture on the rack, and the lacerating of her body with iron hooks, and thus completed her martyrdom. — At Damascus, the martyrdom of the Saints Caesarius, Dacius and five others. — In Persia, under king Sapor, the holy martyrs John, bishop, and James, priest. — At Tarsus, the Saints Cyrenia and Juliana, under the emperor Maximian. — At Clermont, in Auvergne, St. Austremonius, first bishop of that city. — At Paris, the decease of St. Marcellus, bishop. — At Bayeux, St. Vigor, bishop, in the time of Childebert, king of the Franks. — At Tivoli, St. Severin, monk. — In Gatinais, St. Maturin, confessor.
Highlighted saint
All Saints
The citizens of heaven and the triumph of grace.
All Saints honors the whole company of the blessed in heaven: apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, penitents, hidden faithful, and all who died in the grace of God.
The feast teaches that holiness is the normal end of Catholic life. The saints are not ornaments of religion, but witnesses of what grace can make of men.
Virtue to practice
Hopeful pursuit of holiness.
Error to resist
The lie that sanctity is exceptional rather than the common vocation of the baptized.
For the pilgrim in exile
Let the saints become companions, not distant statues. Heaven is full of those who fought, suffered, repented, and persevered.
Imitate today
- Choose one Beatitude to practice concretely.
- Ask the saints for help toward heaven.
- Reject discouragement about sanctity.
Sources
- Matthew 5:1-12, Douay-Rheims.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, November 1.
From Matins
The footsteps of the saints into joy.
Matins - Second Nocturn - All Saints
Venerable Bede, Priest, Sermon on the Saints
“These are the steps which the Saints who have already gone home have left marked for us.”
Doctrine taught
- The Breviary keeps All Saints as a summons to the race of good living under the eyes of God and Christ.
- Bede teaches that God gives the red crown to martyrs and the white crown to those who conquer in peace by righteousness, faith, and obedience.
- The saints are not distant ornaments of heaven, but marked footsteps: simplicity, peaceable charity, humility, service, mercy toward the poor, firmness for truth, and discipline.
For the pilgrim in exile
Do not admire the saints from afar. Walk where they walked: in mercy, purity, courage, prayer, discipline, and fidelity to the commandments of God.
Sources
- The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. IV, Autumn, Second Nocturn within the Octave of All Saints, lessons iv-vi.
- Bute 1908 is used here as an accessible pre-Pius X Breviary witness and is cited distinctly from the 1936-1937 Benziger / Burns Oates edition.
Breviary Witness
The blessed citizens of the heavenly city.
Matins - All Saints
Breviary witness
- The Breviary office of All Saints gathers the Church before the whole company of the blessed.
- Its witness teaches that holiness is the triumph of grace in every state of life, and that heaven is the true city of the faithful.
For the pilgrim in exile
Let the saints make holiness seem possible again. They are not decorations, but citizens who urge the pilgrim toward the same homeland.
Sources
- Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for November 1, All Saints.
- Matthew 5:1-12, Douay-Rheims.
Gospel of the day
Blessed are the clean of heart.
All Saints - Matthew 5:1-12
“Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.”
What Our Lord teaches
- The Beatitudes reveal the true nobility of the City of God.
- Sanctity is not one temperament or station; it is grace received and lived in poverty of spirit, purity, mercy, and endurance.
Virtue to practice
Choose one Beatitude and practice it in a concrete way today.
Error to resist
The lie that holiness is exceptional rather than the common vocation of the baptized.
For the pilgrim in exile
Do not look at the saints as though they were far-off marble. They are family, and they urge you onward with the tenderness of those who know the road.
Sources
- Matthew 5:1-12, Douay-Rheims.
- Traditional Roman Gospel for All Saints.
Meditation
The Church Made Public
Pentecost teaches that the Holy Ghost does not create private religious enthusiasm detached from doctrine, worship, and authority. He gathers, sends, teaches, and strengthens the visible Church. The remnant must therefore seek fire without disorder and zeal without novelty.
Related paths
Walk the day through the City.
Today's chapters
Read with the feast.
Prayer
The day should become prayer.
O Lord, recollect my scattered thoughts, govern my words, and teach me to return to Thee before the noise of the day rules my soul.
Thought for the pilgrim
Prayer keeps the day from becoming self-ruled.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Pause at midday for a brief act of faith, hope, charity, and contrition.
Source notes
Universal Roman Calendar under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X
Fasting and abstinence according to the laws observed in 1952
Daily quotations and pilgrimage excerpts should come from Scripture, Fathers, Doctors, saints, traditional popes before 1958, traditional catechisms, approved devotional works, or received liturgical texts.
The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore, 1916, published by John Murphy Company; the local 1916 text is displayed and traceable to its source lines.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.