THEOLOGICAL CLUE

All Saints' Day is one of those days in the church year calendar that many congregations ignore, simply because they don't know what to do with it. It began and developed naturally out of the annual commemoration of the deaths of individual martyrs, beginning with the apostles. Saints' days found their way into the worship of the church before the church year took much shape; many saints' days were in place by A.D. 200, preceding most elements of the church year, except Easter and the fifty-day Pasch, plus Sunday as a weekly celebration of the death and resurrection of the Lord. In time, there were so many saints' days that an All Saints' Day was established to remember and honor all of them. All Souls' Day was later added (on November 2) to pray for "ordinary" saints. Mo…