Author: Dr Jenny O'Brien
At the beginning of November the Church celebrates two important feasts: All Saints on the first, followed by All Souls on the second. While in the minds of many Catholics these two feasts are inextricably linked, they originated at different times and have different emphases.
From its earliest days the Church has commemorated the anniversaries of the martyrs, those who would face death rather than deny their faith in Christ. In the West, the number of martyrs was particularly high under the rule of the emperor Diocletian at the end of the 3rd century, but less than ten years after his death Christianity was given legal status as a religion. Because there were not enough days in the year to mark the death of each individual martyr the first Sunday after Pentecost was assigned to celebrate all martyrs.