ALL SOULS' DAY CUSTOMS
All Soul's Day Customs
HISTORY
The need and duty of prayer for the departed souls has been acknowledged by the Church at all times. It is recommended in the Scriptures of the Old Testament (II Maccabees 12:46), and found expression not only in public and private prayers, but especially in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice for the repose of souls. The customary dates for public services of this kind were, and still are, the day of death and burial, the seventh and thirtieth day after death (Month’s Mind Mass), and the anniversary.
The memorial feast of all departed ones in a common celebration was inaugurated by Abbot St. Odilo of Cluny (1048). He issued a decree that all monasteries of the congregation of Cluny were annually to keep November 2 as a "day of all the departed ones" (Omnium Defunctorum). On November 1, after Vespers, the bell should be tolled and afterward the Office of the Dead be recited; on the next day all priests had to say Mass for the repose of the souls in purgatory.
Pope Sylvester II (1003) approved and recommended it. Finally, in the 14th century, Rome placed the day of the commemoration of all the faithful departed in the official books of the Western Church for November 2 (or November 3 if the second falls on a Sunday).....
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