All Saints' Day

The feast of All Saints is a Double of the First Class with an Octave. The universal celebration of this feast developed from the dedication of the Pantheon in Rome to St. Mary and the Martyrs. This dedication took place on May 13th, 610. In some places, and the in Byzantine East to this day, a celebration of All Saints took place after Trinity Sunday. The celebration of the feast spread and Gregory IV transferred the feast and dedication to November 1st in 835. Louis the Pious spread the celebration throughout his empire and the feast entered the Universal Calendar. Sixtus IV gave the feast an Octave in the fifteenth century. The liturgical colour for the feast, and its Octave, is white. The twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, and this year the first Sunday of November, is commemorated in the Office and at Mass. The feast was preceded by a Vigil yesterday. 

At Vespers, yesterday afternoon, the antiphons Vidi turbam magnam etc were sung, doubled, with Pss. 109, 110, 111, 112 and 116. The Office hymn was Placare, Christe, servulis. After the collect of the feast a commemoration of the Sunday was sung (the antiphon on the Magnificat being Vidi, Dominum for the Saturday before the first Sunday of November). At Compline the Dominical psalms were sung and the Dominical preces were omitted.

At Mattins the invitatory is proper to the feast and octave, Regem regum Dominum venite adoremus, Quia ipse est corona Sanctorum omnium, and the Office hymn is Placare, Christe, servulis. In the first nocturn the antiphons Novit Dominus etc are sung, doubled, with psalms 1, 4 & 8. The lessons are taken from the book of the Apocalypse. In the second nocturn the antiphons Domine, qui operati etc are sung, doubled, with psalms 14, 23 & 31 and the lessons are taken from a sermon of the Venerable Bede. In the third nocturn the antiphons Timete Dominum etc are sung, doubled, with psalms 33, 60 & 96. The homily on St. Matthew's Gospel is from St. Augustine. Today the eighth and ninth lessons of the feast are read together and the ninth lesson is the homily for the Sunday which is a commentary of St. Hiliary on St. Matthew's Gospel. The Te Deum is sung. At Lauds the antiphons Vidi turbam magnam etc are sung, doubled, with the Sunday psalms (Pss. 99, 92, 62, Benedicite & 148) and the Office hymn is Salutis aeterne dator.  After the collect of the feast a commemoration of the Sunday is sung.

At Prime and the Hours the antiphons Vidi turbam magnum etc are sung in the usual order. At Prime (Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii) the lectio brevis is proper to the feast, Benedictio et claritas,.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday. The Creed is sung, the preface is of the Blessed Trinity and the last Gospel is of the Sunday.

At second Vespers the antiphons Vidi turbam magnam etc are sung, doubled, with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 115. The Office hymn is Placare, Christe, servulis. After Benedicamus Domino etc the verse Fidelium is omitted and the choir sits as the festive white is removed and is exchanged for the black of mourning. Vespers of the Dead are then sung in choir. These begin with the antiphon Placebo Domino in regione vivorum sung, doubled, with Pss. 114, 119, 120, 129 and 127. Requiem aeternam etc is sung at the end of each psalm in place of Gloria Patri etc. After the psalms there is a versicle and response but no hymn. After the antiphon on the Magnificat the choir kneels for a Pater noster, some versicles and the collect. Following the 1911-13 changes Compline takes a special form, newly created in that reform, 'Compline of the Dead', with psalms 122, 141 and 142.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' both the Vigil and Octave of All Saints have been abolished. At Mattins there is no ninth lesson of the Sunday.  At Prime the lectio brevis is of the season and at the Little Hours the antiphons are doubled. At Mass the last Gospel is In principio. The 'double Vespers' has been abolished and Vespers for the Dead will not be sung until tomorrow afternoon.