The feast of All Saints

Catholics celebrate the feast of All Saints on November 1 each year. The tradition originated from popular devotion to martyrs during the early centuries of the Church. While local churches maintained their own lists of saints and commemorations, the Church eventually centralized this devotion into a single official day.

Pope Boniface IV institutionalized the feast on May 13, 610, when he converted the Pantheon in Rome into the church of Saint Mary and the Martyrs. During this transition, several relics of martyrs were placed in the building from the catacombs. Around the year 830, Pope Gregory III set the date of the feast to November 1.