Memorial of Saints (November 2)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• All Souls Day
• Victorinus, bishop & martyr
• Marcian

The Feast of All Souls is a celebration of the lives of family members or friends who have gone before us in death. They may be in need of the Church's prayers for their deliverance from purgatory. Unlike All Saints' Day, the feast of All Souls is theologically rooted in the Catholic doctrine of purgatory. It was not until the 12th century A.D. that the doctrine of purgatory emerged in the Catholic West. The traditional doctrine of purgatory was enunciated by the Second Council of Lyons (1274 A.D.), Pope Benedict XII's Benedictus Deus in 1336 A.D., and especially the Council of Florence's Decree for the Greeks (1439 A.D.). The Council of Florence wanted to strike a balance between the Western Catholic Church's concept of satisfaction and expiation and the Eastern Christian Church's emphasis on purification.

St. Victorinus (d. ca. 303 A.D.) was a Greek who became bishop of Pettau in Styria, Upper Pannonia. He wrote several biblical commentaries, fought several heresies, but was for a time believed to be inclined to Millenarianism. He suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian.

St. Marcian (d. ca. 387 A.D.) was born at Cyrrhus, Syria, of a patrician family. He became a hermit in the Chalcis Desert near Antioch. In time he gathered numerous disciples, appointed Eusebius as abbot over them, and was renowned for his holiness and miracles.

St. Victorinus and St. Marcian were Christian martyrs of the 4th century A.D. But the persecution of Christians began as early as the time of St. Stephen the deacon. St. Stephen is mentioned in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The succeeding wave of persecutions are listed in "St. Stephen and the Martyrs of the Early Christian Eras", (Learn more)