Today, 2 November, is the feast of ...
* All Souls
- first formal witness to a collective day of the dead is from the first
half of the ninth century, when monasteries would commemorate their dead
as well as the souls of their benefactors
- became more established at Cluny, under St Odilo (for more on Cluny
and this feast, see below)
- in Armenian rite, there is a special commemoration of the dead on
Easter Monday
In regard to All Souls Isabelle Cochelin provided us with following
information four years ago:
On the subject of All Souls,
The information is given in a Vita of Odilo and in the customaries. For
instance, in the Vita by Pierre Damien (PL 144, col.936-37), you can
read:
Tunc venerabilis pater Odilo per omnia monasteria sua constituit
generale decretum ut, sicut primo die mensis Novembris, juxta
universalis Ecclesiae regulam, omnium Sanctorum solemnitas agitur, ita
sequenti die in psalmis et eleemosynis et praecipue missarum solemniis
omnium in Christo quiescentium memoria celebretur.
The other Vita of the saint is by the monk Jotsaud (PL 142, col.897-14,
plus 2 chapters edited by E. SACKUR in Neues Archiv, 15 (1890): 118-21)
I re-read it quicklu and did not see any mention of the Feast. But I
might have gone through it too quickly. You have a chapter of the Liber
tramitis reserved to this subject: the fact that Odilo created the feast
of all souls: ed. P. Dinter, Liber tramitis aevi Odilonis Abbatis,
(Corpus consuetudinum monasticarum, X), 1980, 138,p.199. It is then
mentioned again in the customaries by Ulrich (PL 149, I,xlii,col.688-89
with a reference to the Vita) and Bernard (ed. M. Herrgott, Cura
disciplina monastica, 1726, II, xxxii,p.353-54).
* Victorinus, bishop of Pettau, martyr (c. 303)
- passio has been lost; Jerome quoted from some of his biblical
commentaries
* Marcian (c. 387)
- lived in desert between Antioch and the Euphrates; went to great
lengths to avoid the people who were looking to claim his body when he
died, as he did not wish there to be any memorial to himself
* Thomas of Walden (1430)
- Carmelite, known for his opposition to Wyclif and the Lollards;
confessor to England's Henry V (who died in his arms at Vincennes in
1422)
- known as *Doctor authenticus*, and *Doctor praestantissimus*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dr Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1TB
UK
phone: +44(0)117-928-8168
fax: +44(0)117-929-7850
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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