What does the Church celebrate on the Feast of All Saints? The history of the Church takes us back to Pope Gregory III (731–741), who chose November 1st to coincide with the consecration of a chapel in Saint Peter’s dedicated to the relics “of the Holy Apostles and of all the holy martyrs and confessors, and of all the righteous made perfect who rest in peace throughout the world.”
How does Saint Marie Eugenie understand holiness? “The first love that drew Jesus Christ to earth was holiness.” What does it mean to be holy? “The saints could only be created in this self-emptying of our Lord in His Incarnation. There lies the root of all holiness.” Once again, the being of the Son, the Incarnate Word, is central to Marie Eugenie’s vision of holiness. Do you have a saint who accompanies you in a special way? Marie Eugenie encourages us to “read the lives of the saints, for in them we will find that they have completely renounced themselves... and given all their love to God”[1].
Indeed, reading the lives of saints, men and women, past and present, offers us insight into how they looked to Jesus and renounced themselves for a greater plan — the plan of the Kingdom of God, to which they gave themselves, like Marie Eugenie, with all their strength and weakness. Martyrs of yesterday and today who “did not love life so much as to shrink from death” (Rev 12:11). Faithful unto death, these “saints next door”, as Pope Francis affectionately calls them, gave their lives without fleeing or denying the Lord.
This feast can also be a time to recall or to ponder Saint Bernard’s question with which he begins his homily on All Saints’ Day: “What is the use of our praise of the saints, our homage of glory and this solemnity of ours?” His answer: “Our saints have no need of our honours and gain nothing from our worship. For my part, I confess that when I think of the saints, a great longing burns within me” (Sermon 2: Opera Omnia Cisterc. 5, 364 ff).
Why do we pray or sing the Litany of the Saints during certain celebrations or consecrations? We invoke their help and protection. They lived on earth and identified so deeply with Christ that they now intercede for us. The Litany appeared at the end of the 8th century, and as Church History is alive, it has continued to grow with new saints.
But how can we become holy, friends of God? Marie Eugenie tells us: “The great way to be faithful and to be sanctified — I have often told you and I repeat it again — is to love our Lord Jesus Christ, and also to believe in His love for us.” And again she recommends the intercession of the saints: “Pray much to the saints, sisters, so that in a life of fidelity, regularity and obedience, you may grow each day more in the love of our Lord”[2].
At the canonization of Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, Leo XIV pointed out that they are an invitation to all of us, especially the young, for they call us not to waste our lives but to lift them upward and make of them a masterpiece[3]. To lift our lives upward, for us believers, means to live on earth alongside our brothers and sisters while gazing toward heaven — the fullness of life in God.
All the saints have allowed God to enter their lives, letting go of their “self,” for “the self narrows our vision of the world”[4]. In contemplating, reading, or praying with the saints, we glimpse a world worth giving ourselves to its Creator.
Ana Alonso, RA – Province of Spain
[1] December 15, 1878. The Incarnation, Mystery of Holiness. Saint Marie Eugenie of Jesus.
[2] November 3, 1878. The way to attain holiness is to love our Lord and to believe in His love for us. Saint Marie Eugenie of Jesus.
[3] Homily of Pope Leo XIV on September 7, 2025. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-09/pope-canonizes-pier-giorgio-frassati-and-carlo-acutis.html. Website consulted on October 19, 2025.
[4] “The self narrows our vision of the world.” Page 44. About God. Byung-Chul Han. Paidós.