Church, always guided by the Holy Ghost, instituted the Commemoration of all the faithful departed, to encourage the faithful to fulfil the great duty of prayer for the dead, prescribed by Christian charity.
The cradle of this touching solemnity was the Abbey of Cluny. St. Odilo, [1] who was Abbot there at the close of the tenth century, edified all France by his charity towards his neighbour. Extending his compassion even to the dead, he ceased not to pray for the souls in Purgatory. It was this tender charity which inspired him to establish in his monastery, as also in its dependencies, the feast of the commemoration of all the souls departed. We believe, says the historian Berault, that he had received a revelation to that effect, for God manifested in a miraculous manner how pleasing to Him was the devotion of His servant. It is thus related by his biographers. Whilst the holy Abbot governed his monastery in France, a pious hermit lived in a little island off the coast of Sicily. A French pilgrim was cast upon the shore of this little island by a tempest. The hermit, whom he went to visit, asked him if he knew the Abbot Odilo. "Certainly," replied the pilgrim, " I know him, and am proud of his acquaintance; but how do you know him, and why do you ask me this question?" "I often hear," replied the hermit, "the evil spirits complain of pious persons who, by their prayers and alms-deeds, deliver the souls from the pains which they endure in the other life, but they complain principally of Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, and his Religious. W T hen, therefore, you shall have returned to your native country, I beg of you, in the name of God, to exhort the holy Abbot and his monks to redouble their good works in behalf of the poor souls."
The pilgrim betook himself to the monastery and did as he was directed. In consequence, St. Odilo gave orders that in all the monasteries of his Institute, on the day following All Saints, a commemoration of all the faithful
- ↑ Jan. 1.
