The feast of Christianity, which commemorates the memory of all saints, known and unknown, without exception. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost by the Eastern Church and on 1 November by the Western Church. All Saints’ Sunday is the feast day of those whose baptismal names do not refer to a saint with a specific day of remembrance.
The first solid evidence of the feast of All Saints is found in a passage from a speech by St. Ephraim of Syros, which refers to a feast “in memory of the Martyrs of the whole world” on 13 May 373 in Nisibis (today’s Nusaibin, Turkey) and Edessa (today’s Urfa, Turkey). The feast of All Saints was finally established in the 6th century, as mentioned in a speech by Deacon Constantine in 535. In the 9th century the feast of All Saints was adopted by the Western Church and was definitively established by Pope Gregory IV (827-844).
Every year on All Saints’ Sunday a pilgrimage is made to the catacombs of Milos, the oldest Christian monument in Greece.
From the Monday after All Saints’ Sunday, the fast of the Holy Apostles begins, which ends on June 28, on the feast day of the Apostles Peter and Paul and the eve of the feast of the Holy Apostles. On these days Christians must abstain from meat, dairy products, and eggs and eat only fish, except on Wednesdays and Fridays, when a strict fast is observed.
