2 99. THE WORSHIP OF SAINTS. 445
dead bones, or through invocation of his aid. A proverb says that it requires a miracle to prove a miracle. Nevertheless it is done by papal decree on such evidence as is satisfactory to Roman Catholic believers.1
The question, how the saints and the Virgin Mary can hear so many thousands of prayers addressed to them simultaneously in so many different places, without being clothed with the divine attributes of omniscience and omnipresence, did not disturb the faith of the people. The scholastic divines usually tried to solve it by the assumption that the saints read those prayers in the omniscient mind of God. Then why not address God di rectly ?
In addition to the commemoration days of particular saints, two festivals were instituted for the commemoration of all the departed.
The Festival of ALL SAINTS 2 was introduced in the West by Pope Boniface IV. on occasion of the dedication of the Pantheon in Rome, which was originally built by Agrippa in honor of the victory of Augustus at Actium, and dedicated to Jupiter Vindex ; it survived the old heathen temples, and was presented to the pope by the Emperor Phocas, A. D. 607; whereupon it
1 The most recent acts of canonization occurred in our generation. Pope Pius IX. canonized in 1862 with great solemnity twenty-six Japanese mis sionaries and converts of the Franciscan order, who died in a persecution in 1597. Leo XIII. canonized, December 8, 1881, four comparatively obscure paints of ascetic habits and self-denying charity, namely, Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Lorenzo di Brindisi, Giuseppe Labre, and Clara di Montefalco. A Roman priest describes "the blessed Labre" as a saint who "never washed, never changed his linen, generally slept under the arches of the Colosseum and prayed for hours together in the Church of the Orphanage where there is a, tablet to his memory." St. Labre evidently did not believe that " cleanliness is next to godliness "
? Omnium Sanctorum Natalis, or Festivifas, Solemnitas, AHcrheiUgenfest. The Greek church had long before a similar festival in commemoration of all mar tyrs on the first Sunday after Pentecost, called KvptaKij ruv 'Ayiuv TTCIVTUV. Chrysostom, in a sermon for that day, says that on the Octave of Pentecost the Christians were surrounded by the host of martyrs. In the West the first Sunday after Pentecost was devoted to the Trinity, and closed tlu festival part of the church year. See vol. III. 408.
446 FOURTH PERIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
was cleansed, restored and dedicated to the service of God in the name of the ever- Virgin Mary and all martyrs. Baronius tells us that at the time of dedication on May 13 the bones of mar tyrs from the various cemeteries were in solemn procession transferred to the church in twenty-eight carriages.1 From Rome the festival spread during the ninth century over the West, and Gregory IV. induced Lewis the Pious in 835 to make it general in the Empire. The celebration was fixed on the first of November for the convenience of the people who after harvest had a time of leisure, and were disposed to give thanks to God for all his mercies.
The Festival of ALL SOULS 2 is a kind of supplement to that of All Saints, and is celebrated on the day following (Nov. 2). Its introduction is traced to Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, in the tenth century. It spread very soon without a special order, and ap pealed to the sympathies of that age for the sufferings of the souls in purgatory. The worshippers appear in mourning; the mass for the dead is celebrated with the " Dies irce, Dies ilia" and the oft- repeated "Requiem ceternam dona eis, Domine" In some places (e.g. in Munich) the custom prevails of covering the graves on that day with the last flowers of the season.
The festival of MICHAEL the Archangel,3 the leader of the angelic host, was dedicated to the worship of angels,4 on the 29th of September.5 It rests on no doctrine and no fact, but on the sandy foundation of miraculous legends.6 We find it first
1 Martyrologio Romano, May 13 and Nov. 1. The Pantheon or Rotunda, like Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, contains the ashes of other distinguished men besides saints, and is the resting-place of Raphael, and since 1883 even of Victor Emanuel, the founder of the Kingdom of Italy, whom the pope regards as a robber of the patrimony of Peter.
2 Omnium Fidelium defunctorum Memoria or Commemoratio, Allerseelentag.
3 Festum S. Michaelis, or Michaelis Archangeli, Michaelmas.
4 Hence also called Festum omnium Angelorum, St. Michael and all Angel*.
5 In the Eastern church on November 8. The origin of the Eastern cele bration is obscure.
• Namely, sundry apparitions of Michael, at Chonae, near Colossse, in Monte Gargano in the diocese of Sipontum in Apulia (variously assigned to A. D. 492, 520, and 536), in Monte Tumba in Normandy (about 710), and especially one