Solemnity · Sunday, November 1, 2026

All Saints' Day 2026

All Saints' Day, November 1, celebrates every saint in heaven — not only the canonized, but the countless men and women whose holiness only God knows. In 2026 it falls on a Sunday.

All Saints' Day — a holy day of obligation in the United States. In 2026 the Sunday Mass is the Mass of All Saints.

What the day means

The Church has a calendar full of saints' days, but most saints have none. All Saints is their feast: grandparents, unnamed martyrs, ordinary Christians who loved God to the end. It is also a feast of hope, because it is the company every Christian is called to join. The first reading is the vision of a great multitude, from every nation, that no one could count.

Revelation 7:9 (WEB)After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

The readings are the same every year: Revelation 7:2–4, 9–14; Psalm 24 (“Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face”); 1 John 3:1–3 (“we shall be like him”); and the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1–12a.

Hebrews 12:1 (WEB)Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

The prayer of the day

The collect of All Saints, in use for well over a thousand years:

LatinOmnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui nos omnium Sanctorum tuorum merita sub una tribuisti celebritate venerari: quaesumus, ut desideratam nobis tuae propitiationis abundantiam, multiplicatis intercessoribus, largiaris. Per Dominum nostrum.

Our translationAlmighty, ever-living God, who have given us to honor the merits of all your saints in a single celebration: grant, we pray, that with so many interceding for us, you may pour out on us the abundance of your mercy for which we long. Through our Lord.

Keeping the day

Go to Mass — in 2026 your Sunday Mass is the solemnity.
The vigil, October 31: All Hallows' Eve. Children dress as saints; parishes hold saint parties.
Learn a saint you don't know. Start with the saints of the Roman Calendar, or the saint of your name.
Begin praying for the dead. The cemetery indulgence for the holy souls begins today and runs to November 8, and the All Souls church-visit indulgence opens at noon. How they work →

The communion of saints

Catholics ask the saints to pray for them as they would ask a friend, because death does not divide the Body of Christ. The case from Scripture, quoted in full →

All Saints questions

When is All Saints' Day 2026?

Sunday, November 1, 2026.

Is All Saints' Day 2026 a holy day of obligation?

Yes, and because it falls on a Sunday in 2026, one Mass fulfils both the Sunday and the holy day. In the United States the obligation is lifted only when November 1 falls on a Saturday or a Monday — as it will in 2027, a Monday.

What is the difference between All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day?

All Saints (November 1) celebrates everyone already in heaven, canonized or not. All Souls (November 2) prays for the faithful departed who are still being purified, in purgatory. One is a feast of joy, the other a day of intercession; together they make the communion of saints.

Why is All Saints on November 1?

Pope Gregory III (731–741) dedicated a chapel in St Peter's in Rome to all the saints on November 1, and by the ninth century the date was kept throughout the Western Church. An older feast of all martyrs had been kept in May since Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon to Our Lady and the martyrs in 609.

What is All Hallows' Eve?

The evening before All Saints — “hallow” is an old word for a saint. Halloween is the vigil of the feast; many Catholic families keep it with saint costumes and parties alongside the trick-or-treat.

Saint of the day on your home screen, with the day's readings and prayers — free.