Image: Unknown artist, Virgin of Carmel Saving Souls in Purgatory, late 17th century. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (Google Art Project). (source)
This site follows the traditional Roman calendar of 1962, as found in the 1962 Roman Missal used at the Traditional Latin Mass. Some feast days fall on different dates than in the General Roman Calendar of 1969, revised after the Second Vatican Council.
Sancta ergo et salubris est cogitatio pro defunctis exorare, ut a peccatis solvantur.
2 Machabees 12:46
It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
Today in the Calendar
November 2 is All Souls’ Day, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, a day of the first class in the traditional 1962 calendar. It is not a saint’s feast: the Mass is a Requiem in black vestments, offered for all the souls still being purified in Purgatory. Because no saint is celebrated in the Missal today, the saint shown here is taken from the traditional Roman Martyrology, which lists St. Victorinus for this day.
His Life
Victorinus was bishop of Poetovio in the Roman province of Pannonia, the town later called Pettau and today Ptuj in Slovenia. He lived in the second half of the third century, and he is one of the very first Christian writers to explain the Holy Scriptures in Latin. St. Jerome, who admired his learning, remarks that he knew Greek better than Latin, so his writing was plain, but his thought was deep.
He wrote commentaries on many books of the Bible, among them Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Matthew and the Song of Songs. Most are lost, but his commentary on the Apocalypse survives, the oldest Latin commentary on that book that we still have, along with a short work on the creation of the world.
When the great persecution of the Emperor Diocletian broke out, Victorinus did not abandon his flock. The Martyrology says that after writing many works he was crowned with martyrdom, around the year 304, as St. Jerome relates.
Praying for the Dead
All Souls’ Day follows All Saints for a reason. Yesterday the Church looked up to her members who already see God; today she turns to those who died in His grace but still need cleansing before they enter heaven. Our prayers, our sacrifices and above all the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass can help them. On this day every priest may offer three Masses for the departed, and the whole month of November is traditionally given to praying for them.
It is fitting to remember a bishop who spent his life explaining the Apocalypse on the day the Church prays for the souls who are waiting to join the great multitude before the throne of the Lamb.
Collect
Latin
Fidélium, Deus, ómnium cónditor et redémptor: animábus famulórum famularúmque tuárum remissiónem cunctórum tríbue peccatórum; ut indulgéntiam, quam semper optavérunt, piis supplicatiónibus consequántur: Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
English
O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Thy servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that through our devout prayers they may obtain the pardon which they have always desired: Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Requiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine, et lux perpétua lúceat eis. Sancte Victoríne, ora pro nobis.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. St. Victorinus, pray for us.