The Solemnity of All Saints. This feast, which might be called the fulfillment of Pentecost, honors all who are now with God, the great multitude beyond number, which all who wish may join. The feast seems to have succeeded earlier observance of a feast of all the martyrs. It first appeared in the seventh century.
In the second or third century, St. Benignus of Dijon. He spread the gospel in Burgundy and was martyred. A shrine and a monastery grew up at the site of his tomb.
In 1431, in Portugal, Blessed Nonius. He led the Portuguese to victory over Castile, a victory that firmly established Portugal as a nation. His daughter married the son of King João of Portugal. Then Nonius became a lay brother at a Carmelite friary he had established in Lisbon. He remained there the rest of his life.
In 1945, Blessed Rupert Mayer. He became a diocesan priest, but then entered the Jesuits. He ministered to immigrants who came to Munich from the countryside. During World War I he served as an extremely zealous chaplain, was wounded, and lost a leg. He then ministered to the university students in Munich. The Nazis imprisoned him, but when his health began to fail, they interned him at the Benedictine monastery of Ettal. When the Americans liberated Ettal, he returned to Munich, but died soon afterward.
Our daily martyrology was written by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB. Copyright © 2008 by the Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, ID 83338.