What is All Saints Day All Saints Day

What is All Saints’ Day? All Saints’ Day is a Christian festival which falls each year on 1 st November. It is a time when Christians remember all of the saints who have died and the wonderful things they have done. Photo courtesy of Oli. Bac (@flickr. com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

What is All Saints’ Day? In 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church made November 1 st a church holiday to honour the saints. This was when this day started to be called All Saints’ Day. Photo courtesy of ashraful kadir (@flickr. com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

What is a Saint? Saints are good men and women who followed God and have now died. Some of the saints could heal, some could work miracles and others had the ability to be in two places at once.

Saints: St. Valentine was a Roman physician who was also a Christian priest during the days of the early church. There are different versions of the Valentine’s Day story. One version is that Valentine was loved so much by the children of the town where he lived, that they wrote him notes telling him how much they liked him and this is why people exchange Valentines cards today.

Saints: St. Valentine In another version of the story, Valentine was trying to heal a blind boy when he was arrested by Roman soldiers for his work as a priest, as Christians were not allowed to teach about God during these days. Valentine was sentenced to die. Before he was taken to be executed, he wrote to the little blind boy explaining to him that Jesus loved him and adding a small treat. According to the story, when the boy ate the treat he could miraculously see again and was able to read Valentine's note.

Saints: St. Nicholas Saint Nicholas was a Christian saint and the bishop of a city named Myra in Turkey. He lived a long time ago during the fourth century. The well known story of St. Nicholas is about three young girls who were sisters and very poor. At this time young girls needed money to pay for their wedding and to set up house for themselves but the girls’ parents were so poor that they could not afford for the daughters to get married. Nicholas heard about this family and decided to help them but he did not want anyone to know it was him. Click to the next page to find out what happened next…

Saints: St. Nicholas Saint Nicholas climbed up on their roof and dropped gold coins down their chimney, they landed below in the girls' stockings, which were hung by the fire to dry. He did this for three nights in a row. The girls found the money and two of them could now afford to marry. Their father wanted to know who was leaving the money, so the next night he hid behind the chimney. He saw Nicholas! Remember, Nicholas did not want anyone to know it was him. However, the father wanted everyone to know what a kind and generous man he was. It is from this story that the tradition of having a stocking full of gifts comes from today.

Saints: St. John the Baptist Some people think of Saint John as one of the greatest saints. He baptised people including Jesus, this is why he was given the name John the Baptist. In Puerto Rico (to remember him baptising people in water), between midnight and dawn on June 23 rd, people swim in the sea.