Spiritual warfare
Spiritual warfare is the Christian concept of fighting against the work of preternatural evil forces. It is based on the biblical belief in evil spirits, or demons, that are said to intervene in human affairs in various ways. Various Christian groups have adopted practices to repel such forces, as based on their doctrine of Christian demonology. Prayer is a common form of spiritual warfare among Christians. Other practices may include exorcism, the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. Jewish demonology escalated with the rise of Jewish pseudepigraphic writings of the 1st Century BCE, in particular with Enochic apocrypha. Jewish apocrypha influenced post-New Testament writings of the early fathers, which further defined Christian demonology, thus followed literary works such as The Didache, The Shepherd of Hermas, Ignatius's epistle to the Ephesians, Origen's Contra Celsum. Mainstream Christianity acknowledge a belief in the reality of demons, fallen angels, the Devil in Christianity and Satan.
In Christian evangelism, doctrines of demonology are influenced by interpretations of the New Testament, namely with the Gospels, in that dealing with spirits became a customary activity of Jesus' ministry. Mark states that "he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons". Exorcisms may be promoted by evangelists referring to Jesus comment, "If I drive out demons by the spirit of God the kingdom of God is upon you". Evangelical Christian traditions believe that Satan and his minions exercise significant influence over this world and its power structures. A hostile realm in conflict with the kingdom of God is recorded in the Bible by the Apostle John, "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" and by Jesus who referred to Satan as "the prince of this world", which may point to the concept of Territorial Spirits. Paul elaborates on demonic hierarchy in Ephesians 6 where he mentions, by way of metaphor, those qualities needed for defense against them.
Two of those articles, the helmet of Salvation and the breastplate of Righteousness, are mentioned in the book of Isaiah. It is believed that Satan occupies a temporal existence when the Apostle Paul refers to him as "the god of this age". Further, Paul's epistles focus on the Victory of Christ over powers. Evangelical interpretation has history divided into two eras: the present evil age and the age to come which supports the concept of the Second coming of Christ. Imagery of spiritual warfare is displayed in the Book of Revelation when after the War in Heaven, the beasts and kings of the earth wage war against God's people, a final battle ensues with Satan and the nations of the earth against God himself. Christian practices of spiritual warfare vary throughout Christianity; the development of specific spiritual warfare techniques has generated many discussions in the Christian missions community. Critical exchanges of views may be found in periodicals like the Evangelical Missions Quarterly, in conferences sponsored by the Evangelical Missions Society.
In 2000, an international collaborative attempt was made by evangelicals and charismatics in the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization to reach some common agreement about spiritual warfare. The conference gathered in Nairobi and yielded a consultation document as well as many technical papers published as the book Deliver Us from Evil. Spiritual warfare has been practiced by non-Christians and in non-Christian countries. According to the Christian Broadcasting Network commentator Carl Moeller, spiritual warfare is practiced in North Korea, a country, described as the most dangerous place on earth to be Christian. Non-Christian media reported on the African spiritual warrior Pastor Thomas Muthee visit to America who prayed over a 2008 presidential candidate; the Nigerian Tribune, the oldest surviving private newspaper in Nigeria, has published articles calling for the need for spiritual warfare. In the case of Haiti, American televangelist Pat Robertson and others blamed the earthquake of 2010 on demons, called for Christians to increase spiritual warfare prayer.
Expositors of spiritual warfare include Jessie Penn-Lewis, who published the Pentecostal 1903 book, War on the Saints, prolific author Pastor Win Worley started publishing his Hosts of Hell series in 1976, Kurt E. Koch published Occult ABC, which all contain elements of the concept of spiritual warfare, if not explicitly using the expression. In 1991, C. Peter Wagner published Confronting the Powers: How the New Testament Church Experienced the Power of Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare and edited Territorial Spirits. In 1992, Dr. Ed Murphy wrote a modern 600 page book on the subject, “The Handbook of Spiritual Warfare“, from the point of view of deliverance ministry. Laws of Deliverance, From Proverbs, 1980, 1983, 1995, 2000, 2003, written by Marilyn A. Ellsworth, is another important Biblical work of authority, as is her book ICBM Spiritual Warfare, God's Unbeatable Plan. Other notable expositions on spiritual warfare were written by Pastor Win Worley, Mark Bubeck, Neil Anderson. Pope John Paul II stated, “‘Spiritual combat’… is a secret and interior art, an invisible struggle in which monks engage every day against the temptations”.
In modern times the views of individual Roman Catholics have tended to divide into traditional and more modern understandings of the subject. An example of a more modern view of the demonic is found in the work of the Dominican scholar Richard Woods' The Devil; the traditional outlook is represented by Father Gabriele Amorth who
Soldier
A soldier is one who fights as part of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer; the word soldier derives from the Middle English word soudeour, from Old French soudeer or soudeour, meaning mercenary, from soudee, meaning shilling's worth or wage, from sou or soud, shilling. The word is related to the Medieval Latin soldarius, meaning soldier; these words derive from the Late Latin word solidus, referring to an Ancient Roman coin used in the Byzantine Empire. In most armies use of the word "soldier" has taken on a more general meaning due to the increasing specialization of military occupations that require different areas of knowledge and skill-sets; as a result, "soldiers" are referred to by names or ranks which reflect an individual's military occupation specialty arm, service, or branch of military employment, their type of unit, or operational employment or technical use such as: trooper, commando, infantryman, paratrooper, ranger, engineer, craftsman, medic, or a gunner.
In many countries soldiers serving in specific occupations are referred to by terms other than their occupational name. For example, military police personnel in the British Army are known as "red caps" because of the colour of their caps. Infantry are sometimes called "grunts" or "squaddies", while U. S. Army artillery crews, or "gunners," are sometimes referred to as "redlegs", from the service branch color for artillery. U. S. soldiers are called "G. I.s". French Marine Infantry are called marsouins because of their amphibious role. Military units in most armies have nicknames of this type, arising either from items of distinctive uniform, some historical connotation or rivalry between branches or regiments; some soldiers, such as conscripts or draftees, serve a single limited term. Others choose to serve until retirement. In the United States, military members can retire after 20 years. In other countries, the term of service is 30 years, hence the term "30-year man". According to the United Nations, 10-30% of all soldiers worldwide are women.
Airman Marine Sailor Media related to Soldier at Wikimedia Commons
Christians
Christians are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach. While there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance; the term "Christian" is used as an adjective to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a proverbial sense "all, noble, good, Christ-like."According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, up from about 600 million in 1910. By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey Christianity will remain the world's largest religion in 2050, if current trends continue. Today, about 37% of all Christians live in the Americas, about 26% live in Europe, 24% live in sub-Saharan Africa, about 13% live in Asia and the Pacific, 1% live in the Middle East and North Africa.
About half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic. Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the world's Christians. Other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in territories. 280 million Christians live as a minority. Christians have made noted contributions to a range of fields, including the sciences, politics and business. According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes, a review of Nobel prizes awarded between 1901 and 2000 reveals that of Nobel Prizes laureates identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference; the Greek word Χριστιανός, meaning "follower of Christ", comes from Χριστός, meaning "anointed one", with an adjectival ending borrowed from Latin to denote adhering to, or belonging to, as in slave ownership. In the Greek Septuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, meaning " anointed." In other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are derived from the Greek, such as Chrétien in French and Cristiano in Spanish.
The abbreviations Xian and Xtian have been used since at least the 17th century: Oxford English Dictionary shows a 1634 use of Xtianity and Xian is seen in a 1634-38 diary. The word Xmas uses a similar contraction; the first recorded use of the term is in the New Testament, in Acts 11:26, after Barnabas brought Saul to Antioch where they taught the disciples for about a year, the text says: " the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26:28, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4:16, which exhorts believers: "Yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames; however Peter's apparent endorsement of the term led to its being preferred over "Nazarenes" and the term Christianoi from 1 Peter becomes the standard term in the Early Church Fathers from Ignatius and Polycarp onwards.
The earliest occurrences of the term in non-Christian literature include Josephus, referring to "the tribe of Christians, so named from him. In the Annals he relates that "by vulgar appellation called Christians" and identifies Christians as Nero's scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. Another term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is "Nazarenes". Jesus is named as a Nazarene in Math 2:23, while Saul-Paul is said to be Nazarene in Acts 24:5; the latter verse makes it clear that Nazarene referred to the name of a sect or heresy, as well as the town called Nazareth. The term Nazarene was used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus which records that "the Jews call us Nazarenes." While around 331 AD Eusebius records that Christ was called a Nazoraean from the name Nazareth, that in earlier centuries "Christians" were once called "Nazarenes". The Hebrew equivalent of "Nazarenes", occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian. A wide range of beliefs and practices are found across the world among those who call themselves Christian.
Denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of "Christianity". For example, Timothy Beal notes the disparity of beliefs among those who identify as Christians in the United States as follows: Although all of them have their historical roots in Christian theology and tradition, although most would identify themselves as Christian, many would not identify others within the larger category as Christian. Most Baptists and fundamentalists, for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian. In fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity. Linda Woodhead attempts to provide a common belief thread for Christians by noting that "Whatever else they might disagree about, Christians are at least united
Miles Christianus
The miles Christianus or "milites Christi" is a Christian allegory based on New Testament military metaphors the Armor of God metaphor of military equipment standing for Christian virtues and on certain passages of the Old Testament from the Latin Vulgate. By the fifth century, the Church had started to develop doctrines that allowed for Christian participation in battle, though this was limited by a requirement that the fighting must be undertaken to convert infidels or spread the glory of Christ. Christians were not to fight for personal glory; the concepts of miles Christi and militia Christi can be traced back to the first century AD. The phrase miles Christi, derived from a letter from Paul the Apostle and much employed by Pope Gregory VII appeared in the Gesta Francorum in reference to the young Prince Tancred, Bohemond and Count Raymond of Toulouse, each of whom were Christian leaders in the First Crusade; the metaphor has its origins in early Christianity of the Roman Empire, gave rise to the contrasting term paganus for its opposite, i.e. one, not a soldier of Christ.
Chivalry as the idealized image of knighthood was a common moral allegory in early Christian literature. Knighthood emerged as a concept during the time of Charlemagne. During the Saxon Wars, Charlemagne's Christian knights attended mass, surrounded by relics, before battles. Fragments from 15th c. Polish chronicler Jan Długosz describe the sanctification of weapons and a concept of knighthood, grounded in religion, it became a theme in art during the High Middle Ages, with depictions of a knight with his various pieces of equipment identified with various virtues. This parallels the development of the understanding in medieval Christendom of the armed nobility as defenders of the faith, first emphasized by Gregory VII in the context of the Investiture controversy and made more explicit with the actual military expeditions of the crusades. Depictions of the miles christianus with the emblematic Armour of God however remained rare in the medieval period and only became prominent after the Protestant Reformation.
In the early modern period, the understanding of the term again became more metaphorical, but it survives in various Christian orders or confessions. Militia Dei Military order Military saint Mujahideen Regimini militantis Ecclesiae Spiritual warfare Michael Evans, "An Illustrated Fragment of Peraldus's Summa of Vice: Harleian MS 3244", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 45, pp. 14–68. Flemish Miles Christianus, 1586-1635
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity, identified by traits such as a name, organization and doctrine. Individual bodies, may use alternative terms to describe themselves, such as church or sometimes fellowship. Divisions between one group and another are defined by doctrine. Groups of denominations—often sharing broadly similar beliefs and historical ties—are sometimes known as "branches of Christianity"; these branches differ in many ways through differences in practices and belief. Individual denominations vary in the degree to which they recognize one another. Several groups claim to be the direct and sole authentic successor of the church founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD. Others, believe in denominationalism, where some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same religion regardless of their distinguishing labels and practices; because of this concept, some Christian bodies reject the term "denomination" to describe themselves, to avoid implying equivalency with other churches or denominations.
The Catholic Church which claims 1.2 billion members – over half of all Christians worldwide – does not view itself as a denomination, but as the original pre-denominational church, a view rejected by other Christians. Protestant denominations account for 37 percent of Christians worldwide. Together and Protestantism comprise Western Christianity. Western Christian denominations prevail in Western, Northern and Southern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and Oceania; the Eastern Orthodox Church, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents, is the second-largest Christian organization in the world and considers itself the original pre-denominational church. Unlike the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church is itself a communion of independent autocephalous churches that mutually recognize each other to the exclusion of others; the Eastern Orthodox Church, together with Oriental Orthodoxy and the Assyrian Church of the East, constitutes Eastern Christianity. Eastern Christian denominations are represented in Eastern Europe, North Asia, the Middle East, Northeast Africa and South India.
Christians have various doctrines about the Church and about how the divine church corresponds to Christian denominations. Both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox hold that their own organizations faithfully represent the One Holy catholic and Apostolic Church to the exclusion of the other. Sixteenth-century Protestants separated from the Catholic Church because of theologies and practices that they considered to be in violation of their own interpretation. Members of the various denominations acknowledge each other as Christians, at least to the extent that they have mutually recognized baptisms and acknowledge orthodox views including the Divinity of Jesus and doctrines of sin and salvation though doctrinal and ecclesiological obstacles hinder full communion between churches. Since the reforms surrounding the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965, the Catholic Church has referred to Protestant communities as "denominations", while reserving the term "church" for apostolic churches, including the Eastern Orthodox.
But some non-denominational Christians do not follow any particular branch, though sometimes regarded as Protestants. Each group uses different terminology to discuss their beliefs; this section will discuss the definitions of several terms used throughout the article, before discussing the beliefs themselves in detail in following sections. A denomination within Christianity can be defined as a "recognized autonomous branch of the Christian Church". "Church" as a synonym, refers to a "particular Christian organization with its own clergy and distinctive doctrines". Some traditional and evangelical Protestants draw a distinction between membership in the universal church and fellowship within the local church. Becoming a believer in Christ makes one a member of the universal church; some evangelical groups describe themselves as interdenominational fellowships, partnering with local churches to strengthen evangelical efforts targeting a particular group with specialized needs, such as students or ethnic groups.
A related concept is denominationalism, the belief that some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same religion regardless of their distinguishing labels and practices.. Protestant leaders differ from the views of the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the two largest Christian denominations; each church makes mutually exclusive claims for itself to be t
Anatoly Lunacharsky
Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky, 23 November 1875 – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's Commissar responsible for Ministry and Education as well as active playwright, critic and journalist throughout his career. Luncharsky was born on 23 or 24 November 1875 in Poltava, Ukraine as the illegitimate child of Alexander Antonov and Alexandra Lunacharskaya, née Rostovtseva, his mother was married to statesman Vasily Lunacharsky, whence Anatoly's surname and patronym. She divorced Vasily Lunacharsky and married Antonov, but Anatoly kept his former name. In 1890, at the age of 15, Lunacharsky became a Marxist. From 1894, he studied at the University of Zurich under Richard Avenarius for two years without taking a degree. In Zürich, he met European socialists including Rosa Luxemburg and Leo Jogiches and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1896, Luncharsky returned to Russia, where he was arrested and sent to Kaluga in Siberia through 1901–1902, when he returned to Kiev.
In February 1902, he moved in with Alexander Bogdanov, working in a mental hospital in Vologda, Russia. In 1903, the party split into Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin and Mensheviks led by Julius Martov and Lunacharsky sided with the former. In 1907, he attended the International Socialist Congress, held in Stuttgart; when the Bolsheviks in turn split into Lenin's supporters and Alexander Bogdanov's followers in 1908, Lunacharsky supported his brother-in-law Bogdanov in setting up Vpered. Like many contemporary socialists, Lunacharsky was influenced by the empirio-criticism philosophy of Ernst Mach and Avenarius. Lenin opposed Machism as a form of subjective idealism and criticised its proponents in his book Materialism and Empirio-criticism. In 1909, Lunacharsky joined Bogdanov and Gorky at the latter's villa on the island of Capri, where they started a school for Russian socialist workers. In 1910, Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky and their supporters moved the school to Bologna, where they continued teaching classes through 1911.
In 1913, Lunacharsky moved to Paris. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Lunacharsky adopted an internationalist antiwar position which put him on a course of convergence with Lenin and Leon Trotsky. In 1915, Lunacharsky and Pavel Lebedev-Poliansky restarted the social democratic newspaper Vpered with an emphasis on proletarian culture. After the February Revolution of 1917, Lunacharsky left his family in Switzerland and returned to Russia. Like other internationalist social democrats returning from abroad, he joined the Mezhraiontsy before they merged with the Bolsheviks in July–August 1917. In July 1917, the Kerensky government jailed him. After the October Revolution of 1917, Lunacharsky was appointed as People's Commissariat for Education in the first Soviet government and remained in that position until 1929. In 1921, The New York Times reported his resignation. Lunacharsky was associated with the establishment of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in 1919, working with Maxim Gorky, Alexander Blok and Maria Andreyeva.
He was in charge of the Soviet state's first censorship system. Lunacharsky helped his former colleague Alexander Bogdanov start a semi-independent proletarian art movement called Proletkult. Lunacharsky oversaw improvements in Russia's literacy rate. By arguing for their architectural Importance, he argued for the protection of historic buildings against elements in the Bolshevik Party who wanted to destroy them. Lunacharsky directed some of the great experiments in public arts after the Revolution such as the agit-trains and agit-boats that circulated over all Russia spreading Revolution and revolutionary arts, he gave support to constructivism's theatrical experiments and the initiatives such as the ROSTA Windows, revolutionary posters designed and written by Mayakovsky and others. While commissar, Lunacharsky's initiatives included the establishment of Isadora Duncan's school in Moscow, but he was a playwright, essayist and a admired man of culture; as the first Commissar of Enlightenment after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, he was credited with preserving much of Russia's cultural heritage.
In June 1919, The New York Times decried Lunacharsky's efforts in education in an article entitle "Reds Are Ruining Children of Russia". It claimed that he was instilling a "system of calculated moral depravity in one of the most diabolical of all measures conceived by the Bolshevik rulers of Russia". In 1929, Lunacharsky supported a change in the Soviet Union from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet; when Joseph Stalin came to power in 1929, Lunacharsky was dismissed as commissar of culture and education. He was appointed to the Learned Council of the Soviet Union Central Executive Committee, he became an editor for the Literature Encyclopedia. In 1930, Lunacharsky represented the Soviet Union at the League of Nations through 1932. In 1933, he was appointed ambassador to a post he never assumed as he died en route. Lunacharsky died at 58 on 26 December 1933 in Menton, France en route to take up the post of Soviet ambassador to Spain as the conflict that would become the Spanish Civil War appeared inevitable.
In 1902, he married Alexander Bogdanov's sister. They had a daughter named Irina Lunacharsky. In 1922, he met an actress at the Maly Theater, he married her. Lunacharsky was known as a critic. Besides Marxist dialectics, he had been interested in philosophy since he was a
All Souls' Day
In Christianity, All Souls' Day or the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, that is, of the souls of all Christians who have died, follows All Saints' Day. Observing Christians remember deceased relatives on the day. In Western Christianity the annual celebration is now held on 1 November and is associated with the season of Allhallowtide, including All Saints' Day and its vigil, Halloween. In the Catholic Church, "the faithful" refers to baptized Catholics. In the liturgical books of the western Catholic Church it is called the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is celebrated annually on 2 November. In the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, as well as in the Personal Ordinariates established by Benedict XVI for former Anglicans, it remains on 2 November if this date falls on a Sunday. On this day in particular, Catholics pray for the dead. In the Church of England it is called The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed and is an optional celebration. In the Eastern Orthodox Church and the associated Eastern Catholic Churches, it is celebrated several times during the year and is not associated with the month of November.
Beliefs and practices associated with All Souls' Day vary among Christian churches and denominations. Among Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics, there are several All Souls' Days during the year. Most of these fall on Saturday, since Jesus lay in the Tomb on Holy Saturday, they occur on the following occasions: The Saturday of Meatfare Week —the day before the Sunday of the Last Judgement The second Saturday of Great Lent The third Saturday of Great Lent The fourth Saturday of Great Lent Radonitsa The Saturday before Pentecost Demetrius Saturday In all of the Orthodox Church there is a commemoration of the dead on the Saturday before the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel—8 November, instead of the Demetrius Soul Saturday. In the Serbian Orthodox Church there is a commemoration of the dead on the Saturday closest to the Conception of St. John the Baptist—23 September. In Slavic and Greek Churches, all of the Lenten Soul Saturdays are observed. In some of the Churches of the Eastern Mediterranean, Meatfare Saturday and the Saturday before Pentecost are observed.
In addition to the Sundays mentioned above, Saturdays throughout the year are days for general commemoration of all saints, special hymns to all saints are chanted from the Octoechos, unless some greater feast or saint's commemoration occurs. East Syriac churches including the Syro Malabar Church and Chaldean Catholic Church commemorates the feast of departed faithful on the last Friday of Epiphany; the season of Epiphany remembers the revelation of Christ to the world. And on each Fridays of season of Epiphany the church remembers some important figures in the evangelism. Apart from this In Syro Malabar Church Friday before the parish festival is celebrated as feast of departed faithful. Here the parish remembers the activities of forefathers who worked for the faithful, they request the intercession of all departed souls for the faithful celebration of parish festival. In east Syriac liturgy the church remembers departed souls including saints on every Fridays throughout the year since the Christ was crucified and died on Friday.
The Catholic Church teaches that the purification of the souls in Purgatory can be hastened by the actions of the faithful on earth. Its teaching is based on the practice of prayer for the dead mentioned as far back as 2 Maccabees 12:42–46. In the West there is ample evidence of the custom of praying for the dead in the inscriptions of the catacombs, with their constant prayers for the peace of the souls of the departed and in the early liturgies, which contain commemorations of the dead. Tertullian and other early Western Fathers witness to the regular practice of praying for the dead among the early Christians; the theological basis for the feast is the doctrine that the souls which, on departing from the body, are not cleansed from venial sins, or have not atoned for past transgressions, are debarred from the Beatific Vision, that the faithful on earth can help them by prayers, alms deeds and by the sacrifice of the Mass. Because Purgatory is outside of time and space, it is not accurate to speak of a location or duration in Purgatory.
In the sixth century, it was customary in Benedictine monasteries to hold a commemoration of the deceased members at Whitsuntide. According to Widukind of Corvey, there existed a time-honoured ceremony of praying to the dead on 1 October in Saxony, but it was the day after All Saints' Day that Saint Odilo of Cluny chose when in the 11th century he instituted for all the monasteries dependent on the Abbey of Cluny an annual commemoration of all the faithful departed, to be observed with alms and sacrifices for the relief of the suffering souls in purgatory. Odilo decreed that those requesting a Mass be offered for the departed should make an off
