The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-01
ALL SAINTS AND ALL SOULS DAYS
History and Legends Of All Saints-AIl Souls Day
Will Be Observed With Special Masses

, paying honor to the memory of those
who won the fight against the pagan
| emperors of imperial Rome.
All Souls Day Tomorrow.
Following All Saints Day is All
Souls Day. a festival of the Roman
| Catholic Church. This festival was
first instituted in 1893 in the monastery
of Clugny. The object of the day is,
that by prayers and almsgiving to al
! leviate the sufferings of the souls in
purgatory Connected with the observ-
ance of the day is an old legend, typi-
cal of the days of the wanderings of
the monks, seeking to do good for all
classes The following are the princi-
pal points in the old story:
A pilgrim returning from the Holy
Land was driven by a storm upon the
I rocks of an island somewhere between
Sicily and Thessalonica. Here he found
an old hermit who told him that among
the cliffs of the island was situated
the opening into the neither world.
Through this opening huge flames as
cended always, and the groans and
cries of the souls in torment was con-
tinually rising, cries wrung from them
by the tortures inflicted by evil an
gels.
The hermit has also heard, while list
ening at the opening, the complaints
of the devils at the number of souls
that were torn from them by the pray
ers and aims of the pious on earth.
| Especially was the wrath of the fallen
angels kindled against the abbot of
Clugny, and those who dwelt with him
there. Odilo, the pious, was then abbot of
Clugny, and when the pilgrim arrived
at the monastery he acquainted him
and his monks with what he had learn
ed on the island. "Thereupon the alb
bot returned thanks to God and ap-
pointed All Souls Day as a day to be
kept forever after in the monastery as
an annual festival"
Services IN Catholic Churches.
No general edict making the day a
church festival is recorded. 1t seems
to have come into general use only
through custom, spreading from the
monastery at Clugny. To-day it is
generally observed in all the Catholic
churches of the world with special
masses and prayers for the repose of
the souls of the dead.
Rev. Father Kennedy rector of the
Cathedral, has announced the follow
ing as the hours for the masses on
Monday: High mass at the Cathedral
at a. M; mass at the Cathedral Gem
etery at $3.50 a. M; vespers for the
dead at o'clock in the afternoon. Sim
liar hours will be observed at the other
| churches of the city.
Around All Souls Day legend has
also clustered though not nearly so
many as around All Saints Day Most
of the legends are of the ghostly kind
and it is on this night that the de-
parted return to earth and visit again
| the scenes of their earthly life Per-
| haps the most famous of all the All
Souls Day legends is the one concern
ing Kingston Bridge, famous in song
and story.
The legend took it's birth in the sim
pie poetic minds of the Angles and
Saxons and among the ignorant OF
merrie England 1t is still believed. II
is on this night, say the f1reside tales
that the souls come back and walk
backward and forward on Kingston
| bridge From the hour of II until the
crow of the cock the ghostly process
| sion continues, and those who have
the courage to go to the bridge car
hold converse with those gone before. ;
No questions concerning the future life
are answered, the lips of the spirits
being tightly sealed on this point
J alone.