Lectionary Preaching Workbook
All Saints' Day is one of those days in the church year calendar that many Protestant congregations ignore, simply because they don't know what to do with it. It began and developed naturally out of the commemoration of the annual deaths of individual martyrs, beginning with the Apostles. Saints' days found their way into the worship of the church before the church year took much shape. Many saints' days were in place by A.D. 200, preceding most elements of the church year, except Easter and the fifty-day Pasch, plus Sunday as a weekly celebration of the death and resurrection of the Lord.