November 2nd is the day that the Church remembers the Poor Souls, sometimes called the Day of the Dead. On this day, and during the month of November, the Church prays in a special way for the souls of the faithful departed, and individuals pray especially for those whom they have known and loved. The Holy Souls in purgatory died in the mercy of God, thus they are called "holy."...

On November 1st the Church celebrates all the holy ones in heaven, known and unknown, with the feast of All Saints. The solemnity originally began in the 4th century to commemorate all the Christian martyrs killed during those centuries of brutal persecution before Christianity was legalized. There were so many martyrs that a separate feast day could not be given to each one individually, yet,...

The legend of his life has him as a Roman citizen who was martyred in Gaul. He is said to have been the son of a man named Zeno, who had senatorial rank. Filled with apostolic zeal, Quentin traveled to Gaul as a missionary with Saint Lucian, who was later martyred at Beauvais, and others (the martyrs Victoricus and Fuscian are said to have been Quentin's followers). Quentin settled at...

Saint Marcellus of Tangier or Saint Marcellus the Centurion is venerated as a Martyr Saint by the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. His feast day is celebrated on October 30.  Saint Marcellus was a centurion of the Legio VII Gemina Pia Felix, and was born in what is now León, Spain, in the middle of the third century. The story relates that Marcellus lived close to the...