For all the saints who from their labors rest

As always, on All Saints Day, November 1, we give thanks for those who, during the previous year, ended their earthly lives with a clear witness for Christ. This year was particularly poignant, as on October 27, we heard of the passing of Maruja de Garcia, married for 50 years to Pastor Abel Garcia, and deaconess at “Cristo es el Camino” (“Christ is the Way”) Lutheran Church of Barcelona, Venezuela. Maruja was a loyal friend to Luz Maria and the mother of two daughters, Angelica and Adriana. I met her for the first time in 2003 at the national women’s gathering in Los Teques, near Caracas. Luz Maria and I both saw her for the last time September 3 to 5 at a retreat near the Caroni River, Ciudad Guayana.

Saints and reformers

All Saints Day is considered a public holiday in Venezuela. Practicing Roman Catholics will attend mass, but virtually everyone will take the opportunity to visit the graves of departed loved ones and leave flowers. This also may be done on November 2, which is knowns as “el Día de los Fieles Difuntos” (“Day of the Faithful Departed”). This is in keeping with the general tradition of Christianity in western Europe.

All Saints Day began in the fourth century A.D. as a special day to honor Christians martyred during the first 300 years of church history after the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D. brought an end to Roman persecution. “Martyr” is derived from the Greek word for “witness” and dying for the truth of thes Gospel was considered the ultimate way of giving witness. Pope Gregory III (731–741) fixed the date as November 1 by dedicating a chapel in Rome to all heroes of the faith, not just martyrs, on that day.

As Lutherans, we believe all baptized Christians to be “saints”, that is, made righteous in the blood of Christ (Revelation 7:9-17). But, like the early church, we recognize the value of honoring those who have gone before us and provided us with examples of living the Christian life (the Augsburg Confession, Article XXI). But over time, the idea that there were “exceptional Christians” developed into the idea that these “saints” accumulated merits by martyrdom and other good works, sufficient to avoid the judgment of purgatory. This was an intermediate state between this life and heaven where “ordinary” Christians had not made sufficient penance for sins committed after baptism might be purified before entering the presence of God. The doctrine of the “Office of the Keys” was perverted to mean the Pope could draw on the “treasury of merit” of the “saints” to curtail time in purgatory, with a certificate of indulgence. By Luther’s day, indulgences were openly being granted in return for money.

It was this system of belief that Luther questioned in his 95 Theses which he chose to post, not by accident, on the doors of All Saints Church on Alls Saints Eve, October 31, 1517. So, for us Lutherans, the celebration of All Saints Day will always be linked to the event that began the Lutheran Reformation of the church.

On October 31, 2026, we observed Reformation Day with members of our sister congregation in Barinas, Corpus Christi Lutheran Church. We had hoped that several people would be confirmed that day, but not all had completed the course based on Luther’s Large Catechism. The confirmations are scheduled for November 15. 

Video Bible study on repentance

For four Thursdays in October, we partiicipated in a Zoom videoconference Bible study on repentance, led by Pastor Ezekiel Rautenberg of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina, students and alumni of the deaconess training program sponsored by Concordia Seminary "El Reformador" in the Dominican Republic. The group included many women from Venezuela, including Luz Maria's daughter, Yepci Santana. She was once a teacher in our preschool, but now teaches preschool children for Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod mission in Lima, Peru.