All Saints Day - La Toussaint: November 1

“Man praying over grave in cemetery at New Roads Louisiana in 1938.” Source: Louisiana Digital Library, http://cdm16313.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/LHP/id/3790/rec/7.

 

“This Far By Faith: Celebrating Black Catholic History” is a new blog dedicated to documenting and sharing the rich history of Black Catholics in the United States. That history, as pioneering scholar Albert Raboteau wrote “is marked by a distinctive experience of religion and race: set apart from other Catholics by race and from other blacks by religion, black Catholics have a heightened sense of the ‘double consciousness’ that, as W. E. B. Du Bois claimed, characterizes African -Americans generally.” Black Catholics have been present since the earliest days of exploration on this continent. They existed and continue to exist in all quarters of the nation and with a range of stories as to how the Faith was inculcated within their communities. This blog highlights the lives of Black Catholic lay leaders, clergy, and religious; as well as the development of their churches, schools, and organizations.

We begin our blogging journey at the outset of the month of November, as the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints on November 1^st, and the Feast of All Souls on November 2^nd. On these two days, respectively, the Church celebrates all those known and unknown who clothed in robes of white have beheld the beatific vision and likewise all those souls of the faithful departed. Among Catholics, these days are observed by attendance at Mass and particularly by visiting the graves of deceased family members and friends. The priest usually goes to the graveyard as well, to bless the graves.

 

 

All Saints Day, Lacombe, Louisiana, 2009. Source: http://planetkathy.com/blog/?p=408

 

In places such as south Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, which retain many Latin cultural and religious practices, making a day of visiting the cemetery to clean and/or repaint the graves of relatives is common. There, All Saints Day is still often referred to as la Toussaint in French. Decorating the graves with either flowers or immortelles is quite common as well. Immortelles are grave decorations meant to be more permanent than flowers – consisting of either ornate wire wreaths or wreaths made of paper flowers dipped in wax. Customs which are unique to particular areas continue, such as the lighting of candles atop the graves which takes place in the historic cemeteries along Bayou Lacombe as night begins to fall. The old Catholic families there have roots which trace back to Africa, Europe, as well as the indigenous Choctaw people.

 

November has more recently been recognized as Black Catholic History Month, which gives even greater significance to us beginning is this month. We wish you a Happy All Saints Day and Happy Black Catholic History Month!

 

Mrs. Theresa Mouton makes All Saints Day wreaths with crepe paper dipped in wax. St. Martinville, Louisiana, 1982. Source: The Creole State: An Exhibition of Louisiana Folklife (Virtual Exhibit), Louisiana State Museum, http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/CSE/creole_home.html