2 November is the Feast of All Souls, when all who have died are commemorated. Clergy recite the Office of the Dead and perform Requiem Masses to honor and pray for the deceased, easing their time in Purgatory as they await the Final Judgment.
Personification of Death introducing the Office of the Dead, from an Italian Book of Hours, c. 1470-1480, Hart 20966, f. 106v, Blackburn Museum
Zanobi Strozzi, Office of the Dead, from Adimari Book of Hours, 1448. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery
Lorenzo Monaco, Initial C with the Last Judgment, ca. 1406–7. From an antiphonary created for the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence. Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.2485)