Pope Francis gave a special greeting to participants in the Race of Saints, promoted by the Missioni Don Bosco Foundation, to offer the dimension of a popular feast to the religious celebration of All Saints.

“Thank you for your beautiful initiative and for your presence!” the Holy Father said on Nov. 1, 2018, in remarks following the Angelus in St Peter’s Square on the Feast of All Saints.

The “Race of Saints” on November 1, 2018 was held in Rome under the aegis of the Congregation for the Laity, the Family and Life, and of its Prefect, Cardinal Kevin Farrell. The event consists of a 10-kilometer course for four categories of runners and one of 3 kilometers for the less experienced. Athletes and simple amateurs came from all over Italy to attest their link to their Patron Saint, or that of their parish or city.

The Salesians launched the idea in the streets of Rome on All Saints 2008, a “Race of Saints,” then to help street children of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In Rome, places of saints are numerous, beginning with those marked by the presence of the Eternal City’s Patron Saints, Peter and Paul, but also the great saints that fashioned them, in particular, the holy Popes that embellished them and quenched them with their fountains, of saints who came from elsewhere and now rest there, such as Basque Saint Ignatius of Loyola; Florentine Saint Philip Neri; and Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, born at Amettes in the Pas-de-Calais, France. Funds collected thanks to the registration of participants will be allocated to works of charity. Therefore, it’s both a sports event – with true champions, marathoners, marchers – and a popular event. The organizers were challenged, in fact, by the fact that All Saints is one of the oldest liturgical feasts, but which up to now has not inspired very festive popular traditions.

The event’s other objective, after its inauguration at Rome, is to go beyond borders, to be able to celebrate the feast of All Saints simultaneously in other cities of the world, announced the promoters.