Wednesday, September 7, 2005
Catholic Feast Days


Introduction:

Catholic Feastdays are days set aside to remember important people and events through the course of the Faith from the time of Mary's birth all the way through today honoring the saints. The calendar of saints has been changed throughout Church history to remove some saints in order that others may be celebrated too. One of these changes occurred in 1969, which greatly altered (arguably in a very bad way), the calendar.

Today, some Traditional Catholics like to follow the pre-1955 Calendar, some prefer the 1955 Calendar, and some prefer the 1962 Calendar.  These three calendars are very similar. The exceptions are noted below

The following calendar lists the General Roman Catholic Calendar.  Many saints are not on the General Calendar and some are only on specific calendars of specific orders or for specific areas of the world.  Yet, all saints have a feast day in the year, even if it is not universally celebrated on the General Calendar.

Temporal vs. Sanctoral Cycle:

This page concerns the Proper of Saints, called the Sanctoral Cycle, which is the annual cycle of feasts not necessarily connected with the seasons. We commemorate and ask the intercession of those holy men and women who set a marvelous example that we should all strive to imitate. We also commemorate various events and mysteries of the faith in the Sanctoral Cycle.

There is also the Proper of Seasons, called the Temporal Cycle, traces the earthly life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It consists mainly of Sundays related to the various liturgical seasons. This maps onto the 7 liturgical seasons contained in the two cycles we previously discussed: the Christmas Cycle and the Easter Cycle. It starts with Advent then goes through Christmas, Epiphany, Septuagesima, Lent, Easter, and Time after Pentecost. For that reason, when you go to Mass on Sundays you likely will not hear the readings for the saints mentioned here. You should refer to the Traditional Sunday Propers for the Sunday readings since in most cases, the temporal cycle takes precedence over the Sanctoral Cycle.

Recommended Volumes of Meditation on the Catholic Liturgical Year:

The Liturgical Year (15 Volume Set) by Father Dom Gueranger (A MUST READ!)

Pre-1954 vs 1962 Calendar:

The following list by month indicates the Liturgical Year according to the General Roman Catholic Calendar as of 1954.  In 1954, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen on May 31, and to make room for it, he moved the feast of St. Angela Merici to June 1. That was the final change before significant changes occurred in 1955. Besides the drastic changes and alterations to the Holy Week Liturgies in 1955 as part of the temporal cycle, there were a few other noteworthy changes. With the advent of the 1955 Calendar, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of "St. Joseph the Worker" on May 1 (moving the feast of "Saints Philip and James" from May 1, where it had been since the sixth century, to May 11th, and suppressing the Patronage of St. Joseph that, since Pope Pius IX's decree of September 10, 1847, had been celebrated on the second Wednesday after the Octave of Easter).  

Additional changes that occurred in 1960 under John XXIII include the removal of most saints who were on the calendar twice. For instance, the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, the 2nd feast of St. Agnes commemorating her apparition to her parents, and the Feast of St. John before the Latin Gate were all removed. These changes were incorporated in the 1962 Missal, however, a priest may still choose to offer a votive Mass for those saints on those traditional feastdays.

Some of the Movable Feasts (Some are part of the Temporal Cycle but included here for easy reference):
Movable Masses in Some Places (Relating more to the temporal cycle but included here for easy reference):
Traditional Calendar (1954)

Differences related to different calendars are noted in italicsSome Masses that were only celebrated in certain places at this time and were not on the Universal Calendar are noted as "Mass in Some Places". In the Month of November, various locations or orders keep special feasts of their own saints. Those are noted as well.

 January:
** Feast of the Holy Name: Sunday between the Circumcision and Epiphany [or January 2, when no such Sunday occurs]

February
Note: In a leap year, the Vigil of St. Matthias is kept on February 24, and any Feasts usually occurring from February 24 through 28 are kept one day later.


March

April
Wednesday after the II Sunday after Easter: Solemnity of St. Joseph, C - Double of the I Class
Wednesday after the III Sunday after Easter: Octave Day of St. Joseph, C - Greater Double


May


June


July


August


September

October


November


December

21 comment(s):

del_button May 26, 2008 at 6:17 AM
Anonymous said...

I need the important ones only!!
Plzz list them

del_button December 31, 2008 at 4:15 PM
Anonymous said...

Thank you so much!!! This really helped me with my Confirmation homework. :)

del_button May 25, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Anonymous said...

Thank you for this helpful information. I needed this for reference on projects. God bless you.

del_button January 7, 2010 at 6:09 PM
Anonymous said...

bah thares too much but thanxx anyway theres like one for every dayy!!!

del_button February 14, 2010 at 8:30 PM
Anonymous said...

thank you

del_button May 1, 2010 at 8:54 PM
Anonymous said...

thxx soooooooo much helping wiff confirmation homework but ONLY IMPORTANT ONES!!!!!! :] :) x]

del_button December 12, 2010 at 1:57 PM
Anonymous said...

this helped alot. thanks

del_button January 1, 2012 at 5:02 PM
Anonymous said...

In regards to your calendar of Catholic feast days, I do not understand why you continue to utilize what you call the "traditional" calendar.

Is that not simply a form of "cafeteria-Catholicism"; refusing to accept the current calendar as decreed by the Vatican?

del_button January 1, 2012 at 5:41 PM
Matthew said...

Catholics are free to use the traditional Catholic Calendar. Realize that different Rites in the Church have different calendars. The byzantines, for example, have both Old and New Calendars. The Roman Rite has several legitimate options. Saying that the Vatican has decreed for use to follow subsequent calendars is unfounded - there is no decree requiring such

del_button September 3, 2013 at 4:41 AM
raymond salvador said...

Your calender needs a VERY IMPORTANT addition:

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY.

That should never be missed. It's the very next Sunday right directly after Easter, as decreed by the Lord through St. Faustina and established by Bl. Pope John Paul II after the hard-pushing promotion of Bl. Fr. Sopocko - St. Faustina's spiritual director.

Any who abide by the request of Holy Confession (within 8 days before or after that Sunday) and then on THAT specific Sunday, receives Him in the state of grace in Holy Communion, receives full pardon for their sins. That's a big one to be noted in a bright-colored circle on all of our calenders.

<3 Please add that one in. :) Lord God love you.

del_button July 18, 2014 at 3:25 PM
Matthew said...

Divine Mercy Sunday is not part of Catholic Tradition. For that reason it is not on the calendar.

del_button August 15, 2014 at 7:21 AM
Anonymous said...

What has happened to St Vincent De Paul on Sept 27th

del_button August 16, 2014 at 7:30 AM
Matthew said...

From the time of his feast's introduction in 1737 up until 1969 his feast was always held on July 19th.

del_button December 18, 2014 at 8:37 PM
Anonymous said...

WHAT IS THE MAIN FEAST FOR CHRISTIANS

del_button December 19, 2014 at 6:48 AM
Matthew said...

The main feast is Easter

del_button May 3, 2016 at 2:32 AM
Anonymous said...

Thank you for this list!

del_button September 12, 2016 at 11:16 AM
Anonymous said...

Does St. Thomas More "only" fall with some categorization of holy martyrs? I didn't see him listed anywhere and didn't know his day or if he shared a day.

del_button September 18, 2016 at 9:48 AM
Matthew said...

Anonymous, Pope Leo XIII beatified St Thomas More, St John Fisher and 52 other English Martyrs on 29 December 1886. Pope Pius XI canonised More and Fisher on 19 May 1935, and More's feast day was established as the 9th July. Since this blog uses the traditional feastdays before Vatican II, we observe it on July 9th. Since 1970 the General Roman Calendar has celebrated More with St John Fisher on the 22nd of June (the date of Fisher's execution).

del_button September 18, 2016 at 9:51 AM
Matthew said...

But St. Thomas More's feastday was kept only in England and Wales as a regional feastday through the 1960 Roman Catholic Calendar.

del_button February 2, 2018 at 8:00 AM
Unknown said...

What is the source of the artwork for each month? Beautiful.

del_button February 2, 2018 at 1:35 PM
Matthew said...

The source is: Enid M. Chadwick, My Book of the Church's Year (London : Mowbray).

http://amzn.to/2BOCddp

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