The calendar of saints is the traditional
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
method of organizing a
liturgical year
The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and whi ...
by associating each day with one or more
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
s and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does not mean "a large meal, typically a celebratory one", but instead "an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint".
The system arose from the early Christian custom of commemorating each
martyr annually on the date of their death, or birth into heaven, a date therefore referred to in
Latin as the martyr's ''dies natalis'' ('day of birth'). In the
Eastern Orthodox Church, a calendar of saints is called a ''
Menologion''. "Menologion" may also mean a set of icons on which saints are depicted in the order of the dates of their feasts, often made in two panels.
History
As the number of recognized saints increased during
Late Antiquity and the first half of the
Middle Ages, eventually every day of the year had at least one saint who was commemorated on that date. To deal with this increase, some saints were moved to alternate days in some traditions or completely removed, with the result that some saints have different feast days in different calendars. For example, saints
Perpetua and Felicity died on 7 March, but this date was later assigned to St.
Thomas Aquinas, allowing them only a commemoration (see
Tridentine Calendar), so in 1908 they were moved one day earlier. When the 1969 reform of the Catholic calendar moved him to 28 January, they were moved back to 7 March (see
General Roman Calendar). Both days can thus be said to be their feast day, in different traditions. The
General Roman Calendar, which list those saints celebrated in the entire church, contains only a selection of the saints for each of its days. A fuller list is found in the
Roman Martyrology, and some of the saints there may be celebrated locally.
The earliest feast days of saints were those of martyrs, venerated as having shown for Christ the greatest form of love, in accordance with the teaching: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." Saint
Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...
is said to be the first or at least one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint. The title "
confessor" was used for such saints, who had confessed their faith in Christ by their lives rather than by their deaths. Martyrs are regarded as dying in the service of the Lord, and confessors are people who died natural deaths. A broader range of titles was used later, such as:
Virgin,
Pastor,
Bishop,
Monk,
Priest, Founder,
Abbot, Apostle,
Doctor of the Church
Doctor of the Church (Latin: ''doctor'' "teacher"), also referred to as Doctor of the Universal Church (Latin: ''Doctor Ecclesiae Universalis''), is a title given by the Catholic Church to saints recognized as having made a significant contribu ...
.
The
Tridentine Missal has
common formulæ for Masses of Martyrs, Confessors who were bishops, Doctors of the Church, Confessors who were not Bishops, Abbots, Virgins, Non-Virgins, Dedication of Churches, and Feast Days of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
added a common formula for Popes. The
1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII omitted the common of Apostles, assigning a proper Mass to every feast day of an Apostle. The present
Roman Missal has common formulas for the Dedication of Churches, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Martyrs (with special formulas for missionary martyrs and virgin martyrs), pastors (subdivided into bishops, generic pastors, founders of churches, and missionaries), Doctors of the Church, Virgins, and (generic) Saints (with special formulas for abbots, monks, nuns, religious, those noted for works of mercy, educators, and
enericallywomen saints).
This
calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
system, when combined with major
church festivals and movable and immovable feasts, constructs a very human and personalised yet often localized way of organizing the year and identifying dates. Some Christians continue the tradition of dating by saints' days: their works may appear "dated" as "The Feast of
Saint Martin Saint Martin may refer to:
People
* Saint Martin of Tours (c. 316–397), Bishop of Tours, France
* Saint Martin of Braga (c. 520–580), archbishop of Bracara Augusta in Gallaecia (now Braga in Portugal)
* Pope Martin I (598–655)
* Saint Mart ...
". Poets such as
John Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...
commemorate the importance of ''
The Eve of Saint Agnes''.
As different Christian jurisdictions parted ways theologically, differing lists of saints began to develop. This happened because the same individual may be considered differently by one church; in extreme examples, one church's saint may be another church's heretic, as in the cases of
Nestorius,
Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria, or
Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople.
Ranking of feast days
In the
Catholic Church feast days are ranked in accordance with their importance. In the post-
Vatican II form of the
Roman Rite
The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...
, feast days are ranked (in descending order of importance) as
solemnities, feasts or
memorials
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, Tragedy (event), tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objec ...
(obligatory or optional).
Pope John XXIII's 1960
Code of Rubrics, whose use remains authorized by the
motu proprio ''
Summorum Pontificum
''Summorum Pontificum'' (English: "Of the Supreme Pontiffs") is an apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI, issued in July 2007. This letter specifies the circumstances in which priests of the Latin Church could celebrate mass according to what Ben ...
'', divides liturgical days into I, II, III, and IV class days. Those who use even earlier forms of the Roman Rite rank feast days as doubles (of three or four kinds), Semidoubles, and Simples. See
Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite.
In the
Eastern Orthodox Church the ranking of feasts varies from church to church. In the
Russian Orthodox Church they are:
Great Feasts, middle, and minor feasts. Each portion of such feasts may also be called feasts as follows:
All-Night Vigils,
Polyeleos,
Great Doxology, Sextuple ("sixfold", having six
stichera at
Vespers and six
troparia at the
Canon of
Matins). There are also distinctions between Simple feasts and double (i.e., two simple feasts celebrated together). In Double Feasts, the order of hymns and readings for each feast are rigidly instructed in
Typikon, the liturgy book.
The
Lutheran Church
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
es celebrate Festivals, Lesser Festivals, Days of Devotion, and Commemorations.
In the
Church of England, mother Church of the
Anglican Communion, there are
Principal Feasts and
Principal Holy Day
Principal Holy Days are a type of observance in the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England. All Principal Feasts are also Principal Holy Days. All Principal Holy Days share equal status; however those which are not Principal Feasts, b ...
s,
Festivals,
Lesser Festivals, and
Commemorations.
Connection to tropical cyclones
Before the advent of
standardized naming of tropical storms and hurricanes in the
North Atlantic basin,
tropical storms and
hurricanes that affected the island of
Puerto Rico were informally named after the Catholic saints corresponding to the feast days when the cyclones either made landfall or started to seriously affect the island. Examples are: the 1780 San Calixto hurricane (more widely known as the
Great Hurricane of 1780) (the deadliest in the North Atlantic basin's
recorded history; named after
Pope Callixtus I (Saint Callixtus), whose feast day is October 14),
the
1867 San Narciso hurricane
The San Narciso Hurricane was the ninth and last known hurricane of the 1867 Atlantic hurricane season. Forming in late October, the hurricane, the costliest and deadliest storm of the 1867 Atlantic hurricane season, caused at least 811 deaths in ...
(named after Saint
Narcissus of Jerusalem, feast day October 29),
[ the ]1899 San Ciriaco hurricane
The 1899 San Ciríaco hurricane, also known as the 1899 Puerto Rico Hurricane or The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1899, was the longest-lived Atlantic hurricane on record, and the second-longest-lived tropical cyclone globally on record (in terms ...
(the deadliest in the island's recorded history; Saint Cyriacus, August 8), the 1928 San Felipe hurricane (the strongest in terms of measured wind speed; Saint Philip, father of Saint Eugenia of Rome, September 13),[ and the 1932 San Ciprian hurricane ( Saint Cyprian, September 26).][
This practice continued until quite some time after the United States Weather Bureau (now called the National Weather Service) started publishing and using official female human names (initially; male names were added starting in 1979 after the NWS relinquished control over naming to the World Meteorological Organization). The last two usages of this informal naming scheme in P.R. were in 1956 (]Hurricane Betsy
Hurricane Betsy was an intense and destructive tropical cyclone that brought widespread damage to areas of Florida and the central United States Gulf Coast in September 1965. The storm's erratic nature, coupled with its intensity and minim ...
, locally nicknamed Santa Clara after Saint Clare of Assisi
Clare of Assisi (born Chiara Offreduccio and sometimes spelled Clara, Clair, Claire, Sinclair; 16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253) was an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladie ...
, feast day August 12 back then; her feast day was advanced one day in 1970) and 1960 ( Hurricane Donna, nicknamed San Lorenzo after Saint Lawrence Justinian
Lawrence Justinian ( it, Lorenzo Giustiniani, 1 July 1381 – 8 January 1456) was a Venetian Catholic priest and bishop who became the first Patriarch of Venice. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Biography
Lawrence Justinian was ...
, September 5 back then; feast day now observed January 8 by Canons regular of St. Augustine).[
]
See also
* Calendar of saints (Church of England)
* Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church)
The veneration of saints in the Episcopal Church is a continuation of an ancient tradition from the early Church which honors important and influential people of the Christian faith. The usage of the term ''saint'' is similar to Roman Catholic and ...
* Calendar of saints (Anglican Church of Southern Africa)
* Calendar of saints (Lutheran)
* Coptic Orthodox calendar of saints
* Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar
* General Roman Calendar
* Diario Romano
* Patronal feast day
A patronal feast or patronal festival ( es, fiesta patronal; pt, festa patronal; ca, festa patronal; it, festa patronale; french: fête patronale) is a yearly celebration dedicated, in countries influenced by Christianity, to the "heavenly advoc ...
* Gŵyl Mabsant A Gŵyl Mabsant (Welsh for "Feast of the Patron"), also known as the patronal festival or Wake of a parish,Baring-Gould, Sabine & al''The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in ...
, Welsh saints' days.
* List of saints
References
External links
Today's Saints on the Calendar (Catholic Church)
Greek Catholic Saints' Calendar
( Greek Catholic Church)
Calendar of Saints
( Orthodox Church in America)
''Butler's Lives of the Saints''
Bartleby.com
*
{{authority control
Specific calendars
Christian saints
Saints days
Canonization