Roman Catholic calendar of saints

The General Roman Calendar, printed, for instance, in the Roman Missal, assigns feasts of saints to only about half the days of the year. It contains only a relatively very few of the saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, whose official list of saints is the 776-page volume Roman Martyrology (although not all saints appear in the Martyrology). This assigns several saints to each day of the year and gives a very brief description of each saint or group of saints.

As well as the General Roman Calendar, there are national and diocesan calendars, as well as calendars of religious congregations and even of continents. These add other saints, or transfer the celebration of a particular saint to another date.

"Feria" is a Latin word that, in ecclesiastical usage, means "weekday", and refers to a day which is not a Sunday and not a Feast, for example, Tuesday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time. ("Ferial" is an adjective formed from "feria" and is used in connection with a noun, as in the phrase "ferial Mass".) "Memorial", "Feast" and "Solemnity" refer to degrees of celebration of a saint: among other differences, the Gloria is said or sung at a Feast, but not normally at a Memorial, and the Creed is added on Solemnities.

General Roman Calendar

As already stated, the saints celebrated in one country are not necessarily celebrated everywhere. The General Roman Calendar contains only those celebrations that are intended to be observed throughout the world, in application of the decision of the Second Vatican Council: "Lest the feasts of the saints should take precedence over the feasts which commemorate the very mysteries of salvation, many of them should be left to be celebrated by a particular Church or nation or family of religious; only those should be extended to the universal Church which commemorate saints who are truly of universal importance."Sacrosanctum Concilium, 111.

Variations from the following list of celebrations should be indicated not here but, below, under the heading "National Calendars".

January (General Calendar)

January 1: Octave of Christmas, Mary, Mother of God - Solemnity
January 2: Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops - Memorial
January 3: The Most Holy Name of Jesus - Optional Memorial
January 4: Feria
January 5: Feria
January 6: Epiphany - Solemnity (transferred in some countries to Sunday);
January 7: Saint Raymond of Peñafort, Priest - Optional Memorial
January 8: Feria
January 9: Feria
January 10: Feria
January 11: Feria
January 12: Feria
January 13: Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Doctor - Optional Memorial
January 14: Feria
January 15: Feria
January 16: Feria
January 17: Saint Anthony of Egypt, Abbot - Memorial
January 18: Feria
January 19: Feria
January 20: Saint Fabian, Pope, Martyr; or Saint Sebastian, Martyr - Optional Memorial
January 21: Saint Agnes, Virgin, Martyr - Memorial
January 22: Saint Vincent, Deacon, Martyr - Optional Memorial
January 23: Feria
January 24: Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop, Doctor - Memorial
January 25: The Conversion of Saint Paul, Apostle - Feast
January 26: Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops - Memorial
January 27: Saint Angela Merici, Virgin - Optional Memorial
January 28: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor - Memorial
January 29: Feria
January 30: Feria
January 31: Saint John Bosco - Memorial

National Calendars

Only variations from the General Roman Calendar for celebrations according to the Roman Rite are given here. Eastern Rite Catholic Churches have completely different liturgical calendars.

The calendars for England, Greece, and Wales are complete and up to date. Others require attention.