A Presentation on the Development Of the Sanctoral Cycle of the Liturgical Year

Since the earliest days of Christianity, the Church has offered thanks and praise to God for his grace and mercy that has taken visible form in the lives of countless men and women. Throughout the Christian era men and women have distinguished themselves in the dedication to Christ and His Church in their lives of service and the shedding of their blood. From among those who make up the “great cloud of witnesses,”[1] the Church has honored many with the titles of “Servant of God”, “Blessed”, and “Saint”. Because the history of the practice of venerating the saints is so complex and rich, it is beyond the scope of this paper to address the topic with any depth. However, of those the Church has chosen to officially recognize, She has chosen to celebrate liturgically the lives of a number of these men, women, and children. For those who hold a certain universal significance, this commemoration is universal, while, for others this is reserved to specific countries, regions, or families of religious. It is the development of this Cycle of Saints within the Roman Calendar, which became the foundation for the calendar of the whole western Church, which will be addressed here.

The cult of the saints began with the veneration of the early martyrs. Saint Polycarp[2], Bishop of Smyrna, was probably the first martyr to be given special honors by his community. Initially the cult of a saint was limited to the place where their tomb was located.[3] While Easter was the only annual festival celebrated universally, other Christian communities, following the custom of those at Smyrna, began to gather annually at the graves of their own martyrs.[4] It was only later that martyrs were included in the celebrations of communities other than their own.

At an early stage the apostles came to be venerated with the martyrs as “official witnesses who had been appointed by Christ himself and to whom he had given the promise that they would “sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28b).”[5] During the periods of persecution, the “confessors” (i.e. non-martyrs who did suffer persecution and imprisonment), too, came to be honored with the apostles and martyrs as witnesses themselves.

It was only with the end of the periods of persecution that these public, liturgical celebrations were extended to other holy men and women. Among the first of those honored were Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus[6] in the East and Saint Martin of Tours[7] in the West. Finally, the number of those being venerated came to include the ascetics and virgins who had come to be viewed as “bloodless martyrs” by virtue of the extraordinary service and dedication to Christ.[8]

Soon, chapels and altars were built over the tombs of these saints and their natale (heavenly birthdays) were honored with special readings and the celebration of the Eucharist. The practice of invoking their intercession also developed as people entrusted their prayers to these martyrs and saints. Those men and women who were more popularly regarded came to be honored not only locally, but in all churches.

It was later that devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, began to develop. Aside from the references to her in the New Testament, it was the early Christian apologists (most notably Irenaeus of Lyons[9] and Justin Martyr[10]) and their development of Mary’s role as the new Eve that contributed most to this growth. In the third century praise of the virginal motherhood of Mary became frequent. One of the earliest surviving expressions of this devotion is the Syriac manuscript containing the text of the prayer now known as the Sub tuum praesidium.[11]

Dating from the year 354 we have the earliest listing of the feasts celebrated by the Church at Rome. The document, known as the Chronograph of 354 or Depositio Martyrum[12] (which also contains first written record of the celebration of a Christmas feast at Rome on December 25), records twenty-four entries. All were martyrs and not only were almost all local, this calendar even contained the locations of their tombs. However, there is typically no year of death given as it was most likely not known although the anniversary dates of death are believed to be trustworthy.[13] Two of the entries were commemorations of the Carthaginian martyrs: Ss. Perpetua and Felicity and St. Cyprian. No entries are made for Biblical Saints (including St. John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary) excepting Ss. Peter and Paul who were themselves Roman martyrs. Of those saints included in the Chronograph, all but five of these entries remain in the current western Calendar.

Gradually Rome began to add more popular non-Roman martyrs to their calendar of feasts. However, since there were no physical remains to be visited, the custom developed of dedicating chapels to the saint(s) being honored.[14] While the practice of admitting non-martyrs to the calendar of feasts was becoming more common in many cities, the practice was only slowly adopted in Rome. It has only been since the reforms of the Council of Trent that the majority of non-martyrs have been added to the Roman (Rite) Calendar.[15]

It was only in the sixth century that Rome finally made any major additions to its liturgical calendar. Among these additions were feasts in honor of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Andrew, Michael the Archangel, and Saints Philip and James. At the same time a few more non-Romans were added to this list of commemorations.

The fifth century saw a feast in honor of Mary under her title of Theotokos celebrated at Jerusalem. This celebration on August 15 was to become the principle feast of the Virgin in the Christian world, and this was soon joined by celebrations honoring Mary’s birth (September 8) and her presentation in the temple (November 21). It was in the seventh century that the festal celebrations in honor of the Virgin Mary made their way to Rome. Until the fourteenth century there were only four Marian feasts celebrated at Rome: the Nativity (September 8), the Annunciation (March 25), the Presentation (February 2), and the Assumption (August 15). Other local churches, however, had their own liturgical observances honoring the Virgin Mary.

The early middle ages saw another increase in the celebrations at Rome. Many notable saints including George, Valentine, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, and Benedict, appear on the calendars in the eighth century. As the centuries passed, the calendar remained, for the most part, unchanged, with local churches typically only moving feasts or exchanging feasts for those from other local churches.[16]

It was the twelfth century that saw the most notable increase of observances. One of the greatest contributing factors was the new practice of reading the Martyrology daily in the cathedral and monastic churches. As the more interesting saints (or possibly the saints with the most interesting legends) became known their feasts were added to local calendars and this allowed for a greater diversity among those honored with both East and West being represented in their numbers.

With the advent of canonizations by the pope, the holy men and women formally venerated and canonized locally were now becoming known more universally and the number of additions to the Roman and other local Western calendars continued to increase. In certain instances, (such as for the feasts of Saint Thomas Becket and Saint Francis of Assisi) the pope would give orders that the celebration be added to all local calendars. As this practice continued, the Roman calendar became “less and less “Roman.””[17] The growing number and influence of religious communities also contributed greatly to the increase in those honored in the calendar. Most notably the Franciscans and Dominicans, with their growing numbers of saints, added to this increase by spreading devotion to their canonized members. As these popular devotions evolved, the desire for liturgical observances also increased. Because of the influence of Papal Legates and the Franciscans[18], the calendar used by the Curia also began to be accepted and used in local churches.

The fourteenth century, noted for the spread of the “black death”, saw fewer additions to the calendar than the previous century. Reflecting the growing trend in devotion to the Virgin Mary, two notable feasts given universal importance at this time were the Presentation of the Mary (November 21), which was extended to the entire Church by Pope Gregory XI in 1372[19], and a feast of the Visitation of Mary on July 2[20] by Pope Urban VI in 1389. Also added to the calendar was a feast honoring Saint Thomas Aquinas (March 7) and the legendary Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins (October 21).

Like the fourteenth century, the fifteenth century saw few additions; these included ancient eastern feasts that were observed in some local western churches but not in Rome. Among these was the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Originally celebrated in Greece on December 9 as “Saint Ann’s Conception of Mary,” it was celebrated in England, France and other western countries on December 8 in the eleventh century, where it became associated with the belief that Mary was conceived without original sin. It was added to the Roman calendar in 1476. The liturgical cult of Saint Joseph dates from the fifteenth century as well and his feast was celebrated at Rome beginning in 1479. The late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw the addition of the names of ancient but over-looked saints such as Athanasius of Alexandria, Monica, Gregory Nazianzen and Christopher.

The sixteenth century Protestant reformers strongly attacked the cult of the saints and this attack, surprisingly, met with little resistance.[21] However, these reformers, while being concerned with any devotions that might overshadow or diminish the understanding of the role of Christ as mediator, were not in agreement as to the appropriateness of public celebrations of feasts celebrating biblical personages and events. In England and Scandinavia a Sanctoral Cycle was simplified but retained.[22] The Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant reformers, the Council of Trent (1545-1563), could find no solution to the problem of abuses within the calendar and with regard to devotional practices, many of which (such as the trade in relics and obsession with miracles) could be regarded as little more than superstition.[23] Ultimately the Council Fathers demanded the abuses be corrected but left the matter in the hands of the pope.

Furthermore, in the invocation of the saints, the veneration of relics, and the sacred use of images, all superstition shall be removed, all filthy quest for gain eliminated, and all lasciviousness avoided,” and the festivals of the saints should not be celebrated with revelry and drunkenness.[24]

In 1568 Pope Saint Pius V published a new Roman calendar that would serve as the calendar of the entire western Church. Since the eleventh century some two hundred feasts had been added to the Roman calendar but only the most important feasts were retained in this new version. With this new calendar came a new Breviary (1568) and Missal (1570), both intended to be universal. This new calendar contained 158 feasts (compared to 156 ferial days) and permission was given for local churches and religious orders to keep existing celebration if they had been in place for more than two hundred years. However, as many churches and orders chose not to use this privilege, the result was an overall liturgical uniformity.[25] Of those saints included in this calendar, eighty-five percent from the fourth century or earlier. However, “there were only two saints each from France, England, and Spain, and only one (the dubious St. Ursula) from Germany.”[26]

The next four centuries saw an amazing increase in the number of feasts in the calendar. In spite of the organization of the Congregation of Rites in 1588 for the safeguard of the Tridentine reforms, the Universal Calendar of 1907 contained 280 feasts (230 were those of saints) and some local calendars had as many as 100 additions. Before the reforms of 1969 another thirty feasts were added. This increase can be primarily attributed to the work of the numerous religious communities who desired to have their saints added to the universal calendar.[27] Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) refused to make any new additions to the calendars and attempted a revision of the Roman Breviary, hoping to eliminate all legendary material. However, this project was never completed and the practice of adding newly canonized saints to the universal calendar began again with his immediate successor Pope Clement XIII (1758-1769). Another reason for the continued increase in the number of feasts was an attempt to make the calendar more universal. At the time however this was understood to mean only an increase in the number of European saints.

It was generally accepted that there were too many Marian feasts in the calendar (this did not include local celebrations) but new feasts were added as late as 1954.[28] Among those added to the universal calendar were the feasts of the Dedication of Saint Mary Major [Our Lady of the Snows] (1568), the Holy Name of Mary (1683), Our Lady of Mercy/Ransom (1696), Our Lady of the Rosary (1716), Our Lady of Mount Carmel (1726), Our Lady of Sorrows (1727), Our Lady of Lourdes (1907), the Motherhood of Mary (1931), the Immaculate Heart of Mary (1944), and the Queenship of Mary (1954). The Appendix of the Roman Missal also included several other masses for local feasts of the Virgin Mary including The Marriage of Mary and Joseph (January 23), Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (November 27), and the Holy House of Loreto (December 10).

The year 1911 saw the publishing of a new Breviary by Pope Saint Pius X. This change eliminated many of the votive offices previously in use (and preferred by the clergy as they were typically shorter than those of ferial days). In 1955 the rubrics of the Roman Missal and Roman Breviary were simplified and all octaves (except those of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) were abolished. So many feasts had been given octaves that many times they would overlap. In addition to the octaves, most vigils were abolished as well and rules were put in place that would prevent the Sundays of Advent, Lent and Easter from being preempted by other feast days. Masses during the weekdays of Lent were initially replaced by those of saint’s feasts but an option was now given that would allow the priest to choose the mass he would celebrate.

1960 saw continued reforms as the rankings of saint’s days were simplified. This classification system was further revised in 1969. For the first time since 1569, nine feasts were removed from the calendar entirely. Sixteen of the votive masses contained in the Missal were removed and the cult of the questionable Saint Philomena was suppressed.

As part of its widespread reform of the liturgy, the Second Vatican Council ( ), in its document Sacrosanctum Concilium, established important guidelines for a future calendar.[29] This new calendar would reflect the idea that the celebration of the saints would neither take precedence over the feasts celebrating the mysteries of salvation, nor take priority over the more general temporal cycle.[30]

The work of the Roman Liturgical Commission, established by Pope Paul VI in 1964, was entrusted with the task of implementing these reforms and in 1969 a new calendar was promulgated in accordance with the decrees of the Council. With regard to those saints included in this new calendar the revisionists required both historical proof and an acknowledgement that the saint in question bore historical and universal significance. Care was also taken that the saints included represented a wider variety of times, places, and stations, reflecting more the universal character of the Church. At the time of its institution, the new calendar contained four solemnities, 17 feasts, 59 obligatory memorials and 88 optional memorials, totaling 168 celebrations in all. Critics, however, have pointed out that of the observances in this “universal” Calendar, “89 saints are from the Romance-Language countries and 63 are from religious orders.”[31]

The document Norms Governing Liturgical Calendars lays out very clearly the guidelines used in the creation of the new Calendar and the necessary criteria for future additions. Allowances were also made for local observances in dioceses, countries, religious families, and even individual churches.

Additions to this Calendar have continued to the present day. Since its promulgation in 1969 new memorials (both obligatory and optional) have been added. Included in these are celebrations of martyr groups from China, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Uganda, and Japan, as well as other saints (martyrs and non-martyrs) from countries as diverse as Poland, Italy, Sudan, France, and Lebanon. In early 2002, Pope John Paul II added the newly canonized Saints Pio of Pietrelcina and Josephine Bakhita, among others, as well as an optional memorial of Our Lady of Fatima to the Calendar. With these new additions has been the reintroduction of memorials honoring the Holy Name of Mary (September 12), Saint Apollinaris (July 20) and Saint Catherine of Alexandria (November 25). The latter, whose memorial was abolished in the 1969 reforms, was reintroduced as an ecumenical gesture directed toward Eastern Rite Christians who still hold this virgin-martyr in high esteem.

The particular calendar of the United States contains memorials of a number saints and blesseds including the Canadian Holy Cross Brother Andre Bessette (January 6), the Belgian Missionary to Hawaii Damian of Molokai (May 10), the Spanish farmer Isidore (May 15), the Spanish Franciscan Missionary Junipero Serra (July 1), the Native American Kateri Tekakwitha (July 14), and the Mexican Jesuit Martyr Miguel Pro (November 26). Of special importance to Hispanic Catholics both in America and throughout the “New World” are the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12) and the memorial of Saint Juan Diego (December 9). These men and women join Americans Elizabeth Seton (January 4), John Neumann (January 5), Katharine Drexel (March 4), Marie-Rose Durocher (October 6), Francis X. Cabrini (November 13) and Rose Philippine Duchesne (November 18), as those chosen for special honor in the American Church. Undoubtedly, the New Orleans Pastor, Redemptorist Blessed Francis Seelos (October 5) will soon be added to this number.

The continued discussion and development of the Calendar with its Cycle of Saints gives powerful witness to the Church’s continued celebration of those of Her children who have, in a sense, made it. These men and women are the Church’s royalty representing all times and places, sexes and ages, gifts, talents, and ways of life. Without doubt the Calendar (and its feasts) will continue to develop. It seems likely that at some time in the future there will be need for another revision to help the faithful refocus their attention on the Great Seasons and Solemnities of the Liturgical Year and to make room for the new saints with whom, we hope, God will continue to bless his Church.

Talley, Thomas. The Origins of the Liturgical Year. Collegeville: The Liturgical

[1] Cf. Hebrews 12:1

[2] Polycarp of Smyrna (d. February 23, 155 or 156). This feast was first celebrated in Rome on January 26 in the 13^th Century. It was moved to its present date of February 23 in the Calendar revisions of 1969.

[3] Adolf Adam: Foundations of Liturgy: An Introduction to Its History and Practice. (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1985). 315.

[4] Richard Nardone: The Story of the Christian Year. (New York: Paulist Press, 1991). 10.

[5] Adolf Adam: The Liturgical Year: Its History and Its Meaning After the Reform of the Liturgy. (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1990). 206.

[6] Gregory “Thaumaturgus- The Wonder Worker” (d. ca. 270). His feast was not placed on the Western Calendar until 1568. This celebration is now left for local observance only.

[7] Martin, monk and bishop of Tours (d. 397). His feast was first celebrated at Rome in the 6^th Century.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Irenaeus, disciple of St. Polycarp and Bishop of Lyons (d. ca. 202).

[10] Justin “the Martyr”, Roman teacher and writer (d. 166).

[11] Adam, The Liturgical Year, 207.

[12] See Nardone, The Story of the Christian Year, 33, and Cheslyn Jones: The Study of Liturgy. (New York: Oxford University Press). 476.

[13] Nardone, The Story of the Christian Year, 33.

[14] Ibid, 40.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid. 82.

[17] Ibid. 88.

[18] The “Curial Missal” had been adopted by the Franciscans. See Nardone, The Story of the Christian Year, 88, and Jones, The Study of the Liturgy, 479.

[19] The Feast (now Memorial) of the Presentation of Mary was later removed from the calendar by Pope St. Pius V in 1568 but was reinserted by Pope Sixtus V in 1585.

[20] This feast had been adopted by the Franciscans in 1263. It was moved to May 31 in the 1969 Calendar revisions so that it would fall before not after the Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist (June 24).

[21] Jones, The Study of Liturgy, 481.

[22] Ibid. 482.

[23] Ibid. 480-481.

[24] Nardone, The Story of the Christian Year, 102,

[25] Adam, The Liturgical Year, 209.

[26] Nardone, The Story of the Christian Year, 103,

[27] Ibid. 104.

[28] Ibid. 114.

[29] Adam, The Liturgical Year, 209.

[30] Ibid. 210.

[31] Adam, Foundations of Liturgy, 318.