Everything about The Calendar Of Saints totally explained
The
Calendar of saints is a traditional
Christian method of organizing a
liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with one or more
saints, and referring to the day as that saint's
feast day. The system arose from the very early Christian custom of annual commemoration of
martyrs on the dates of their deaths, or birth into heaven (and thus referred to in Latin as
dies natalis, "day of birth"). As the number of recognized saints increased during
Late Antiquity and roughly the first half of the
Middle Ages, eventually every day of the year had at least one saint who was commemorated on that date. Eventually, some saints were moved to another day in some traditions, or completely removed; thus, some saints do have more than one day.
There are two categories of saints:
martyrs and
confessors. Martyrs are regarded as dying in the service of the Lord, and confessors are people who died natural deaths. Confessors were not initially considered for saint's days. The term confessor is now less common and those who are not martyrs are usually given another categorical
cognomen such as:
Virgin,
Pastor,
Bishop,
Monk,
Priest, Founder,
Abbot, Apostle,
Doctor of the Church or a combination of these.
This
calendar 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. It may be compared with the
Roman Missal.
Some Christians continue the tradition of dating by saints' days: their works may appear "dated" as "The Feast of
Saint Martin". Poets such as
John Keats commemorate the importance of
The Eve of Saint Agnes.
Many children acquire baptismal or
confirmation names from the saint associated with his/her date of birth,
baptism or
confirmation, and believing
Eastern Orthodox Christians (and in some countries, Roman Catholics) mark the "
name day" (namesday) of the saint whose name he or she bears with special attention, often instead of
birthday celebrations.
Ranking of feast days
Various feast days will be "ranked" with various levels of importance.
- In the Roman Catholic Church, from most to least importance, these are solemnities, feasts, memorials, and optional memorials.
- In the Eastern Orthodox Church the ranking of feasts may vary from church to church. In the Russian Orthodox Church they are: Great Feasts, All-Night Vigils, Polyeleos, Great Doxology, Sextupple (having six stichera at Vespers and six troparia at the Canon of Matins), Double (for example, two simple feasts celebrated together) and Simple.
- In the Church of England, they're Principal Feasts and Principal Holy Days, Festivals, Lesser Festivals, and Commemorations.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Calendar Of Saints'.
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