Saint-of-the-day glossary
The General Roman Calendar terms that appear on our saint-of-the-day pages, defined one by one.
8 terms · The definitions are ours; where a term has an official definition, the source is named.
- Solemnity
- Feast
- Obligatory and optional memorial
- Liturgical season
- Liturgical colour
- Patron saint
- Canonization
- Martyrology
- Solemnity
- The highest rank of celebration in the General Roman Calendar: it has its own full liturgy, begins the evening before, and outranks almost any other date. Christmas, Easter and the Assumption are solemnities; most saints on the calendar never reach this rank.
- Feast
- A rank below solemnity: it has its own liturgy but does not begin the evening before, and gives way when it falls on an Ordinary Time Sunday or inside a strong season (Advent, Lent). It is the rank given to the apostles and a few other major saints of the universal calendar.
- Obligatory and optional memorial
- An obligatory memorial must be celebrated wherever no higher-ranking date falls that day; an optional one may or may not be celebrated, at the choice of whoever presides at Mass. Most saints on the calendar carry a memorial, not a feast or solemnity, which is why many pages in this module show this rank.
- Liturgical season
- Each period of the church year (Advent, Christmastide, Lent, the Easter Triduum, Eastertide, Ordinary Time) has its own tone and colour, and that season can suppress a saint's memorial that falls within it. That is why the same civil-calendar date can, in different years, fall inside or outside a strong season.
- Liturgical colour
- The colour of the vestments worn at Mass, marking the character of the celebration: white for feasts and joy, red for martyrs and the Holy Spirit, green for Ordinary Time, purple for penance (Advent and Lent), and rose on two specific Sundays of the year.
- Patron saint
- A saint chosen as the protector of a place, profession, cause or person, usually by popular tradition or formal church decree. The same saint can patronise several things at once, through a link to their life or to the legend that grew up around it.
- Canonization
- The act by which the Catholic Church officially declares that a deceased person is a saint and may be publicly venerated anywhere. It is the final step of a longer process, which usually passes through beatification and requires a recognised miracle.
- Standard definition by Código de Direito Canônico, cân. 1186–1190
- Martyrology
- The official book that lists, day by day, every saint and blessed recognised by the Catholic Church, with biographical facts and an account of their death or life. The text of the Roman Martyrology (2004 edition) belongs to the Libreria Editrice Vaticana and is not reproduced on this site; the facts used here come from open sources.