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SAINTS CALENDAR ACCORDING TO ST PETER CANISIUS - INTRODUCTION
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| Saint Peter Canisius |
[Originally also written in German, this is a shorter version of the German-language Catholic Martyrology edited by the famed Jesuit scholar-saint, Peter Canisius (1521-1597): Martyrologium: der Kirchen-Kalender, darinnen angezeiget werden, die christlichen Feste und Heiligen Gottes beyder Testamente (Dillingen, 1562). The text below was published in: Peter Canisius, Catholic Catechism and Prayer Book, (Petrus Canisius, Katholisches Lehr - und Gebetbuch), Ninth Edition, Landshut, 1843, Joseph Thomann Publishing House and Bookstore]
General Christian Calendar and Explanation of the Seasons of the Year.
Note firstly: the whole year has twelve months, fifty-two weeks and one day, three hundred sixty-five days and six hours, which six hours make a full day in four years. Therefore, every fourth year is called a leap year, because a day is inserted into the three hundred sixty-five periods. A leap year thus has 366 periods. This is how the world counts; but the Church differently. The secular year is one thing, and the Christian, ecclesiastical, or spiritual year is another. The secular year is divided according to the earth's course around the sun in the sky; but the ecclesiastical year revolves around the sun of justice, which is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the source of all time. Therefore, years are written according to Christ, before and after his appearance in humanity. One says 1842 AD, just as one also says that, for example, Jacob, the holy patriarch, flourished in 1700 BC. Just as the years are counted, so too are the seasons of each year ordered according to the gracious Incarnation of Christ, through which time is also sanctified. The Church begins its year with Advent, the celebration of the expectation of the Lord's coming, which falls in December and lasts four weeks. This holy season is followed by the holy night or Christmas, that is, the birth of Jesus Christ, the celebration of which, including the Circumcision on the eighth day, lasts twelve days, from December 25th to January 5th. The Feast of the Epiphany falls on January 6th, after which six Sundays are counted in an ordinary year. This holy season also includes the Feast of the Presentation of Christ, or Candlemas, a celebration of Christ as "the ornament of Israel and of light to enlighten the Gentiles." The festive season of the manifestation of Jesus Christ is followed by the season of fasting, which some in former times observed for seventy days, others for sixty, and still others for fifty; hence the Latin names of the Sundays Septuagesima, Sexasgesima, and Quinquagesima. We in our time have long celebrated the forty-day fast, called Quadragesima, a time also and especially for the commemoration of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, particularly in the fifth or Passion week, and even more so in the sixth or Holy Week, in which Holy Thursday, the celebration of the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament, Good Friday, the celebration of the Lord’s death on the Cross and the observance of Holy Saturday, the day when He was in the tomb. These most sacred days are succeeded by the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which endures for seven weeks; within this period - specifically on the fortieth day after Easter - falls the celebration of Christ’s Ascension. Following the Easter season comes the holy feast of Pentecost - the feast of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit - after which, in the ordinary course of the year, there follow twenty-four Sundays that bring the year to its conclusion. The first of these is known as Trinity Sunday, followed by the supremely solemn celebration of Corpus Christi, which feast celebrates splendidly the treasure and triumph of our holy religion. Thus, the entire span of each year is structured and divided according to the pivotal moments of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the work of eternal redemption. Interspersed among these sacred periods of the year are the feasts of the saints - in whom the grace of Jesus Christ has been wondrously revealed and the Lord Jesus glorified - as well as feasts of Mary, the Most Holy Virgin, and other saints of God. Some of these feasts are prescribed for observance throughout the entire Church, while others are obligatory only in specific provinces and dioceses, as we shall note later in the calendar. From this, however, one perceives that every day in the Church is a feast - an unbroken celebration of Jesus Christ the Lord, or of the grace of Jesus Christ manifested in His saints. And thus, all time is sanctified and consecrated through Jesus Christ, who deigned to become man in the fullness of time. Just as He is the Author of all things, so too is He the centre of the years and of the seasons of every year. With this spirit, then, regard the ordinary calendar that follows here.
INDEX MONTH BY MONTH:
September October November December
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