From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
July 12, 2025
The universal calendar of the Catholic Church celebrates the faithful witness and intercession of numerous saints throughout the year. July is no exception. St. Thomas is commemorated on July 3, St. Benedict on July 11, St. James “the Great” on July 25, Saints Joachim and Anne on July 26, and the three siblings, Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, on July 29, among others.
And then there are many other saints, not listed on the universal calendar, whose feast days are kept in various religious communities and local churches. For example, on July 1, the Church in the Church in the United States celebrates the feastday of St. Junípero Serra, the founder of the California missions, while on July 12, the joint feast Saints Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin, the parents of Saint Therese, “the Little Flower,” is kept in the Church in France.
In fact, there are many more saints (and blesseds!) remembered by the Church on any given day than the one or two possibly noted in the universal calendar. The official listing of the more than 7,000 saints and blesseds officially venerated by the Church is found in the Roman Martyrology (2004), which can readily be found in English translation online. Another very accessible source is the Catholic app, Laudate, which is free and can be easily downloaded to your smart phone. Once installed, and after clicking on the first option (“Daily Readings and Saint…”), the next page indicates the date, then offers the order of the daily mass, followed by the “Saint of the Day” (in fact, many of them!), then the readings for that day’s Mass, etc. And there are many more resources for prayer and learning on this helpful app.
The Church’s liturgical calendar has more flexibility—and complexity—than many would image. First, the feasts of saints and liturgical seasons are “ranked.” For example, a “solemnity” has precedence even over a Sunday in Ordinary Time, as just occurred when the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29) replaced the observance of the Thirteenth Sunday on Ordinary Time. Holy Week and Easter Week outrank all solemnities. And so it goes.
Most saints are commemorated on the anniversary day of their death (i.e., their “birth” into heaven). But that is not always the case. The recently (2015) canonized parents of St. Therese of Lisieux are commemorated on July 12, the anniversary of their wedding day (in 1858), and the feast of Pope St. John Paul II is October 22, the anniversary of the solemn Mass of Inauguration of his papacy (1978). (The date of his death, April 2, if chosen, often falls within Holy Week or Easter Week, and so the feast of this popular contemporary saint would have been celebrated much less frequently.)
More to come…
