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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ecclesiastical Feasts</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06021b.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Feast Days, or Holy Days, are days which are celebrated in commemoration of the sacred mysteries and events recorded in the history of our redemption, in memory of the Virgin Mother of Christ, or of His apostles, martyrs, and saints, by special services and rest from work"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="06021b.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/f.htm">F</a> > Ecclesiastical Feasts</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Ecclesiastical Feasts</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>(<a href="../cathen/09019a.htm">Latin</a> <em>Festum</em>; Greek <em>heorte</em>).</p> <p>Feast Days, or Holy Days, are days which are celebrated in commemoration of the sacred mysteries and events recorded in the history of our <a href="../cathen/12677d.htm">redemption</a>, in memory of the <a href="../cathen/15464b.htm">Virgin Mother of Christ</a>, or of His apostles, <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>, and <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, by special services and rest from work. A feast not only commemorates an event or <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a>, but also serves to excite the spiritual life by reminding us of the event it commemorates. At certain hours <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus Christ</a> invites us to His vineyard (<a href="../bible/mat020.htm#vrs1">Matthew 20:1-15</a>); He is born in our hearts at <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>; on <a href="../cathen/06643a.htm">Good Friday</a> we nail ourselves to the cross with Him; at <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a> we rise from the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>; and at Pentecost we receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Every religion has its feasts, but none has such a rich and judiciously constructed system of festive seasons as the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. The succession of these seasons form the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> year, in which the feasts of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Our Lord</a> form the ground and framework, the feasts of the <a href="../cathen/15464b.htm">Blessed Virgin</a> and the Saints the ornamental tracery.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Prototypes and starting-points for the oldest <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> feasts are the Jewish solemnities of <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a> and Pentecost. Together with the weekly Lord's Day, they remained the only universal Christian feasts down to the third century (<a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a>, "De Bapt." 19: <a href="../cathen/11306b.htm">Origen</a>, <a href="../fathers/04168.htm"><em>Against Celsus</em> VIII.22</a>). Two feasts of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Our Lord</a> (<a href="../cathen/05504c.htm">Epiphany</a>, <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>) were added in the fourth century; then came the feasts of the Apostles and <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>, in particular provinces; later on also those of some confessors (St. Martin, <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory</a>); in the sixth and seventh centuries feasts of the Blessed Virgin were added. After the triumph of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, in the fourth and fifth centuries, the sessions of the civil courts were prohibited on all feasts, also the games in the circus and theatrical performances, in order to give an opportunity to all to hear Mass. In the course of centuries the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> calendar expanded considerably, because in earlier ages every <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> had a <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to establish new feasts. Later on a reduction of feasts took place, partly by regular <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> legislation, partly in consequence of revolutions in State and church. The Statutes of Bishop Sonnatius of <a href="../cathen/07356b.htm">Reims</a> (see <a href="../cathen/03158a.htm">CALENDAR</a>), in 620, mention eleven feasts; the Statutes of St. Boniface ("Statuta", Mansi XII, 383), nineteen days, <em>"in quibus sabbatizandum"</em>, i.e. days of rest. In <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> (ninth century) the feasts were confined to <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, Epiphany, three days of <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a>, Assumption, Sts. Peter and Paul, <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory</a>, and All Saints. Before the reign of King Edgar (959-75), three festivals of the B.V. Mary, and the days kept in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> of the Apostles were added; in the tenth year of Ethelred (989), the feast of <a href="../cathen/05323a.htm">St. Edward the Martyr</a> (18 March), and in the reign of Canute, or Cnut (1017-35), that of <a href="../cathen/05199a.htm">St. Dunstan</a> (19 May), were added. The feasts in the Statutes of <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Lanfranc</a> (d. 1089) are quite numerous, and are divided into three classes (<a href="../cathen/10290a.htm">Migne</a>, P.L., CL, 472-78)</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">Decree</a> of Gratian (about 1150) mentions forty-one feasts besides the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> patronal celebrations; the <a href="../cathen/04670b.htm">Decretals</a> of Gregory IX (about 1233) mention forty-five public feasts and Holy Days, which means eighty-five days when no work could be done and ninety-five days when no court sessions could be held. In many provinces eight days after <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a>, in some also the week after Pentecost (or at least four days), had the <a href="../cathen/13287b.htm">sabbath</a> rest. From the thirteenth to the eighteenth century there were <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> in which the Holy Days and <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sundays</a> amounted to over one hundred, not counting the feasts of particular <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and churches. In the Byzantine empire there were sixty-six entire Holy Days (Constitution of Manuel Comnenus, in 1166), exclusive of <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sundays</a>, and twenty-seven half Holy Days. In the fifteenth century, <a href="../cathen/06530c.htm">Gerson</a>, <a href="../cathen/04011b.htm">Nicolas de Clémanges</a> and others protested against the multiplication of feasts, as an oppression of the <a href="../cathen/12327a.htm">poor</a>, and proximate occasions of excesses. The long needed reduction of feast days was made by <a href="../cathen/15218b.htm">Urban VIII</a> (Universa per orbem, 13 Sept., 1642). There remained thirty-six feasts or eighty-five days free from labour. <a href="../cathen/15218b.htm">Pope Urban</a> limited the right of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> to establish new Holy Days; this right is now not abrogated, but antiquated. A reduction for <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> by <a href="../cathen/02431a.htm">Benedict XIII</a> (1727) retained only seventeen feasts; and on the nineteen abrogated Holy Days only the hearing of Mass was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a>. This reduction was extended (1748) to <a href="../cathen/13772a.htm">Sicily</a>. For <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a> (1745) the number had been reduced to fifteen full Holy Days; but since the hearing of Mass on the abrogated feasts, or half Holy Days, the fast on the vigils of the Apostles were poorly observed, <a href="../cathen/04034a.htm">Clement XIV</a> ordered that sixteen full feasts should be observed; he did away with the half Holy Days, which however continued to be observed in the rural districts (peasant Holy Days, <em>Bauernfeiertage</em>). The <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> have to say <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Mass</a> for the people on all the abrogated feasts. The same reduction was introduced into <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a> in 1775, and into <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> in 1791; finally <a href="../cathen/12131a.htm">Pius VI</a> extended this provision to other countries and provinces.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>By the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French revolution</a> the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> calendar had been radically abolished, and at the reorganization of the French Church, in 1806, only four feasts were retained: <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, the <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension</a>, the Assumption, and All Saints; the other feasts were transferred to Sunday. This reduction was valid also in <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a> and in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> on the left bank of the Rhine. For the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> <a href="../cathen/12131a.htm">Pius VI</a> (19 March, 1777) established the following lists of feasts: <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a> and Pentecost two days each, <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, New Year's Day, Epiphany, <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension</a>, <a href="../cathen/04390b.htm">Corpus Christi</a>, Annunciation, Assumption, Sts. Peter and Paul, <a href="../cathen/06453a.htm">St. George</a>, and All Saints. After the <a href="../cathen/16037d.htm">restoration of the hierarchy</a> (1850), the Annunciation, St. George, and the Monday after <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a> and Pentecost were abolished. <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scotland</a> keeps also the feast of St. Andrew, <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Ireland</a> the feasts of <a href="../cathen/11554a.htm">St. Patrick</a> and the Annunciation. In the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a>, the number of feasts was not everywhere the same; the Council of <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a> wanted only four feasts, but the <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> was not approved by <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>; the third <a href="../cathen/02235a.htm">Plenary Council of Baltimore</a> (1884), by a general law, retained six feasts: <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, New Year's Day, <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension</a>, Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, and All Saints. Sts. Peter and Paul and <a href="../cathen/04390b.htm">Corpus Christi</a> were transferred to the next following Sunday. In the city of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> the following feasts are of double precept (i.e. hearing <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Mass</a>, and rest from work): <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, New Year's Day, Epiphany, Purification, <a href="../cathen/13356b.htm">St. Joseph</a>, Annunciation, <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension</a>, <a href="../cathen/12018b.htm">St. Philip Neri</a> (26 May), <a href="../cathen/04390b.htm">Corpus Christi</a>, Nativity of the B.V.M., All Saints, Conception of the B.V.M., <a href="../cathen/08492a.htm">St. John the Evangelist</a>. The <a href="../cathen/09066a.htm">civil law</a> in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> acknowledges: Epiphany, <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension</a>, Sts. Peter and Paul, Assumption, Nativity, Conception, <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, and the patronal feasts.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek Church</a> at present observes the following Holy Days: Nativity of Mary, Exaltation of the Cross (14 Sept.), <a href="../cathen/04706b.htm">St. Demetrius</a> (26 Oct.), <a href="../cathen/10275b.htm">St. Michael</a> (8 Nov.), Entrance of Mary into the Temple (21 Nov.), <a href="../cathen/11063b.htm">St. Nicholas</a> (6 Dec.), Conception of St. Anne (9 Dec.), Nativity of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, Commemoration of Mary (26 Dec.), St. Stephen (27 Dec.), Circumcision (1 Jan.), Epiphany, the Doctors <a href="../cathen/02330b.htm">St. Basil</a>, <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory</a>, <a href="../cathen/08452b.htm">St. John Chrysostom</a> (30 Jan.), the Meeting of Christ and Simeon (2 Febr.), Annunciation, St. George (23 Apr.), Nativity of St. John, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Elias (20 July), Transfiguration (6 Aug.), Assumption, Beheading of St. John (29 Aug.), the Monday after <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a> and Pentecost, <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension of Christ</a>, and the patronal feasts. The <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">Russians</a> have only nine <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> Holy Days which do not fall on a Sunday, viz.: Nativity, Epiphany, <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension</a>, Transfiguration, Purification, Annunciation, Assumption, Presentation of Mary (21 Nov.), and the Exaltation of the Cross. But they have fifty festivals (birthdays, etc.) of the imperial <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, on which days not even a funeral can be held.</p> <h2>Division of feasts</h2> <p>Feasts are divided:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>According to external celebration (<em>feriatio</em>): <em>festa fori</em>, or feasts of precept, with double <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a>, to rest from work and to hear Mass; <em>festa chori</em>, which are kept only in the liturgy, by the celebration of Mass, and the recitation of the <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Divine Office</a>. Besides these there were, and still are, in some <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> (e.g. in <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>), the Half Holy Days, on which the people after having heard Mass can do servile work (<a href="../cathen/03245b.htm">Candlemas</a>, Nativity of Mary, and the Immaculate Conception in the Diocese of Utrecht).</li><li>According to extension: <em>Universal</em> feasts, celebrated everywhere, at least in the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin Church</a>; <em>particular</em> feasts, celebrated only by certain <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders, countries, provinces, <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> or towns. These latter are either prescribed by the general <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubrics</a>, like the patronal feasts, or are specially approved by the <a href="../cathen/01640c.htm">Apostolic See</a>, and prescribed by <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> or <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synods</a>, for particular countries or <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> (<em>festa pro aliquibus locis</em> in the <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">Breviary</a>). The universal feasts are contained in the <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Roman</a> <a href="../cathen/03158a.htm">Calendar</a>.</li><li>According to their position in the calendar: <em>movable feasts</em>, which always fall on a certain day of the week, depending on the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a>, or the position of the Sunday, e.g. <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension of Christ</a> (forty days after <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a>), or the <a href="../cathen/13189a.htm">feast of the Holy Rosary</a>, the first <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sunday</a> of October; <em>immovable</em> feasts, which are fixed to a certain date of the month, e.g. <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, 25 December. In the <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> Church all the feasts of the year are movable, except six: Epiphany, Purification (14 Febr.), Annunciation (7 April), Nativity (8 Sept.), Presentation (21 Nov.), and (8 Dec. Conception of Mary (Tondini, "Calendrier liturgique de la Nation Arménienne", Rome, 1906).</li><li>According to the solemnity of the office or rite (see <a href="../cathen/03158a.htm">CALENDAR</a>). Since the thirteenth century there are three kinds of feasts: <em>festum simplex</em>, <em>semiduplex</em>, and <em>duplex</em>, all three regulated by the recitation of the <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Divine Office</a> or <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">Breviary</a>. The simple feast commences with the chapter (<em>capitulum</em>) of First <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a>, and ends with None. It has three lessons and takes the psalms of <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a> from the <a href="../cathen/06043a.htm">ferial</a> office; the rest of the office is like the semidouble. The semidouble feast has two <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a>, nine lessons in <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a>, and ends with <a href="../cathen/04187a.htm">Compline</a>. The <a href="../cathen/01575b.htm">antiphons</a> before the psalms are only intoned. In the Mass, the semidouble has always at least three "orationes" or <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a>. On a double feast the <a href="../cathen/01575b.htm">antiphons</a> are sung in their entirety, before and after the psalms. In <a href="../cathen/09038a.htm">Lauds</a> and <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a> there are no <em>suffragia</em> of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, and the Mass has only one "oratio" (if there be no commemoration prescribed). The ordinary double feasts are called <em>duplicia minora</em>; occurring with feasts of a higher rank, they can be simplified, except the octave days of some feasts and the feasts of the <a href="../cathen/05075a.htm">Doctors of the Church</a>, which are transferred. The feasts of a higher rank are the <em>duplicia majora</em> (introduced by <a href="../cathen/04027a.htm">Clement VIII</a>), the <em>duplicia secundae classis</em> and the <em>duplicia primae classis</em>. Some of the latter two classes are kept with octaves. Before the reformation of the <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">Breviary</a> by <a href="../cathen/12130a.htm">Pius V</a> (1566-72), the terms by which the solemnity of a feast could be known were, in many <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, very different from the terms we use now. We give a few examples from Grotefend, "Zeitrechnung", etc. (Hanover, 1891-98, II-III): Chur: "Festum summum, plenum officium trium lectionum, commemoratio." Havelberg: "Festum summum, semisummum, secundum, tertium, novem majus, novem minus, compulsation 3 lect., antiphona." Halle: "Festum praepositi, apostolicum, dominicale, 9 lect., compulsation 3 lect., antiphona." Breslau: "Festum Triplex, duplex, 9 lectionum, 3 lect., commemoratio." <a href="../cathen/03388a.htm">Carthusians</a>: "Festum Candelarum, capituli, 12 lect., missa, commemoratio." Lund: "Fest Praelatorum, canonicorum, vicariorum, duplex, simplex, 9 lect., 3 lect., memoria." </li></ul></div> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Some of the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders which have their own breviary, did not adopt the terms now used in the <a href="../cathen/16013a.htm">Roman Breviary</a>. For example, the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercians</a> have the following terminology: "Festum sermonis majus, sermonis minus, duarum missarum majus, 2 miss. minus, 12 lectionum, 3 lect., commemoratio." The <a href="../cathen/12354c.htm">Dominicans</a>: "Totum duplex, duplex, simplex, 3 lect., memoria." The <a href="../cathen/03354a.htm">Carmelites</a>: "Duplex majus I. classis solemnis, dupl, maj. I. cl. duplex majus 2. classis, duplex minus I, classis, duplex minus 2, classis, semiduplex, simplex, simplicissimum."</p> <p>Among the feasts of the same rite there is a difference in dignity. There are</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>primary feasts which commemorate the principal mysteries of our religion, or celebrate the death of a saint;</li><li>secondary feasts, the object of which is a particular feature of a mystery, e.g. the feast of the Crown of Thorns, of the <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a> of a saint or of some <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracle</a> worked by him, e.g. the feast of the translation of St. Stephen, the Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The list of primary and secondary feasts has been determined by a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (22 Aug., 1893), and is found in the introduction to the <a href="../cathen/16013a.htm">Roman Breviary</a>.</li><li>Within the two classes mentioned the feasts of Christ take the first place, especially those with privileged vigils and octaves (<a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, Epiphany, <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a>, Pentecost, and <a href="../cathen/04390b.htm">Corpus Christi</a>); then follow the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, the <a href="../cathen/01476d.htm">Holy Angels</a>, <a href="../cathen/08486b.htm">St. John the Baptist</a>, <a href="../cathen/13356b.htm">St. Joseph</a>, the Apostles and <a href="../cathen/05645a.htm">Evangelists</a>, and the other <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>. </li></ul></div> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">DUCHESNE, Origines du Culte Chrétien (Paris, 1889); tr. McCLURE (London, 1904); KELLNER, Heortology (tr. London, 1909), PROBST, Liturgie des vierten Jahrh. (Münster, 1893); BÄUMER, Geschichte des Breviers (Freiburg, 1895); BENTRIUM, Denkwürdigen (Mainz, 1829); LINGARD, Antiquities of the Anglo Saxon Church (London, 1858); MAXIMILIAN, PRINCE OF SAXONY, Praelect. de Liturgiis Orientalibus (Freiburg, 1908); Kirchliches Handlexicom (Münster 1907); Kirchenlexicon(Freiburg, 1886), IV; NILLES, Kalendarium, manuele, etc. (Innsbruck, 1897); MORISOT, Instructions sur les fêtes de l'année (Paris, 1908).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Holweck, F.</span> <span id="apayear">(1909).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Ecclesiastical Feasts.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06021b.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Holweck, Frederick.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Ecclesiastical Feasts."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 6.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1909.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06021b.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Vicky Gordon.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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