Saints’ Day: 9 Things Every Catholic Should Know

The Catholic Saints’ Calendar organizes the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the martyrs, and the saints throughout the liturgical year. More commonly known as the Saints’ Day calendar, it forms part of the Church’s official liturgical calendar. It determines which saint is celebrated each day, the rank of each celebration, and where it is observed.

This article continues our series on the Catholic liturgy by answering the most common questions about Saints’ Day and the Church’s calendar of saints. You’ll learn where the tradition comes from, how the Catholic Saints’ Calendar is organized, how someone is declared a saint, and how to find the saint of the day wherever you are. If you’ve already read our articles on the liturgical cycle, the liturgical year, or solemnities, feasts, and memorials, this guide completes the picture of the Church’s liturgical calendar.

What is the Catholic saints’ calendar?

The Catholic Saints’ Calendar is the annual cycle of liturgical celebrations honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary, the martyrs, and the saints. In the Church’s liturgical terminology, it is known as the Proper of Saints, and it complements the Proper of Time, which follows the mysteries of Christ from Advent through the end of Ordinary Time.

Honoring the saints never competes with Christ’s central place in the liturgy. The Second Vatican Council explains this beautifully in Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963, no. 111): when the Church celebrates the saints, she proclaims Christ’s Paschal Mystery, because the saints reached the fullness of life made possible through Him. Every Saints’ Day ultimately celebrates Christ’s victory reflected in the life of one of His faithful disciples.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church develops this teaching in its section on the Communion of Saints (CCC 946–962). It explains that a living communion exists between the pilgrim Church on earth, the souls being purified, and the saints in heaven. For this reason, the saints are far more than inspiring historical figures—they are powerful intercessors whom Catholics confidently ask to pray for them.

Where Did the Catholic Saints’ Calendar Come From?

The tradition of celebrating Saints’ Days began at the tombs of the martyrs during the persecutions of the Roman Empire. Rather than celebrating a person’s earthly birthday, as was customary in Roman culture, the first Christians gathered each year on the martyr’s dies natalis, the day of death, understood as the person’s true birth into eternal life.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp, a second-century document, describes how the Christians of Smyrna assembled every year on the anniversary of their bishop’s martyrdom to celebrate the Eucharist. Around A.D. 250, Saint Cyprian of Carthage instructed his clergy to carefully record the date of each confessor’s death so that their memory could be united to the Church’s Eucharistic celebration.

After the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313 brought an end to the persecutions, the Catholic Saints’ Calendar gradually expanded. The Church began distinguishing between those who shed their blood for Christ and those who bore witness through lives of heroic virtue without suffering martyrdom. Ascetics, virgins, bishops, Doctors of the Church, and lay faithful were progressively included in the calendar. This distinction still shapes the Church’s canonization process today.

What Does “Dies Natalis” Mean, and Why Is a Saint’s Death Celebrated Instead of Their Birthday?

The Latin expression dies natalis, which means “day of birth,” refers to the date assigned to each saint in the Catholic Saints’ Calendar. In most cases, this is not the saint’s biological birthday but the day of his or her death or occasionally the date on which the saint’s relics were solemnly translated.

The reason is deeply theological. For Christians, death is not the end but the passage into eternal life with God. Celebrating a saint’s dies natalis therefore means celebrating the day that person was born into heaven, rather than simply commemorating the anniversary of an earthly death.

How Are Saints’ Days Classified?

Not every Saints’ Day has the same importance in the Church’s liturgy. The Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar establish four ranks of celebration, in addition to weekdays (ferias), when no higher-ranking observance takes precedence.

• Solemnities are the highest-ranking celebrations. They begin with First Vespers on the evening before, include the Gloria, the Creed, and three Scripture readings, and are reserved for saints of exceptional importance to the universal or local Church, such as Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist, or the patron saint of a diocese or nation.

• Feasts are celebrated within a single calendar day, from midnight to midnight. They include the Gloria, but not the Creed, and normally feature two Scripture readings. This rank is assigned to the Apostles, the Evangelists, and other saints of universal significance.

• An Obligatory Memorial requires the proper Collect of the saint to be used, although the Scripture readings are usually taken from the weekday cycle so that the continuous reading of the Bible is not interrupted. These celebrations are assigned to saints whose witness is important throughout the Church, though not to the same degree as a feast.

• An Optional Memorial is left to the discretion of the celebrating priest, who may choose either the prayers of the saint or the weekday liturgy. These memorials generally honor saints with a more localized devotion or a more limited liturgical observance.

A simple way to remember the hierarchy is this: the higher the rank of a celebration, the more proper elements the Mass includes—such as the Gloria, the Creed, and its own Scripture readings—and the greater its importance within the Church’s liturgical calendar.

What Happens When Two Saints’ Days Fall on the Same Date?

When two celebrations fall on the same day—a situation known in liturgical law as an occurrence—the Church follows the Table of Liturgical Precedence, which ranks every celebration of the liturgical year according to thirteen levels of importance.

At the top stands the Paschal Triduum, followed by the great solemnities of the Lord and the Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter. Feasts and memorials from the Catholic Saints’ Calendar follow further down the list.
If a solemnity coincides with a day of higher rank, it is not lost. Instead, it is transferred to the next available day. This happens, for example, when the Solemnity of Saint Joseph (March 19) falls on a Sunday of Lent or during Holy Week.

Feasts and memorials are treated differently. When they coincide with a higher-ranking celebration, they are simply omitted for that year and are not transferred.
The Church also distinguishes another situation called concurrence, which occurs when the Second Vespers of one day overlap with the First Vespers of the following day. In that case, Vespers of the higher-ranking celebration take precedence. If both celebrations have the same rank, the Vespers of the day already in progress are observed.

What Is the Difference Between the General Roman Calendar and Local Calendars?

The General Roman Calendar includes only those saints whose liturgical celebration is intended for the universal Church. Following the Second Vatican Council, Pope Saint Paul VI revised the Catholic Saints’ Calendar, transferring many saints whose historical evidence was uncertain—or whose devotion was primarily regional—to local calendars.

Particular calendars are prepared by Episcopal Conferences, diocesan bishops, or the superiors of religious orders, always with the final approval of the Holy See through the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. These calendars explain why the same saint may have different ranks depending on the country.

Saint Rose of Lima, for example, appears as an optional memorial in the General Roman Calendar on August 23. In Peru, much of Latin America, and Spain, however, she is celebrated on August 30 as a feast or even a solemnity, since she is the principal patroness of Latin America and the Philippines.
A similar example is Our Lady of Guadalupe. Universally she is observed as an optional memorial on December 12, but in Mexico she is celebrated as a solemnity, while in many other countries throughout the Americas she is observed as a feast day.

What is the Roman Martyrology?

The Martyrologium Romanum is the Church’s official catalog of saints and blesseds whose public veneration has been approved by the Holy See. It is far more comprehensive than the liturgical calendar, since it includes thousands of saints who do not appear in the saints calendar used for the celebration of the Mass.
For every day of the year, the Roman Martyrology provides a series of brief notices, traditionally called elogia. Each entry identifies the saint or blessed, indicates his or her state in life—martyr, virgin, bishop, confessor, or another vocation—mentions the place associated with the person’s witness, and offers a concise summary of that life of holiness.
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Its origins can be traced back to the fifth-century Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which brought together earlier traditions from Italy, Gaul, Africa, and the Christian East. During the Middle Ages, scholars such as Saint Bede the Venerable, Florus of Lyon, and Ado of Vienne expanded these collections with historical and biographical material. In 1584, Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the first official Roman edition, thanks in large part to the historical work of Cardinal Cesare Baronio.

Following the Second Vatican Council, the text underwent a thorough scholarly revision to distinguish historical evidence from later legendary traditions. Saint John Paul II promulgated a new typical edition in 2001, followed by the current edition in 2004. Today, the Roman Martyrology is traditionally proclaimed after Morning Prayer (Lauds) in the Liturgy of the Hours, especially in monastic communities.

How Does Someone Become a Saint?

The canonization process is governed by the Apostolic Constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister, promulgated by Saint John Paul II on January 25, 1983. The process unfolds in four distinct stages.

The journey begins when the bishop of the diocese where the candidate died officially opens the cause. At this stage, the individual receives the title Servant of God. The bishop examines the person’s writings, gathers witness testimony, and verifies that no unauthorized public cult has developed before the case is forwarded to Rome.

The documentation is then examined by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which prepares the Positio, the official study of the candidate’s life, heroic virtues, or martyrdom. If the Pope recognizes that the candidate lived the Christian virtues heroically or died as a martyr in odium fidei (“in hatred of the faith”), the person is declared Venerable.

Ordinarily, beatification requires one authenticated miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession. The alleged miracle is first evaluated by an independent medical commission to determine that it has no scientific explanation, and then by a theological commission to establish the connection between the healing and the Venerable’s intercession. For martyrs, however, this miracle requirement is waived because the Church considers the offering of one’s life for Christ to be the supreme witness of charity.

Canonization normally requires a second miracle occurring after beatification and examined with the same level of scrutiny. Through the Bull of Canonization, the Pope solemnly declares that the faithful departed enjoys the vision of God, inscribes the saint’s name in the Roman Martyrology, and authorizes public veneration throughout the universal Church.

What liturgical colors are used on saints’ feast days?

The liturgical colors used on saints’ feast days are not simply decorative choices. They are prescribed by the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and express the theological meaning of each celebration.

White is used for celebrations of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the angels, and saints who were not martyrs, including bishops, confessors, Doctors of the Church, virgins, and holy lay faithful. In Spain and several Latin American countries, a special papal privilege granted in 1883 also permits the use of light blue vestments for certain Marian celebrations.

Red is worn on the feast days of the Apostles, Evangelists, and martyrs. It symbolizes both the blood they shed for Christ and their foundational role in the life of the Church.

Green, the color of Ordinary Time, is generally not used for celebrations in the saints calendar. It remains reserved for weekdays that have no obligatory memorial or higher-ranking observance.
Violet, the penitential color of Lent, is used when an obligatory memorial falls during the Lenten season. In those cases, the priest may use only the saint’s proper collect while retaining the violet vestments required by the liturgical season.

Why Should Catholics Know the Saints’ Calendar?

Following the saints calendar is an invitation to discover how ordinary men and women lived the Gospel in extraordinary ways. Every saint of the day offers a concrete example of holiness lived within a particular culture, vocation, and historical moment—and a reminder that the call to holiness is still possible today.
Many parents choose a patron saint when naming their children. Cities, professions, religious communities, and parishes also celebrate patronal feast days that strengthen their identity and spiritual heritage. Learning about the saint of the day helps Catholics deepen their understanding of these traditions while discovering new models of Christian life.

The Catholic saints calendar also reminds us that holiness is not reserved for a privileged few or confined to the distant past. It includes first-century martyrs and twentieth-century martyrs, renowned Doctors of the Church and humble lay faithful, founders of religious orders and ordinary Christians who quietly remained faithful to Christ throughout their lives.

May the intercession of the saints accompany us each day, and may their witness inspire us to follow Christ with the same perseverance and love.

Lord, you crown your own gifts in the lives of your saints. Grant that we may imitate their faith and charity in our daily lives. May their intercession strengthen us on our journey, and may their example encourage us to seek you with the same wholehearted devotion with which they sought you. Amen.

Want to Learn More About the Liturgical Seasons?
Take a look at these articles that can help you deepen your understanding of the Church’s liturgical calendar:

• What Are the Four Sundays of Advent? Discover the meaning of each Sunday of Advent, the liturgical colors and their symbolism, and practical ways to prepare your heart for Christmas.
• What Is Lent and Why Does It Last 40 Days?Learn what Lent is, why it lasts forty days, when it begins, and how to live this sacred season through its rich spiritual practices.
• What Do Catholics Do During the Easter Triduum? A complete guide to Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, explaining what Catholics celebrate during these sacred days and how to observe them with devotion and reverence.
• What Is the Easter Season and How Long Does It Last?A comprehensive guide to the Easter Season, including its meaning, Sundays, liturgical symbols, the Via Lucis, the Regina Caeli, and the 2026 liturgical calendar of celebrations.