Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days
Featuring the Saints whose feast-day is this month
- Everyone knows that it was on the feast of Stephen that ‘good king Wenceslas looked on’. After all, it’s in a Christmas carol – but why? There’s nothing about Christmas in it: a splendid young page who rustled up some flesh, wine and logs, an old man out in the snow (’deep and crisp and...26 December On the Feast of Stephen
- When I was a choir boy many years ago, writes David Winter, ‘Good King Wenceslas’ was a very popular carol. A man sang the King’s lines, a boy sang the Page’s, and the choir filled in the narrative. It was not of course technically a Christmas carol but one for which most people know as...26 December In praise of Good King Wenceslas
- Have you ever stopped to consider that the very first martyr of the Christian Church (Stephen died c 35 AD) was a deacon? (But no, he wasn’t worked to death by his church.) It was Stephen, one of the first seven deacons of the Christian Church. He’d been appointed by the apostles to look after...26 December St Stephen – the first martyr
- Most of us probably know that on December 26th (the Feast of Stephen) ‘Good king Wenceslas’ looked out, writes David Winter. We probably also know that the snow lay round about, ‘deep and crisp and even’. Beyond that, he’s just someone in a carol that’s not often sung nowadays. However, Wenceslas was a real person,...26 December Look out for Wenceslas
- The death of a very young child is perhaps the hardest grief of all to bear. So the 28th December is a very poignant day in the church calendar. It is when the worldwide Church joins with bereaved parents to grieve the loss of babies and young children. For Holy Innocents day recalls the massacre...28 December Holy Innocents
- Editor: As Saints’ Days do not change from year to year, we have offered material on many of these days before. The one with an asterisk is new this year. 1 All Saints’ Day 1 The first martyrs 2 All Souls’ Day 3 Hubert 4 Charles Borromeo – saint for those with a lay...High Days and Holy Days (all) for November
- All Saints, or All Hallows, is the feast of all the redeemed, known and unknown, who are now in heaven. When the English Reformation took place, the number of saints in the calendar was drastically reduced, with the result that All Saints’ Day stood out with a prominence that it had never had before. This...1st November: All Saints’ Day – the feast day of all the redeemed
- The first martyrs of Rome are recorded in the old Roman Martyrology, which states that: ‘At Rome, the birthday is celebrated of very many martyrs, who under the Emperor Nero were falsely charged with the burning of the city and by him were ordered to be slain by various kinds of cruel death; some were...1st November: The first martyrs – the ‘seed’ of the Christian Church
- The early Church was slow to dedicate a liturgical day to offering prayers and masses to commemorate the faithful departed. But in time prayers were offered on behalf of dead monks, that they might attain ‘the Beatific Vision’ through purification, which the Church later described as Purgatory. Odilo, the powerful abbot of Cluny, (d 1049)...2nd November: All Souls’ Day – a time of reckoning with the past
- The morality of hunting has made the headlines in recent years, but here at least was one man who was converted while hunting. Hubert (bishop, d 727 AD) was out on Good Friday hunting stag when he came across a stag with a crucifix between its antlers. This so shook him that he converted to...3rd November: Hubert and the stag
- Why should being a ‘lay’ person stop you from as full a ministry as being ordained? Here is a saint for all lay people who suspect they can do as good a job…. Charles Borromeo was an Italian who lived in Milan from 1538 to 1584. His uncle, Pope Pius IV, made him Archbishop of...4th November: Charles Borromeo – the un-ordained archbishop
- Back in 1605 Guy Fawkes managed to stow a good few barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords without anybody noticing. He was part of a Roman Catholic plot to murder James 1 of England and his parliament at the state opening. Fortunately, Guy Fawkes was found – and stopped – in time.5th November: Guy Fawkes – an early terrorist