https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/ As the earth cycles annually through its seasons, just so the Church celebrates with quiet, deliberate rhythm the seasons of the liturgical year – always the same, yet ever new and renewing. en-us https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-25 The Feast of St. James, the Apostle, known as the Greater, is celebrated today. The designation "the Greater" is in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, and it indicates he was chosen first before the other James. James the Greater was our Lord's cousin, and was St. John's brother. With Peter and John he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, as later he was also of the agony in the garden. He was beheaded in Jerusalem in the year 42 or 43 A.D. on the orders of Herod Agrippa. Since the ninth century Spain has claimed the honour of possessing his relics, though it must be said that actual proof is far less in evidence than the devotion of the faithful. The pilgrimage to St. James of Compostela, Spain (known as Camino de Santiago, "the Way of St. James") in the Middle Ages attracted immense crowds; after the pilgrimage to Rome or the Holy Land, it was the most famous and the most frequented pilgrimage in Christendom. The pilgrim paths to Compostella form a network over Europe; they are dotted with pilgrims' hospices and chapels, some of which still exist. St. James is mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Sat, 25 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-24 The Optional Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhlūf (1828-1868) is celebrated today. He was a Lebanese monk, born in a small mountain village and ordained in 1858. Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty-three years of his life as a hermit. Despite temptations to wealth and comfort, Saint Sharbel taught the value of poverty, self-sacrifice and prayer by the way he lived his life. This optional memorial is new to the USA liturgical calendar and was inscribed on July 24, 2004. Fri, 24 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-23 Today the Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Bridget (1302-1373), patron saint of Sweden. She married a young prince and lived happily with him for 28 years, bearing him eight children. St. Catherine of Sweden was their daughter. After her husband died, Bridget founded the Order of the Most Holy Savior, erecting at Vadstena a double monastery for monks and nuns. Following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, she later went to Rome, where she worked for the return of the Popes from Avignon. She died of natural causes in 1373, at the age of seventy-one. This Scandinavian mystic is famous for her Revelations concerning the sufferings of our Redeemer. Thu, 23 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-22 Today is the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. On June 10, 2016, the liturgical celebration honoring St. Mary Magdalene was raised from a memorial to a feast, commemorating the "Apostle to the Apostles" with a liturgical feast, the same celebration as most of the apostles (except for Peter and Paul). Beginning in 2020 there is a new Preface: Apostle to the Apostles used for her feast. Wed, 22 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-21 Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619), the first Capuchin Franciscan to be honored as a Doctor. St. Lawrence was born in 1559 at Brindisi, a town located on the Adriatic coast of the heel of Italy. Educated from his youth by the Conventual Franciscan Friars, he acquired great facility in languages and is considered the greatest linguist among the Doctors of the Church. His fields of labor were many: army chaplain, diplomat, leader of the Counter-Reformation in Austria and Bohemia, teacher of Sacred Scripture, exegete and mariologist. St. Lawrence offers priests a wonderful model for their studies and preaching. He was canonized in 1881 by Leo XIII. Tue, 21 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-20 Today is the Optional Memorial of Saint Apollinaris (d. 79). Early accounts report that Apollinaris was ordained bishop by Saint Peter himself and sent as a missionary bishop to Ravenna during the reign of the emperor Claudius. Renowned for his powers to heal in the name of Christ, he was frequently exiled, tortured and imprisoned for the faith, and finally martyred. Initially, his feast day was celebrated on July 23, the day he died as a martyr, but it was transferred to July 20 to not "compete" with St. Bridget of Sweden. In the reform of the liturgical calendar of 1969, his feast day was removed due to lack of historical data, but in 2002, it was returned as an Optional Memorial on July 20. His own hometown, Port of Classe, Ravenna, Italy, still celebrates Apollinaris on July 23. Mon, 20 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-19 From Sunday's Gospel: He proposed another parable to them. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'" Sun, 19 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-18 The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1641). Camillus suffered an incurable wound in his foot, experienced the horrors of the Roman hospitals in the sixteenth century in which the nursing and other staff were drawn from the dregs of the population. He effected a great change for the better, not content with making himself a slave of the sick and diseased he established for them a congregation of Clerks Regular pledged to this work, even when it involved those suffering from the plague, and whatever their state of life or disease. Sat, 18 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-17 The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Alexis (early 5th c.), "Man of God." He was an Eastern saint whose veneration was transplanted from the Byzantine empire to Rome, whence it spread rapidly throughout western Christendom. Together with the name and veneration of the Saint, his legend was made known to Rome and the West by means of Latin versions based on the form current in the Byzantine Orient. He was famous for his extraordinary self-denial. Fri, 17 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-16 Today is the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Sacred Scripture celebrated the beauty of Carmel where the prophet Elijah defended the purity of Israel's faith in the living God. In the twelfth century, hermits withdrew to that mountain and later founded the Carmelite order devoted to the contemplative life under the patronage of Mary, the holy Mother of God. Thu, 16 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT