Sanctoral

SANCTORAL. - It is that part of the Missal (v.) and of the Breviary (v.), also called Proprium de sanctis, which contains the proper formularies for the Mass and Office of certain feasts on fixed dates of Our Lord, not inserted in the Temporal, such as, for example, the Most Precious Blood (1 July) and the Transfiguration (6 Aug.), of the feasts of the Cross, of the Most Holy Mary, of the Angels, of the Saints, of the anniversaries of the dedication of churches and of the Commemoration of all the faithful departed. The history of the rite of each of these solemnities is treated in the entry CALENDARIO DELLA CHIESA UNIVERSALE (for the feasts of Our Lady v. MARIA SANTISSIMA, IV. Nella liturgia; all the saints commemorated in the S. have their own entry in the Enc. Catt.); the number and the rite of the feasts proper to a diocese or to a religious Order or congregation are determined by their liturgical books (v.), if it is a special liturgy, or by the Propria. An integral part of the S. is the Commune Sanctorum (v.), in which are gathered the liturgical formularies common to determined categories of saints.

The origin and the gradual enrichment of the S. mark the same stages as the diffusion of the cult of the Martyrs (v. MARTIRIO e MARTIRI), of the Confessors (v. CANONIZZAZIONE, II. La c. nella storia; CONFESSORE), of holy virgins and non-virgins. In antiquity and in the early Middle Ages every Church had its own S. in which figured the local saints, especially martyrs, and those more celebrated saints whose cult soon acquired a universal character, both because of their pre-eminent personality, such as the Most Holy Mary, the princes of the Apostles, St. John the Apostle, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Stephen, St. John the Baptist, and because of their thaumaturgic power, such as, for example, Sts. Cosmas and Damian, St. Martin of Tours and others. Instructive in this regard are the primitive S. of the Churches of Rome, of Naples, of the Gallican, Mozarabic and Ambrosian liturgies. As for the Roman S., it should be observed that to the primitive, much reduced list new feasts were added by the compiler of the ancient Sacramentarium Gelasianum and by that of the Sacramentarium Gregorianum. These two lists of proper feasts were then fused together ca. 750 by the compiler of the Gelasianum of the 8th century, who, in his turn, added a few other saints then greatly venerated, such as, for example, the Apostles who had no cult in the West in antiquity. This new S., reworked fifty years later by Alcuin and by the Frankish liturgists of the 9th century, then received into the Missal and the Breviary of the Curia (end of the 12th century, beginning of the 13th century) and increased through the influence of the Franciscan Order, constitutes, since the reform of St. Pius V, the substrate of today's S. of the liturgical books of the Roman Church.

Originally the S. was meant to be nothing other than a completion of the Temporal (v.), so much so that in the ancient liturgical books, with the exception of the primitive Sacramentarium Gelasianum, the two parts were fused into a harmonious whole with rare feasts of saints in the periods, such as Advent, Lent and Paschal Time, in which the liturgy of the Temporal was more intense and deeply felt. From the late Middle Ages onward, notwithstanding the reform of St. Pius V, the S. had such a development as to suffocate the Temporal; it is to Blessed Pius X that the merit is due of having restored, with the bull Divino afflatu (1 Nov. 1911), the S. to its original function and of having given back to the Temporal its classical features.

Here now, month by month, are the feasts of the current Roman S. earlier than the middle of the 9th century; in parentheses the sources are indicated with the following abbreviations: DE. = Depositio episcoporum (v.); DM. = Depositio martyrum (4th century: ed. R. Valentini-G. Zucchetti, Rome 1942); L. = the so-called Sacramentarium Leonianum (5th-6th century: ed. C. L. Feltoe, Cambridge 1896); G. = ancient Sacramentarium Gelasianum (end of the 5th century-middle of the 8th century, date of the codex: ed. H. A. Wilson, Oxford 1894); Gr. = Sacramentarium Gregorianum of the type of the Padua codex (7th-9th century, date of the codex: ed. K. Mohlberg, Münster in W. 1927); G. VIII = Sacramentarium Gelasianum of the 8th century (various types 8th-9th century, cf. below De Puniet); GrA. = Sacramentarium Gregorianum Hadrianum (end of the 8th century: ed. H. Lietzmann, ibid. 1921); Kl. = Capitularia romana of the 7th century (ed. Th. Klauser, Das römische Capitulare Evangeliorum, ibid. 1935); Kl. 740, 750 = Capitularia romana of 740 and ca. 750 (ed. cit.); Kl. VIII. = Capitularia of the type of the Sacramentarium Gelasianum of the 8th century (ed. cit.; V. EVANGELARIO).

Jan.: 14 Felix (G. Gr. Kl.); 16 Marcellus (DE. G. Gr. Kl.); 18 Prisca (Gr. Kl.); 19 (20) Marius Audifax Abachuc (G.); 20 Fabianus et Sebastianus (DM. G. Gr. Kl.); 21 Agnes (DM. G. Gr. Kl.); 22 Vincentius (Gr. Kl.) Anastasius (Kl. 740); 23 Emerentiana (G. VIII); 25 Conversio S. Pauli (G. VIII); 28 Agnes (G. Gr. Kl.); 30 Martina (Kl. 740, on 1 Jan.). - Febr.: 2 Purificatio B. M. V. (7th century: G. Gr. Kl.); 5 Agatha (G. Gr. Kl.); 14 Valentinus (G. Gr. Kl.); 22 Cathedra S. Petri (DM. G. VIII); 24 Matthias (9th century). - March: 7 Perpetua et Felicitas (DM. G. G. VIII); 12 Gregorius (Kl. 740. G. VIII); 21 Benedictus (on 11 July: G. VIII); Annuntiatio B. M. V. (7th century: G. Gr. Kl.). - Apr.: 11 Leo I (G. VIII); 14 Tiburtius (L.) Valerianus et Maximus (Gr. Kl.); 22 Gaius (DE.); 23 Georgius (Kl. 740. G. VIII); 25 Letania maior (Gr.); 28 Vitalis (Gr. Kl.). - May: 2nd Philippus et Iacobus (G. Gr. Kl.); Juvenalis (G.). Alexander Eventius et Theodulus (Gr. Kl.). Inventio S. Crucis (7th century: G.); 6 Ioannes ante portam Latinam (Gr.); 10 Gordianus (Gr. Kl.) et Epimachus (GrA.); 12 Nereus Achilleus et Pancratius (G. Kl.); 19 Pudentiana (Potentiana: Kl.); 25 Urbanus (Gr. Kl. 740); 31 Petronilla (8th century). - June: 2 Marcellinus et Petrus (G. Gr. Kl.); 9 Primus et Felicianus (Kl. 740. G. VIII); 12 Basilides (Kl. 740. G. VIII). Cyrinus Nabor et Nazarius (G. G. VIII); 15 Vitus (G.); 18 Marcus et Marcellinus (G. Gr. Kl.); 19 Gervasius et Protasius (G. Gr. Kl.); 23-24 Vigil. (G. Gr. Kl.). - Ioannes Baptista (L. G. Gr. Kl.); 26 Ioannes et Paulus (L. G. Gr. Kl.); 28 Leo (Kl. 740. GrA. [originally translation of Leo I, today moved to July 3, is instead the feast of Leo II]; 28-29 Vigil (G. Gr. Kl.) - Peter and Paul (DM. L. G. Gr. Kl.); 30 Paul (L. G. Gr. Kl.). - July: 2 Processus and Martinianus (Gr. Kl.); 6 Octave of the Apostles (G. Gr. Kl.); 10 Seven Brothers (Gr. Kl.); Felix Philip Vitalis Martialis Silanus Alexander Januarius (DM. L.); 21 (20) Praxedes (Kl. 740, Kl. VIII); 23 Apollinaris (Kl. Kl. VIII); 25 James (G. VIII); 28 (29) Simplicius Faustinus and Beatrix (G. Gr. Kl.), Felix (Gr. Kl.); 30 Abdon and Sennen (DM. G. Gr. Kl.). - Aug.: 1 Maccabees (G.). Station at St. Peter in Chains (Kl. 740 G. VIII); 2 Stephen (DE. L. Gr. Kl.); 6 Sixtus Felicissimus and Agapitus (DM. L. [G. only Sixtus], Gr. Kl.); 7 Donatus (G.); 8 Cyriacus (DM. Gr. Kl.); 9-10 Vigil - Lawrence (DM. [feast only], L. G. Gr. Kl.); 11 Tiburtius (G. Gr. Kl.); 13 Hippolytus (DM. L. G. Gr. Kl.); 14 Eusebius (Gr. Kl.); 14-15 Vigil (G. VIII. GrA.) Assumption of the B. V. M. - (7th cent.: G. Gr. Kl.); 17 Octave of St. Lawrence (G.); 18 Agapitus (G. Gr. Kl.); 22 Timothy (DM. Gr. Kl.), Octave of the Assumption (9th cent.); 24 Bartholomew (G. VIII); 28 Augustine (G. VIII); 28 Hermes (DM. G. Gr. Kl.); 29 Sabina (Gr. Kl.), Beheading of John the Baptist (7th cent. G., on the 30th Gr. Kl.), Felix and Adauctus (L. Gr. Kl.). - Sept.: 8 Nativity of the B. V. M. (7th cent.: G. Gr. Kl.); Hadrian (Gr. Kl.); 9 Gorgonius (DM. G.); 11 Protus and Hyacinth (DM. Gr. Kl.); 14 Exaltation of the Holy Cross (7th cent.: G. Kl. 740 [the Gr. for the adoration of the cross, without Mass]), Cornelius and Cyprian (DM [only Cyprian], L. G. Gr. Kl.); 15 Nicomedes (Gr. Kl.); 16 Euphemia (L. Gr. Kl.) Lucia (Kl. GrA.) and Geminianus (G. VIII. GrA.); 20 Eustace (Kl. 750); 20-21 Vigil-Matthew (G. VIII); 22 Maurice and Companions (G. VIII); 27 Cosmas and Damian (G. Gr. Kl.); 29 Dedication of St. Michael (L. G. Gr. Kl.); 30 Jerome (G. VIII). - Oct.: 1 Remigius (G. VIII); 7 Mark (DE. Gr. Kl.); Sergius and Bacchus (late 8th cent.), Marcellus and Apuleius (G.); 13 Callistus (DM. Gr. Kl.); 18 Luke (G. VIII); 25 Chrysanthus and Daria (G. [on Nov. 29], Kl. 740); 27-28 Vigil - Simon and Jude (G. VIII). - Nov.: 1 All Saints (Lectionary of Alcuin); 8 Four Crowned Martyrs (DM. L. G. Gr. Kl.); 9 Theodore (Gr. Kl.); 11 Menas Martin (Gr. Kl.); 22 Cecilia (L. G. Gr. Kl.); 23 Clement Felicity (L. G. Gr. Kl.); 24 Chrysogonus (L. Gr. Kl.); 29 Saturninus (DM. G. Gr. Kl.); 29-30 Vigil (G. Gr. Kl.) - Andrew (L. G. Gr. Kl.). - Dec.: 11 Damasus (G. VIII); 13 Lucy (Gr. Kl.); 21 Thomas (G.); 25 Anastasia (L. G. VIII); 26 Stephen (G. Gr. Kl.); 27 John (L. G. Gr. Kl.); 28 Holy Innocents (L. G. Gr. Kl.); 31 Silvester (DE. Gr. Kl.).

IN THE ORIENTAL RITES

The Oriental rites today have a Sanctoral (S.) well separated from the Temporal, except for two: the Armenian rite and the Syro-Oriental one.

In the Armenian rite only seven feasts fall on a fixed day of a determined month: Christmas, Epiphany, Purification, Annunciation, Transfiguration, Presentation, Conception of the Madonna; the saints are celebrated on a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday of a determined week of one of the cycles that make up the liturgical year. If a week of a cycle is moved, the commemoration of the saints follows the move. That system seems to have always been in use in the Armenian Church (cf. C. Tondini del Quarenghi, Etude sur le calendrier liturgique de la nation arménienne, in Bessarione, fasc. 90 [1906], pp. 275-294; fasc. 91-92 [1906], pp. 71-114).

The same principle is observed among the Chaldeans and the Nestorians, for the few feasts of saints that they celebrate

(among the Catholics 23); Friday is reserved for them. The Catholics have added 26 feasts, including those of the Lord and those of the Madonna, on a fixed date of the civil calendar (cf. for the Nestorians, A. J. Maclean, East Syrian daily Offices, London 1894, pp. 264-83).

In the other Oriental rites the S. occupies all or almost all the days of the civil calendar; the months of March and Apr., the time of Lent and Easter, are less abundant. It admits several saints on one day and determines the degree of their solemnity.

A. Baumstark has traced some general lines on the formation of the S., which can hold good also for the West: the first nucleus would be that of the martyrs and local bishops; it would have been increased by the anniversaries of the deposition of relics and the dedication of churches; before the 7th century some great saints (megalomartyrs) were already celebrated universally; concomitant feasts group themselves around Christmas, Epiphany, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, etc.; finally the Marian cycle develops.

Each Church has its own proper S. It is to be noted among the Oriental Catholic communities the tendency to increase the S. more and more, and that the Malabar Church, after the Synod of Diamper (1599), has, on several occasions, entirely conformed its S. to the Roman one.

Alfonso Raes