All Saints Day - 1 November

"[All Saints Day] is instituted to honour all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the faithful's celebration of saints' feasts during the year." [1]

Similarly, quoted from Learn Religions [2]:

All Saints Day is a special feast day on which Catholics celebrate all the saints, known and unknown. While most saints have a particular feast day on the Catholic calendar (usually, though not always, the date of their death), not all of those feast days are observed. And saints who have not been canonized — those who are in Heaven, but whose sainthood is known only to God — have no particular feast day. In a special way, All Saints Day is their feast.

[1] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315a.htm, quoted without hyperlinks.

[2] https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-all-saints-day-542459, quoted without hyperlink.

The Solemnity Of Christ The King - 31 October 2021

Quoted from catholictradition.org [1]:

The Feast of Christ the King is the Last Sunday in October on the Traditional Calendar.  In the Novus Ordo  it falls on the Sunday before the First Sunday of Advent.

Quoted from Wikipedia [2]:

According to Cyril of Alexandria, "Christ has dominion over all creatures, ...by essence and by nature." His kingship is founded upon the hypostatic union. "[T]he Word of God, as consubstantial with the Father, has all things in common with him, and therefore has necessarily supreme and absolute dominion over all things created."

"From this it follows that to Christ angels and men are subject. Christ is also King by acquired, as well as by natural right, for he is our Redeemer. ...' We are no longer our own property, for Christ has purchased us "with a great price"; our very bodies are the "members of Christ." A third ground of sovereignty is that God bestowed upon Christ the nations of the world as His special possession and dominion. "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Matthew 28:18)

The Feast of Christ the King has an eschatological dimension pointing to the end of time when the kingdom of Jesus will be established in all its fullness to the ends of the earth. It leads into Advent, when the Church anticipates Christ’s second coming.

[1] http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/cking-feast2.htm

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_Christ_the_King, quoted without hyperlinks and references.

Feast Day Of Saint Simon And Saint Jude - 28 October

Quoted from Catholicism Pure & Simple [1]:

October 28th is the feast of Saint Simon the Zealot and Saint Jude Thaddeus, two of the twelve Apostles named by Jesus. They share a common feast day because, according to later tradition, they ministered in Persia and there, received the crown of martyrdom on the same day in c. 65 AD. In Matthew and Mark, Simon is referred to as the Cananean. Luke calls him the Zealot, perhaps due to his zeal in upholding the Law, or perhaps he was a member of the radical Jewish sect so named. This designation helped to distinguish him from fellow Apostle, Simon Peter. After Christs’ Ascension and the Council of Jerusalem, Simon preached the Gospel in Egypt, Carthage, Spain and possibly Britain, before going to Jerusalem. There, he joined Jude on missionary journeys to Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia. Popular piety attests that he was sawed in half and devoured by lions. Simon is most often depicted in art with a saw, the instrument of his martyrdom.

Saint Jude or Judas, also called Thaddeus or Lebbeus, wrote the New Testament Epistle that bears his name. Scripture identifies him as “the brother of James,” and it is generally believed that this is Saint James the Less. It is probable that Jude was a childhood companion of Jesus as it is widely held that Jude was the nephew of the Blessed Mother and a cousin of Christ. In the Gospel of John, at the Last Supper, Jude asks Jesus why he does not manifest himself to the whole world. Jesus replies: [to Jude and to us) “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.”

The Apostle known as the patron of impossible causes, ordered demons out of pagan temples and once miraculously healed a pagan king by showing him an image of Christ and proclaiming the Name of Jesus over him. St. Jude, together with St. Simon, is credited with converting the Persian King Varardach and his court to the Faith. Several accounts contend that Jude was crucified as an example to perspective converts, but most hold to the tradition that he was beaten and beheaded.

[1] https://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/feast-of-saint-simon-and-saint-jude-apostles/#:~:text=Saints%20Simon%20the%20Zealot%20and%20Jude%20%28Thaddeus%29%20October,on%20the%20same%20day%20in%20c.%2065%20AD.

Feast Day Of Saint Raphael The Archangel - 24 October

Quoted in part from Wikipedia [1]:

Raphael first appears in ... 1 Enoch, a collection of originally independent texts from the 3rd century BCE [2], and the Book of Tobit, from the early 2nd century BCE....His name derives from a Hebrew root meaning "to heal", and can be translated as "God healed"....

The New Testament names only two archangels or angels, Michael and Gabriel (Luke 1:9–26; Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7), but Raphael, because of his association with healing, became identified with the unnamed angel of John 5:1–4 who periodically stirred the pool of Bethesda "[a]nd he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under". The Catholic church accordingly links Raphael with Michael and Gabriel as saints whose intercession can be sought through prayer.

The feast day of Raphael was included for the first time in the General Roman Calendar in 1921, for celebration on October 24. With the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast was transferred to September 29 for celebration together with archangels Saints Michael and Gabriel. Due to Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum, the Catholic Church permits, within certain limits for public use, the General Roman Calendar of 1960, which has October 24 as Raphael's feast day.

Quoted in part from Profiles In Catholicism [3]:

...Raphael became known as the patron of the sick because of a medieval legend in which Raphael appeared to a holy hermit when a plague was sweeping central Europe. 

Raphael told the hermit that a new herb, recently introduced by the Vikings to that area, would cure the plague. The roots of herb were boiled to make a tea which eventually cured thousands. The herb became known as angelica and its official botanical classification  became angelica archangelica. The legends of angelica's miraculous powers persist. In 1974 French newspapers reported the death of Annibal CaIroux of Marseilles, who chewed angelica root daily and died at age 121. 

While angelica roots are still used as a medicine, one variety, garden angelica, is primarily cultivated for its stalk which is used as an ingredient of the principal flavorings in Chartreuse and Benedictine. 

[Bénédictine ...is a herbal liqueur produced in France....The recipe of Bénédictine is a commercial secret, but it is known to contain 27 herbs and spices, of which the following 21 are publicly known: angelica, hyssop, juniper, myrrh, saffron, mace, fir cones, aloe, arnica, lemon balm, tea, thyme, coriander, clove, lemon, vanilla, orange peel, honey, red berries, cinnamon, and nutmeg. [4]].

[Chartreuse is a French liqueur available in green and yellow versions that differ in taste and alcohol content. The liqueur has been made by the Carthusian Monks since 1737 according to the instructions set out in a manuscript given to them by François Annibal d'Estrées in 1605. It was named after the monks' Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains in the general region of Grenoble in France. The liqueur is produced in their distillery in nearby Aiguenoire. It is composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbs, plants and flowers....

[The book The Practical Hotel Steward (1900) states that Green Chartreuse contains "cinnamon, mace, lemon balm, dried hyssop flower tops, peppermint, thyme, costmary, arnica flowers, genepi, and angelica roots", and that yellow chartreuse is, "Similar to above, adding cardamom seeds and socctrine aloes." The monks intended their liqueur to be used as medicine. The exact recipes for all forms of Chartreuse remain trade secrets and are known at any given time only to the two monks who prepare the herbal mixture....[5]]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_(archangel), quoted without hyperlinks and references.

[2] BCE - Before Common Era, see https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/ce-bce-what-do-they-mean.html#:~:text=BCE%20is%20short%20for%20Before%20Common%20Era.%20The,way%20as%20the%20traditional%20abbreviations%20AD%20and%20BC.

[3] https://www.catholicprofiles.org/post/october-24-feast-of-st-raphael-the-archangel

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9n%C3%A9dictine, quoted without hyperlinks and references.

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_(liqueur), quoted without hyperlinks and references.

Saint Luke The Evangelist Feast Day - 18 October

Quoted from Britannica [1]:

St. Luke, also called Saint Luke the Evangelist, (flourished 1st century CE [2]; feast day October 18), in Christian tradition, the author of the Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, a companion of St. Paul the Apostle, and the most literary of the New Testament writers. Information about his life is scanty. Tradition based on references in the Pauline Letters has regarded him as a physician and a Gentile. He probably accompanied Paul on several missionary journeys. He is a patron saint of physicians and artists.

Luke is first mentioned in the letters of Paul as the latter’s “coworker” and as the “beloved physician.” The former designation is the more significant one, for it identifies him as one of a professional cadre of itinerant Christian “workers,” many of whom were teachers and preachers. His medical skills, like Paul’s tentmaking, may have contributed to his livelihood; but his principal occupation was the advancement of the Christian mission.

If Luke was the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, the course and nature of his ministry may be sketched in more detail from both texts. He excludes himself from those who were eyewitnesses of Christ’s ministry. He indicates participation in the Pauline mission by the use of the first person in the “we” sections of Acts. They suggest that Luke shared in instructing persons in the Christian message and possibly in performing miraculous healings.

The “we” sections are analogous in style to travel reports found elsewhere in writings of the Greco-Roman period. They place the author with Paul during his initial mission into Greece—i.e., as far as Philippi, in Macedonia (c. 51 CE). It is there that Luke later rejoins Paul and accompanies him on his final journey to Jerusalem (c. 58 CE). After Paul’s arrest in that city and during his extended detention in nearby Caesarea, Luke may have spent considerable time in Palestine working with the apostle as the occasion allowed and gathering materials for his future two-volume literary work, the Gospel and the Acts. In any case, two years later he appears with Paul on his prison voyage from Caesarea to Rome and again, according to the Second Letter of Paul to Timothy 4:11, at the time of the apostle’s martyrdom in the imperial city (c. 66 CE).

[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Luke, quoted without subtitles, bold emphasis, hyperlinks and references.

[2] "CE (Common Era) is the secular equivalent of AD (anno Domini), which means 'in the year of the Lord' in Latin."  See https://earthsky.org/human-world/definition-common-era-bce-ce-bc-ad/#:~:text=CE%20%28Common%20Era%29%20is%20the%20secular%20equivalent%20of,are%20more%20prone%20to%20using%20the%20BCE%2FCE%20format.

Sainte Marguerite-Marie Alacoque Feast Day - 17 October

Quoted from Wikipedia [1]:

Margaret Mary Alacoque (French: Marguerite-Marie Alacoque) (22 July 1647 – 17 October 1690), was a French Roman Catholic Visitation nun and mystic, who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form.

Alacoque was born in 1647 in L'Hautecour, Burgundy, France, now part of the commune of Verosvres, then in the Duchy of Burgundy, the only daughter of Claude and Philiberte Lamyn Alacoque, who had also several sons. From early childhood, Margaret was described as showing intense love for the Blessed Sacrament, and as preferring silence and prayer to childhood play.

After her First Communion at the age of nine, she practiced in secret severe corporal mortification, until rheumatic fever confined her to bed for four years. At the end of this period, having made a vow to the Blessed Virgin to consecrate herself to religious life, it is said she was instantly restored to perfect health. In recognition of this favor, she added the name Mary to her baptismal name of Margaret. According to her later account of her life, she had visions of Jesus Christ, which she thought were a normal part of human experience and continued to practice austerity.

Alacoque lost her father at a young age, and the family's assets were held by a relative who refused to hand them over, plunging her family into poverty. During this time, her only consolation was frequent visits to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in the local church. When she was 17, however, the family regained their fortune and her mother encouraged her to socialize, in the hopes of her finding a suitable husband. Out of obedience, and believing that her childhood vow was no longer binding, she began to accompany her brothers in the social events, attending dances and balls.

One night, after returning home from a ball for Carnival dressed in her finery, she experienced a vision of Christ, scourged and bloody. He reproached her for her forgetfulness of him; yet he also reassured her by demonstrating that his heart was filled with love for her, because of the childhood promise she had made to his Blessed Mother. As a result, she determined to fulfill her vow and entered, when almost 24 years of age, the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial on 25 May 1671, intending to become a nun.

...

In this monastery Alacoque received several private revelations of the Sacred Heart, the first on 27 December 1673 and the final one 18 months later. The visions revealed to her the form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a "Holy hour" on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. She stated that in her vision she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night to meditate on Jesus' Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Holy Hour practice later became widespread among Catholics.

In the area where this blogger is located, Eucharistic Adoration is on the first Friday (not Thursday) of every month except for one church which has a 24-hour adoration in its chapel.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mary_Alacoque

Motherhood Of The Blessed Virgin Mary - 11 October

Quoted from traditionalcatholic.net [1]:

The celebration on this day throughout the Western church of a feast in honour of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, was enjoined by Pope Pius XI in the encyclical "Lux veritatis", published on December 25, 1931, in view of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus.

 

Quoted from Sensus Fidelium [2]:

Proceeding to speak of the special dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Pope emphasizes that, “because she brought forth the Redeemer of mankind, she is also in a manner the most tender Mother of us all, whom Christ our Lord deigned to have as his brothers; wherefore we may confidently entrust to her all things that are ours, our joys, our troubles, our hopes; especially if more difficult times fall upon the Church—if faith fail because charity has grown cold, if private and public morals take a turn for the worse.”

[1] http://www.traditionalcatholic.net/Tradition/Calendar/10-11.html#:~:text=Motherhood%20of%20the%20Blessed%20Virgin%20Mary%20The%20celebration,the%20fifteenth%20centenary%20of%20the%20Council%20of%20Ephesus.

[2] https://sensusfidelium.us/the-liturgical-year-dom-prosper-gueranger/october/october-11-the-motherhood-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/

Our Lady Of The Holy Rosary - 7 October

Quoted from Wikipedia [1]:

Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Quoted from Catholic News Agency [2]:

On October 7, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the yearly feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Known for several centuries by the alternate title of “Our Lady of Victory,” the feast day takes place in honor of a 16th century naval victory which secured Europe against Turkish invasion. Pope St. Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was invoked on the day of the battle through a campaign to pray the Rosary throughout Europe.  The feast always occurs one week after the similar Byzantine celebration of the Protection of the Mother of God, which most Eastern Orthodox Christians and Eastern Catholics celebrate on October 1 in memory of a 10th-century military victory which protected Constantinople against invasion after a reported Marian apparition.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_the_Rosary, quoted without emphasis and hyperlink.

[2] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/feast-of-our-lady-of-the-rosary-617

Saint Francis Of Assisi (San Francesco d'Assisi) Feast Day - 4 October

A lot of articles on Saint Francis of Assisi had been published online.  Instead of quoting various sources, this entry shows links to two Saint Francis of Assisi movies:

1. One is a movie based on a novel by Louis de Wohl, available on YouTube :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX-y_P_4MlM (one of several uploads);

link to another upload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM4PtT0rJp0&t=2133s

2. The other is a movie by Franco Zeffirelli, Brother Sun Sister Moon :  https://archive.org/details/brother-sun-sister-moon-1972rom.sub.

Saint Teresa Of The Child Jesus (Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux) Feast Day - 3 October

Quoted from Britannica [1]:

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, also called St. Teresa of the Child Jesus or the Little Flower, original name Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, (born January 2, 1873, Alençon, France—died September 30, 1897, Lisieux; canonized May 17, 1925; feast day October 1) [2].  Carmelite nun whose service to her Roman Catholic order, although outwardly unremarkable, was later recognized for its exemplary spiritual accomplishments....

The story of Thérèse’s spiritual development was related in a collection of her epistolary essays, written by order of the prioresses and published in 1898 under the title Histoire d’une âme (“Story of a Soul”). [3]  Her popularity is largely a result of this work, which conveys her loving pursuit of holiness in ordinary life. 

 

[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Therese-of-Lisieux, quoted without hyperlinks.

[2] "Feast Day: October 1 (New), October 3 (Trad)" see https://holyrosaryflint.com/happy-feast-daysaint-therese-of-lisieux-doctor-of-the-church1873-1897feast-d/

[3] "The backbone of Story of a Soul" can be accessed with this link:

https://www.archives-carmel-lisieux.fr/english/carmel/index.php/oeuvres-de-therese/manuscrits-autobiographiques

The Holy Guardian Angels Feast Day - 2 October

Quoted from Wikipedia [1]:

Catholics set up altars in honor of guardian angels as early as the 4th Century, and local celebrations of a feast in honor of guardian angels go back to the 11th Century...Devotion to the angels is an ancient tradition which the Christian Church inherited from Judaism. It began to develop with the birth of the monastic tradition. The feast was first kept by the Franciscan order in 1500. This feast, like many others, was local before it was placed in the General Roman Calendar in 1607 by Pope Paul V.

One of several guardian prayers [2]:

Angel of God, my guardian dear,

To whom God’s love commits me here,

Ever this day be at my side,

To light and guard, to rule and guide.

Amen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_of_the_Holy_Guardian_Angels, quoted with hyperlinks and references.

[2] https://www.praywithme.com/guardian-angel-prayers.html