Martyrology

Using the Martyrology

The Roman Martyrology is a liturgical book. It is not a dictionary of saints to be consulted, but a text to be read aloud, day by day, in the prayer of the Church. This page gathers what the Praenotanda (the introduction of the 2004 edition) and its Ordo lectionis Martyrologii (the rite for reading it) say about how and when that is done.

A liturgical book

Over the centuries the liturgical character of the martyrology became ever clearer, until it took its place among the books with which the Church worships the Trinity (Praenotanda, nn. 20–21). The saints it commemorates have their place within the mystery of Christ that the liturgy celebrates through the year; for that reason the Church gives, together with the list of the saints, the norms by which their memory may be celebrated without overshadowing the mysteries of salvation (Praenotanda, nn. 24–25).

The book does not try to name every saint and blessed, nor to tell their lives at length. It lists memorials: first of the Blessed Virgin Mary, then of the angels, and then of the faithful who are honoured today in the worship of the universal Church, of particular Churches and of religious families (Praenotanda, nn. 27–28).

Celebrating a saint of the day

Apart from the solemnities, feasts and obligatory memorials of the calendar, on a weekday that admits an optional memorial, the Mass and the Office may be celebrated, at the same rank, of any saint inscribed on that day in the Roman Martyrology or in an approved Proper of the Martyrology (Praenotanda, n. 26), (Praenotanda, n. 30). The blessed are a different case: their celebration is reserved to the diocese, nation, region or religious family to which the Apostolic See has granted it (Praenotanda, n. 31). See The Martyrology and the particular calendars.

When it is read

The eulogies of a day are always read on the day before (Praenotanda, n. 35). The reading announces tomorrow's saints: on 1 January, the community hears the saints of 2 January.

It is praiseworthy to read the martyrology in choir, but it may also be read outside choir (Praenotanda, n. 36).

In the Liturgy of the Hours

In choir, the reading usually comes at Lauds, after the concluding prayer of the Hour. The reader begins directly, without any introduction, with the announcement of the following day, reads the eulogies, and ends with the versicle V. Pretiosa in conspectu Domini — R. Mors sanctorum eius ("Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints", Ps 116:15). One of the short readings given in the book may follow, closed with Verbum Domini. The priest or deacon presiding, or in the absence of an ordained minister a lay person who leads the celebration, then says one of the prayers provided, and the rite ends with a blessing and a dismissal (Ordo, nn. 1–4).

If that is not suitable, nothing prevents the reading at one of the minor Hours, in the same way, right after the concluding prayer; at the end the Pretiosa is said, followed by Benedicamus Domino (Ordo, nn. 5–6).

Outside the Liturgy of the Hours

The martyrology may also be read when the community gathers in choir, in the chapter room or at table in the refectory. The order is the same: the announcement of the next day, the eulogies, the Pretiosa, an optional short reading, the prayer, the blessing and the dismissal (Ordo, nn. 13–17).

Particular days

  • Movable celebrations. Feasts without a fixed date, from the First Sunday of Advent to Christ the King, have their own eulogies in a separate section of the book. When one falls on the day announced, it is read first, before the day's eulogies (Ordo, n. 7).
  • Easter Sunday. Before the eulogies of the following day are read, the memorial of Easter Sunday is announced (Ordo, n. 7).
  • The Paschal Triduum. On Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday the martyrology is not read at all, and the saints of those days are passed over (Ordo, n. 8).
  • Christmas Eve. After the announcement of 25 December, the solemn proclamation of the Nativity is sung in its own way (Ordo, n. 9).
  • The moon. Announcing the day of the moon after the date is optional (Ordo, n. 10). See The lunar table.
  • Asterisked eulogies are read only where the cult of that saint or blessed has been granted (Ordo, n. 11). See Reading a day's page.

Transferred memorials

When a memorial has been moved to another day, either for one year or permanently, a short clause is added at the end of its eulogy, telling the hearers on which day the memorial will be kept, or on which day the saint's dies natalis falls (Ordo, n. 12). The book gives a formula for each case.