The recent Decree of the CDF permitted the optional observance in the Old Roman Rite of Saints canonised since 1960.
But nobody, of course, will want to observe all the several hundreds of them! Journalists often do not understand that when a man or woman is added to the Catalogus Sanctorum, this does not mean that they are observed on their feast day in every Catholic Church in the world. Not even in every Latin Catholic Church in the world! And even if they do achieve the status of being in the (Novus Ordo) Calendarium Romanum Generale, this stiill does not mean that they have compulsory observations . They may be (mere!) ad libitum memoriae.
So I have tried to collect those post 1960 canonisations which are in the General Roman Calendar as Saints who are to be observed obligatorily in the Novus Ordo. One might say that these have settled down into the piety of the faithful, and enjoy the full confidence of the Latin Church.
So how many hundreds does that reduce the applicants to? Well, it reduces the pressing crowds to just five commemorations (three of which, however, commemorate groups of Martyrs). And two of these five, square bracketed on the list beneath, fail at the last hurdle to make the cut.
So then there were three.
They are these:
IUNIUS 3 S Caroli Lwanga et Sociorum Martyrum.
[AUGUSTUS 14 S Maximiliani Mariae Kolbe Martyris; but he will be kept out in the ccold by the II Class Vigil of the Assmption.]
SEPTEMBER 20 Ss Andreae Kim et Sociorum Martyrum.
23 S Pii de Pietrelcina Confessoris.
[NOVEMBER 24 Ss Andreae Dung-Lac et Sociorum Martyrum collides with S John of the Cross.]
So, if one desires, one can observe these three de facto as Class III Saints, using the Commons in the Missal and Breviary.
Please let me know if I've made mistakes or forgotten somebody ... I probably have.
If anyone wants a list of Commemorations which are optional in the Novus Ordo, let me know. I think it might amount to 12-15, including those post-Conciliar popes, Mother Theresa ...
And remember that there are also people like S Louis Grignion de Montfort, who were canonised well before 1960, but who only made the transition from pro aliquibus locis to the Calendarium Romanum Generale after that date.
Yes, dear Father, please also compile a similar list for the optional memorials of the saints in the Pauline Mass.
ReplyDeleteOn the Vigil of the Assumption, would it be allowed to add a second set of prayers as a commemoration, in the rules of the '62 Missal? Would it be allowed in the pre_Bugnini Missal?
Thank you for this, Father. We have had so many saints proclaimed of recent years that one welcomes some kind of paring down. With reference to the Old Rite, where would St John Henry Newman fit in? I assume that the Oratories will want to have a specific Mass to celebrate him, rather than merely using the Common of Saints / Confessors?
ReplyDeleteDear Pater,
ReplyDeleteGiven that all this assumes, in line with current legislation, the use of the "books in use in 1962" and the overly simplified Calendar that comes with said books, it would be rather interesting to know how best to integrate these "new" Feasts (including, why not, the optional Commemorations, since you so kindly offered!) with the ruleset of Feasts and Octaves commonly described as "Pre-55" (for want of a more accurate name). It occurs to me that the greater flexibility offered in terms of the addition of commemorations, and the rules for the displacement of Feasts, might solve a fair number of issues (as Tradition usually does!)
Happy Easter, by the way!
I should like to see St. Faustina included!
ReplyDeleteOne wonders - if one had been a decent person on earth, but certainly not a saint, not even in one's last moments ---- and one had later been declared a saint by men at the highest levels of the church, but men who were without good intentions ---- what recourse would that soul in Purgatory have?
ReplyDeleteWhatever changes are made with regard to calendars, or Feasts, changes that - when you reflect thereon - are changes that can work real temporal harm to someone who was incorrectly declared a saint (assuming, with actual intellectual and spiritual humility, that such a thing can happen), there remains the deep moral question - who will pray for those poor souls?
I will, but who else will?
Edith Stein is I think obligatory in the Liturgia Horarum.
ReplyDeleteI have one of those charming inserts for missals which one used to get which offers the propers for Bb. Matthiæ Murumba, Caroli Luanga, eorumque sociorum - it is largely the mass for several martyrs outside of Eastertide (Intret in conspectu), but with proper collect, secret, and post-communion. If, on 3 June, I am celebrating according to the traditional rite, I might well be minded to use these propers.
ReplyDeleteDear Fr Thomas
ReplyDeleteMay I respectfully ask for your evidence? I write this because, while she certainly in "In Europa", being a Patron and therefore a Festum, I cannot find that she is an obligatory memoria in the rest of the world.
Given that earthly bishops have the power to bind and loose, and that the Pope has Peter's keys, there probably isn't any way to be "incorrectly" declared a saint.
ReplyDeleteAnd given that Purgatory is part of Heaven and deals with souls, eternity doesn't correspond neatly to temporal timelines of events.
Oh, I see. I'd forgotten that.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNew feasts and prefaces are Trojan horse meant to destroy Traditional rite. Optional will become compulsory. Only bishops had power to forgive abortion. During year of mercy priests were given that power. It continued after the year was over.
ReplyDelete[Corrected] Thank you, father, for doing this research. I knew that they are not many, but not that they are so few. However, the new rules allow to celebrate any saint, "new" or "old", whose name is mentioned in the martyrology for that day, no matter if he/she has a memory (obligatory or optional) in the general calendar.
ReplyDeleteThe old O'Connell Celebration of the Mass says that you can say a votive Mass on an allowed day for any saint in the Martyrology. I think the idea would have been to say it on the next free day, or as often as you liked if it was a saint you liked. And of course if the chapel was named after a saint, even if he wasn't in the universal calendar, the feasts were Doubles of the 1st class.
DeleteDear Rooftop
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand your argument. When twentieth century popes added the neo-Gallican Preface for the departed and prefaces for S Joseph, the Sacred Heart, and Christ the King, was this really a Trojan Horse to destroy the traditional rite? The fury of the Grillos of this world, who realise that gradual evolution is affirmation of the abiding power of Tradition, suggests to me that these enemies of Tradition are better at recognising Tradition, which they so hate, than you chappies on the roof top who claim to defend it.