Sacred Calendar

The Roman year ordered for memory, penance, feasts, saints, and the daily pilgrimage of the faithful.

Calendar standard

Pre-1955 Roman usage

The calendar follows the universal Roman year under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X, with the Roman Martyrology preserved as a distinct daily witness.

The day is presented for prayer, recollection, study, and perseverance in the City.

Daily observance

Today in the City of God

The Church keeps this day in holy time. The Pilgrim's Companion gathers the feast, daily quote, Martyrology, meditation, prayer, and related chapters into one daily path through the City.

Daily observance

St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Season: Septuagesima

The day is set within the Roman year so its feast, Martyrology, daily quote, prayer, and reading path may be received together without blurring their proper sources.

Today's pilgrimage

St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr

Rank: Simple

Color: red

Quote for the day

St. John Vianney

Nothing makes us more like Our Lord than carrying His Cross.

Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology - February 3

At Sebaste, in Armenia, in the time of the governor Agricolaus, the passion of St. Blasius, bishop and martyr, who after working many miracles, was scourged a long time, and suspended on a tree where he was lacerated with iron combs. He was then imprisoned in a dark dungeon, thrown into a lake from which he came out safe, and finally, by order of the same judge, he and two boys were beheaded. Before him, seven women who were gathering the drops of his blood during his torture, were recognized as Christians, and after undergoing severe torments, were put to death by the sword. — In Africa, St. Celerinus, deacon, who was kept nineteen days in prison loaded with fetters, and confessed Christ gloriously in the midst of afflictions. By overcoming the enemy with invincible constancy, he showed to others the road to victory. — Also, the holy martyrs, Laurentinus, and Ignatius, his uncles, and Celerina, his grandmother, who had been previously crowned with martyrdom. They are highly praised in an epistle of St. Cyprian. — In the same country, the holy martyrs Felix, Symphronius, Hippolytus and their companions. — In the town of Gap, the holy bishops Tigides and Remedius. — At Lyons, the Saints Lupicinus and Felix, also bishops. — The same day, St. Anscharius, bishop of Bremen, who converted the Swedes and the Danes to the faith of Christ.

Highlighted saint

St. Blaise

Bishop and martyr, intercessor in bodily danger.

St. Blaise is honored as bishop and martyr, and the Church has long invoked his intercession especially against ailments of the throat.

His feast teaches that the body is not beneath Catholic care. The Church blesses, prays, heals when God wills, and teaches the faithful to use bodily weakness as a summons to trust and conversion.

A martyr bishop also reminds the soul that health is a gift, not the highest good. The body should be guarded for God's service, but never preferred to fidelity.

Virtue to practice

Trust in bodily weakness.

Error to resist

The bodily anxiety that seeks relief while forgetting repentance, gratitude, and the salvation of the soul.

For the pilgrim in exile

Ask St. Blaise to guard both throat and tongue. A healed body is a mercy; a tongue ruled by Christ is a greater one.

Imitate today

  • Ask God for health ordered to His service.
  • Use speech today with reverence and restraint.
  • Pray for the sick and for faithful bishops.

Sources

  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, February 3.
  • Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, February 3.

Meditation

Today in the City of God

The Church does not leave the faithful to pass through time as though days were neutral. This observance teaches the soul to receive the day under grace, to remember what God has done, and to let sacred time order study, prayer, and perseverance.

Prayer

The day should become prayer.

O Lord, recollect my scattered thoughts, govern my words, and teach me to return to Thee before the noise of the day rules my soul.

Thought for the pilgrim

Prayer keeps the day from becoming self-ruled.

Practice

The day should become obedience.

Pause at midday for a brief act of faith, hope, charity, and contrition.

Source notes

Universal Roman Calendar under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X

Fasting and abstinence according to the laws observed in 1952

Daily quotations and pilgrimage excerpts should come from Scripture, Fathers, Doctors, saints, traditional popes before 1958, traditional catechisms, approved devotional works, or received liturgical texts.

The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore, 1916, published by John Murphy Company; the local 1916 text is displayed and traceable to its source lines.

  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.