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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. Mark, Evangelist

Saturday, April 25, 2026

Season: Eastertide

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. Mark, Evangelist

Rank: Double of the Second Class

Color: red

Octave: Within the Common Octave of the Solemnity of St. Joseph (Common Octave).

Litany: Greater Litanies.

Quote for the day

Our Lord Jesus Christ

“Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Mark 16:15, Douay-Rheims

The pilgrim's devotional rhythm

Keeping the month and the weekday in prayer

This chosen devotional rhythm does not change the feast, rank, or obligations shown above. It gives the passing days a steady intention, helping the pilgrim honor God, intercede for souls, and carry one Catholic practice into the day. It is a household aid to devotion, not another law of the Roman Calendar.

April intention

The Most Blessed Sacrament

Our Lord remains truly, really, and substantially present beneath the sacramental appearances. Let this month deepen Eucharistic faith, reverence at Mass, and reparation for neglect of the altar.

Intention

For worthy Communions, holy priests, reparation for sacrilege, and the restoration of faith in the Real Presence.

A faithful act

Make a reverent visit to the Blessed Sacrament, or pause for a deliberate spiritual Communion when a visit is not possible.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, increase our faith and receive our adoration and reparation.

Saturday remembrance

The Blessed Virgin Mary

Saturday is kept in filial remembrance of Our Lady, who remained faithful when Our Lord lay hidden in the tomb. Walk with Mary toward Jesus by imitating her faith, purity, recollection, and perseverance.

Intention

For growth in true devotion to Mary, the conversion of sinners, the protection of purity, and perseverance in the Catholic Faith.

A faithful act

Set the goal of praying the complete traditional Rosary today: all fifteen decades of the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries. Offer it for a definite intention, especially for the conversion and salvation of sinners. If the duties of your state require it, pray its three parts at different hours, but persevere toward completing the whole Rosary. Souls are in need: at Fatima, Our Lady warned that many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices and pray for them.

Prayer

Blessed Mother, keep me under thy mantle, receive this day into thy hands, and lead me in all things to Jesus.

Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology - April 25

At Alexandria, the birthday of blessed Mark, evangelist, disciple and interpreter of the apostle St. Peter. He wrote his gospel at the request of the faithful of Rome, and taking it with him, proceeded to Egypt and founded a church at Alexandria, where he was the first to announce Christ. Afterwards, being arrested for the faith, he was bound, dragged over stones and endured great afflictions. Finally he was confined to prison, where, being comforted by the visit of an angel, and even by an apparition of our Lord himself, he was called to the heavenly kingdom in the eighth year of the reign of Nero. — At Rome, the great Litanies in the church of St. Peter. — At Syracuse, the holy martyrs Evodius, Hermogenes, and Callistus. — At Antioch, St. Stephen, bishop and martyr, who suffered much from the heretics opposed to the Council of Chalcedon, and was precipitated into the river Orontes, in the time APEIL. 117 of the emperor Zeno. — In the same city, the Saints Philo and Agathopodes, deacons. — At Alexandria, the bishop St. Anian, disciple of blessed Mark, and his successor in the episcopate. With a great renown for virtue, he rested in the Lord. — At Lobbes, the birthday of St. ErmiDus, bishop and confessor.

Read and verify the full entry

Highlighted saint

St. Mark

Evangelist and herald of the Gospel.

St. Mark is honored as an evangelist, preserving and preaching the Gospel of Christ for the Church.

His feast teaches that the Gospel is not private possession or religious mood, but apostolic testimony entrusted to the Church.

Virtue to practice

Disciplined witness to the Gospel.

Error to resist

The silence that treats revealed truth as private preference.

For the pilgrim in exile

Ask St. Mark for a faithful tongue and a disciplined pen. The truth need not be noisy to be brave.

Imitate today

  • Bear witness to the faith plainly.
  • Use speech and writing in service of truth.
  • Pray for missionaries and preachers.

Sources

  • Mark 16:15-20, Douay-Rheims.
  • Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, April 25.

From Matins

Peter's interpreter carries the Gospel to Alexandria.

Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Mark, Evangelist

St. Jerome, Priest, On Ecclesiastical Writers

“He wrote the shortest of the Gospels.”

Doctrine taught

  • The Breviary receives St. Mark as the disciple and interpreter of St. Peter, writing from what he had heard Peter teach.
  • St. Peter approved Mark's Gospel and gave it to the Church to be read by his authority. This connects the written Gospel with the preaching and testimony Peter had received directly from Christ.
  • Mark carried the Gospel into Egypt, founded the Church of Alexandria, and formed Christians whose common life recalled the first charity of Jerusalem.

For the pilgrim in exile

Receive the Gospel as apostolic testimony, not private literature. St. Mark teaches that Scripture is handed down in the Church, preached, approved, read, and lived.

Open the Gospel index

Sources

  • The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. II, Spring, Second Nocturn for St. Mark, lessons iv-vi, printed p. 826.
  • Bute 1908 is used here as an accessible pre-Pius X Breviary witness and is cited distinctly from the 1936-1937 Benziger / Burns Oates edition.

Breviary Witness

The Gospel entrusted to those Christ sent to preach and establish His Church.

Matins - St. Mark

Breviary witness

  • The Breviary honors St. Mark as evangelist and herald of the Gospel.
  • His witness teaches that the word of Christ is to be preached, written, guarded, and handed on as apostolic truth.

For the pilgrim in exile

Use speech and writing for the faith. The Gospel is not private feeling, but public testimony for salvation.

Sources

  • Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for April 25, St. Mark.
  • Mark 16:15-20, Douay-Rheims.

Gospel of the day

Preach the Gospel to every creature.

St. Mark, Evangelist - Mark 16:15-20

“Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

What Our Lord teaches

  • The Gospel is not private possession but apostolic mission.
  • Christ confirms the preaching of His Church by His authority from heaven.
  • St. Mark reminds the faithful that written truth is a mercy. The Gospel gives the soul something firm to receive, keep, and hand on.

Virtue to practice

Bear witness to the faith plainly, without theatrical zeal.

Error to resist

The silence that treats revealed truth as private preference.

For the pilgrim in exile

Ask St. Mark for a faithful tongue and a disciplined pen. The truth need not be noisy to be brave.

Sources

  • Mark 16:15-20, Douay-Rheims.
  • Traditional Roman Gospel for St. Mark.

Meditation

Victory Seen in Christ

Christ is risen, has ascended in His glorified humanity, and reigns in Heaven. The Church and her members still suffer on earth, but their trials do not overturn His victory. Christian hope is therefore more than an encouraging feeling: it trusts Christ's promise of resurrection and eternal life and gives the faithful a reason to persevere in obedience today.

Prayer

The day should become prayer.

O Lord, give me holy fear before Thy altar. Preserve me from casualness, invention, and every worship that weakens faith in Thy sacrifice.

Thought for the pilgrim

False worship wounds souls because worship forms belief.

Practice

The day should become obedience.

Show reverence for the Holy Sacrifice in thought, word, and conduct, and pray for souls misled by false worship.

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 ordinarily come from eligible Catholic sources issued no later than December 31, 1954: Scripture, Fathers, Doctors, saints, Roman Pontiffs, traditional catechisms, approved devotional works, and received liturgical texts. Legitimate additions promulgated under Pope Pius XII may be retained when identified precisely; this does not adopt the reformed Holy Week or later rubrical changes.

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.
  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, p. xv.
  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, p. xx: St. Mark, Evangelist — Greater Litanies.
  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition; proper Mass or devotion named in this entry.
  • John 6:52-59, Douay-Rheims.
  • Luke 2:19 and John 19:25-27, Douay-Rheims.
  • Sister Lucia dos Santos, Fourth Memoir, December 8, 1941, account of the apparition of August 19, 1917.
Browse the Roman Martyrology