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.

Choose a date

Daily observance

Fifth Sunday after Easter

Sunday, May 10, 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

Fifth Sunday after Easter

Rank: Semi-Double Sunday

Color: white

Impeded feast: St. Antoninus, Bishop and Confessor. The temporal observance has precedence. The precise commemoration rule remains tied to the relevant proper and rubric.

Quote for the day

Our Lord Jesus Christ

Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart.

Matthew 11:29, Douay-Rheims

Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology - May 10

T.. ANTONINUS, confessor and archbishop of Florence, whose birthday is the 2d of May. — At Rome, on the Latin road, the birthday of the holy martyrs Gordian and Epimachus. In the time of Julian the Apostate, the former was a long time scourged and finally decapitated for confessing the name of Christ. He was buried at nigth by the Christians, in a crypt to which, shortly before, the remains of the blessed martyr Epimachus had been translated from Alexandria, where he had been martyred for the faith of Christ. — In the land of Hus, the holy prophet Job, a man of wonderful patience. — At Rome, the blessed priest and martyr Calepodius, who was killed with the sword, by order of the emperor Alexander. His body was dragged through the city and thrown into the Tiber. It was afterwards found and buried by Pope Callistus. The consul Palmatius was also beheaded with his wife, his sons, and forty-two of both sexes belonging to his household; likewise, the senator Simplicius with his wife, and sixty-eight of his house; Felix also with his wife Blanda. The heads of all these martyrs were exposed over different gates of the city, to terrify the Christians. — Also, at Rome, on the Latin way, the birthday of the holy martyrs Quartus and Quinctus, whose bodies were translated to Capua. — At Lentini, in Sicily, the holy martyrs Alphius, Philadelpus, and Cyrinus. — At Smyrna, St. Dioscorides, martyr. — At Bologna, blessed Nicholas Albergati, a Carthusian monk, bishop of that city, and Cardinal of the holy Eoman Church, celebrated for his holiness and Legations Apostolic. His body was buried at Florence, in the monastery of the Carthusians. — At Taranto, St. Cataldus, a bishop renowned for miracles. — At Milan, the finding of the bodies of the holy martyrs Nazarius and Celsus. The blessed bishop Ambrose found the body of St. Nazarius covered with blood still fresh, which he translated to the basilica of the Apostles, together with the body of the blessed boy Celsus, whom Nazarius had brought up, and whom Anolinus, in the persecution of Nero, had ordered to be struck with the sword on the 28th of July, the day when their martyrdom is commemorated. — At Madrid, St. Isidore, a laborer. Being renowned for miracles, pope Gregory XV. placed him in the number of the Saints at the same time with St. Ignatius, St. Francis, St. Theresa, and St. Philip.

Highlighted saint

Fifth Sunday after Easter

Ask the Father in the Name of the Son.

The Fifth Sunday after Easter prepares the faithful for the Rogation days and the Ascension by teaching prayer in the Name of Christ.

Our Lord promises that the Father hears those who ask in His Name, but this prayer is not magic or presumption: it is filial confidence joined to faith, obedience, and desire for God's will.

Virtue to practice

Filial prayer in the Name of Jesus.

Error to resist

The superstition that treats prayer as technique, or the pride that refuses to ask because it will not become childlike.

For the pilgrim in exile

Pray as one belonging to Christ. Exile teaches need, and need should become confident petition through the Son to the Father.

Imitate today

  • Ask the Father through Christ with confidence.
  • Join petition to conversion.
  • Prepare for Rogation prayer with humility.

Sources

  • John 16:23-30, Douay-Rheims.
  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Fifth Sunday after Easter.

From Matins

To ask in the Name of Christ.

Matins - Third Nocturn - Fifth Sunday after Easter

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Tract 102 on St. John

Whatsoever is asked, which tendeth not to salvation, is not asked in the Name of the Saviour.

Doctrine taught

  • The Breviary prepares the Rogation days with Our Lord's promise that whatever is asked of the Father in His Name will be given.
  • St. Augustine teaches that asking in Christ's Name is not the mere sound of sacred syllables, but asking according to the true Christ and toward eternal salvation.
  • The fullness of joy promised by Christ is spiritual and heavenly; compared with that blessed life, all lesser things are as nothing.

For the pilgrim in exile

Let Rogation prayer become purified prayer. Ask boldly, but ask as a Catholic: for grace, salvation, holiness, and every temporal need only under the rule of eternal life.

Sources

  • The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. II, Spring, Third Nocturn for the Fifth Sunday after Easter, lessons vii-ix.
  • 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

Petition in the Name of Christ.

Matins - Fifth Sunday after Easter

Breviary witness

  • The office of the Fifth Sunday after Easter prepares the faithful for Rogation prayer by placing before them Our Lord's promise concerning prayer in His Name.
  • Its witness teaches filial confidence: the Christian asks the Father through the Son, not as one bargaining with God, but as one converted, dependent, and obedient.

For the pilgrim in exile

Let need become prayer instead of anxiety. Ask in the Name of Christ, and let petition draw the soul into deeper obedience.

Sources

  • Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for the Fifth Sunday after Easter.
  • John 16:23-30, Douay-Rheims.

Gospel of the day

Ask, and you shall receive.

Fifth Sunday after Easter - John 16:23-30

Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full.

What Our Lord teaches

  • Christ commands confident prayer in His Name.
  • The faithful ask not as strangers but as souls loved by the Father.

Virtue to practice

Pray with confidence and purity of intention.

Error to resist

The prayerlessness that acts as though grace were not needed.

For the pilgrim in exile

Ask simply. A child does not improve his petition by mistrusting his father; he asks, waits, and stays near.

Sources

  • John 16:23-30, Douay-Rheims.
  • Traditional Roman Gospel for the Fifth Sunday after Easter.

Meditation

Victory Seen in Christ

The day lifts the pilgrim above mere survival. The Church suffers, but she suffers under the Lord who is risen, ascended, glorified, and victorious in His saints. Triumph is not a mood. It is the promised end toward which perseverance is ordered.

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, p. xv: the Ascension falls on the Thursday after the fifth Sunday after Easter.
  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.