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
Ss. Nazarius, Celsus, Victor, and Innocent, Martyrs
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Season: Time after Pentecost
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
Ss. Nazarius, Celsus, Victor, and Innocent, Martyrs
Rank: Simple
Color: red
Quote for the day
Pope Gregory XVI
“The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth, all of which truth is taught by the Holy Spirit.”
Quo Graviora, n. 10
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - July 28
At Rome, the martyrdom of St. Victor, pope and martyr. — Also, at Rome, St. Innocent, pope and confessor. — At Milan, the birthday of the holy martyrs Nazarius and a boy named Celsus. While the persecution excited by Nero was raging, they were beheaded by Anolinus, after long sufferings and afflictions endured in prison. — In Thebais, in Egypt, the commemoration of many holy martyrs who suffered in the persecution of Decius and Valerian. At this time, when Christians sought death by the sword for the name of Christ, the crafty enemy devised certain slow torments to put them to death, wishing much more to kill their souls rather than their bodies. One of these Christians, after suffering the, torture of the rack, of hot metal plates and of seething oil, was smeared with honey and exposed, in the broiling heat of the sun, with his hands tied behind him, to the stings of wasps and flies. Another was bound and laid among flowers, when a shameless woman approached him with the intention of exciting his passions, but he bit off his tongue and spat it in her face. — At Ancyra, in Galatia, the holy martyr Eustathius. After various torments, he was plunged into a river, but being delivered by an angel, was finally called to his reward by a dove coming from heaven. — At Miletus, in the time of the emperor Licinius, the holy martyr Acatius, who completed his martyrdom by having his head struck off, after having undergone different torments and been thrown into a furnace, from which he came out uninjured through the assistance of God. — In Bretagne, St. Sampson, bishop and confessor. — At Lyons, St. Peregrinus, priest, whose happiness in heaven is attested by glorious miracles.
From Matins
Martyrdom, baptism, and the refusal of strange doctrine.
Matins - Second Nocturn - Ss. Nazarius, Celsus, Victor, and Innocent
Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for July 28
“Receive not any strange doctrine, how wise and acute soever thou mayest count thyself.”
Doctrine taught
- The Breviary remembers Nazarius, baptized by Pope St. Linus, as an apostolic witness who instructed and baptized the boy Celsus, preached Christ in Gaul and Milan, and died with him under Nero.
- Pope St. Victor is honored for confirming the Roman keeping of Pascha on the Lord's Day, defending baptism with natural water in necessity, and casting out Theodotus, who taught that Christ was only a man.
- Pope St. Innocent is remembered with St. Jerome's warning to hold fast the faith of the Apostolic See, and for condemning Pelagius and Caelestius while defending infant baptism against denial of original sin.
For the pilgrim in exile
Hold the apostolic rule without being dazzled by clever novelty. July 28 teaches martyrdom, sacramental clarity, Christological confession, and refusal of strange doctrine.
Sources
- The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. III, Summer, Second Nocturn for Ss. Nazarius, Celsus, Victor, and Innocent, lessons iv-vi.
- 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.
Meditation
The Church Made Public
Pentecost teaches that the Holy Ghost does not create private religious enthusiasm detached from doctrine, worship, and authority. He gathers, sends, teaches, and strengthens the visible Church. The remnant must therefore seek fire without disorder and zeal without novelty.
Related paths
Walk the day through the City.
Today's chapters
Read with the feast.
Prayer
The day should become prayer.
O Lord, pardon my faults, raise my heart from discouragement, and teach me to begin again under Thy mercy.
Thought for the pilgrim
The pilgrim is formed by returning to God again and again.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Make a brief examination of conscience before sleep and end the day with an act of 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.