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
13th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 23, 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
13th Sunday after Pentecost
Rank: Semi-Double Sunday
Color: green
Vigil: Vigil of St. Bartholomew, Apostle.
Impeded feast: St. Philip Benizi, Confessor. The temporal observance has precedence. The precise commemoration rule remains tied to the relevant proper and rubric.
Quote for the day
St. John Chrysostom
“Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works.”
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - August 23
The vigil of St. Bartholomew, apostle. — At Todi, St. Philip Beniti of Florence, confessor. He contributed greatly to the growth of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was a man of the greatest humility. He was numbered among the saints by Clement X. — At Antioch, the birthday of the holy martyrs Restitutus, Donatus, Valerian, and Fructuosa, with twelve others, who were crowned after having distinguished themselves by a glorious confession. — At Ostia, the holy martyrs Quiriacus, bishop, Maximus, priest, Archelaus, deacon, and their companions, who suffered under the prefect Ulpian, in the time of Alexander. — At Egsea, in Cilicia, the holy martyrs Claudius, Asterius, and Neon, brothers, who were accused of being Christians by their step-mother, under the emperor Diocletian, and the governor Lysias, and after enduring bitter torments, were fastened to a cross, and thus conquered and triumphed with Christ. After them suffered Donvina and Theonilla. — At Rheims, in France, the birthday of the Saints Timothy and Apollinaris, who merited to enter the heavenly kingdom by consummating their martyrdom in that city. — At Lyons, the holy martyrs Minervus, and Eleazar with his eight sons. — Also, St. Luppus, martyr, who, though a slave, enjoyed the liberty of Christ, and was likewise deemed worthy of the crown of martyrdom. — At Jerusalem, St. Zaccheus, bishop, who governed the church of that city the fourth after the blessed apostle James. — At Alexandria, St. Theonas, bishop and confessor. — At Utica, in Africa, blessed Victor, bishop. — At Autun, St. Flavian, bishop. — At Clermont, in Auvergne, St. Sidonius, a bishop distinguished for learning and sanctity.
Highlighted saint
13th Sunday after Pentecost
The grateful leper returns.
The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost gives the healing of the ten lepers, of whom only one returns to give glory to God.
The day teaches gratitude, faith, and the danger of receiving mercy externally while failing to return interiorly to the Giver.
Virtue to practice
Grateful faith.
Error to resist
The ingratitude that receives cleansing and walks away from Christ.
For the pilgrim in exile
Be the one who returns. Gratitude keeps mercy from becoming merely a benefit consumed and forgotten.
Imitate today
- Return thanks for one concrete mercy.
- Let gratitude become worship.
- Avoid using gifts while forgetting the Giver.
Sources
- Luke 17:11-19, Douay-Rheims.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
From Matins
Leprosy as a figure of false doctrine.
Matins - Third Nocturn - 13th Sunday after Pentecost
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Gospel Questions
“There is no false doctrine but hath some truth mixed up with it.”
Doctrine taught
- The Breviary reads the lepers as a figure of souls disfigured by mixed doctrine, where truth and falsehood are confused together.
- St. Augustine teaches that false teaching often keeps fragments of truth while corrupting the whole by disorder and mixture.
- Christ the Good Master cleanses doctrinal leprosy, but the diseased soul must stand afar off and cry for mercy.
For the pilgrim in exile
Do not be impressed by error because it contains some true words. Ask Christ to cleanse the whole mind, not merely improve its language.
Sources
- The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. III, Summer, Third Nocturn for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, 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
Only one returned to give glory.
Matins - 13th Sunday after Pentecost
Breviary witness
- The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost gives the healing of the ten lepers and the gratitude of the one who returned.
- Its witness teaches that grace received must become thanksgiving, worship, and deeper faith, lest mercy be used and forgotten.
For the pilgrim in exile
Return to give thanks. Gratitude keeps the soul near the Giver after the gift has been received.
Sources
- Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
- Luke 17:11-19, Douay-Rheims.
Gospel of the day
And he was a Samaritan.
13th Sunday after Pentecost - Luke 17:11-19
“Were not ten made clean? and where are the nine?”
What Our Lord teaches
- Christ heals ten lepers, but only one returns to give thanks.
- Gratitude completes the movement of mercy by returning the soul to the Giver.
Virtue to practice
Give thanks specifically for graces already received.
Error to resist
The entitlement that receives mercy and forgets the merciful Lord.
For the pilgrim in exile
Return and thank Him. Gratitude is one of the simplest ways for a healed soul to stay near the Healer.
Sources
- Luke 17:11-19, Douay-Rheims.
- Traditional Roman Gospel for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost.
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, 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 third through twenty-third Sundays after Pentecost are semi-doubles; the twenty-fourth Sunday is fixed at the end of the cycle.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xiii and xv: the remaining third through sixth Sundays after the Epiphany are restored before the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost as the year requires.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.