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, applies verified United States propers, and preserves the Roman Martyrology 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
Sts. Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, and Companions, Martyrs
Saturday, September 26, 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
Sts. Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, and Companions, Martyrs
Rank: Double of the Second Class
Color: red
Feria: September Ember Day.
Commemoration: Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs.
Quote for the day
Holy Scripture
“The beginning of wisdom, the fear of our Lord: and the knowledge of the holy, prudence.”
Proverbs 9:10, Original 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.
September intention
The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Our Lady did not flee the Cross. By remembering her sorrows, the pilgrim learns compassion for the Passion of Christ, patience in affliction, and fidelity when consolation is withdrawn.
Intention
For those crushed by grief, for sinners at the hour of death, and for the grace to carry every cross without abandoning Christ.
A faithful act
Accept sorrows without murmuring and offer them with Our Lady for dying souls.
Prayer
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, keep us faithful beside the Cross of Jesus.
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
My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy: As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - September 26
At Nicomedia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian, and Justina, virgin. Under the emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholmius. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted Cyprian, who, while a magician, endeavored to bring her under the influence of his magical practices. She afterwards suffered martyrdom with him. Their bodies being exposed to the beasts, were taken away in the night by some Christian sailors, and carried to Rome. They were subsequently taken into the Constantinian basilica, and deposited near the baptistery. — At Rome, the holy martyr Callistratus, and forty-nine other soldiers, who endured martyrdorn together, in the persecution of Diocletian. The companions of Callistratus were converted to Christ on seeing him miraculously delivered from drowning in the sea, where he had been thrown sewed up in a bag. — Also, at Rome, pope St. Eusebius. — At Bologna, St. Eusebius, bishop and confessor. — At Brescia, St. Vigilius, bishop. — At Albano, St. Senator. — In the territory of Frascati, the blessed abbot Mlus, founder of the monastery of CryptaFerrata, a man of eminent sanctity. — At Citta-diCastello, St. Amantius, a priest distinguished for the gift of miracles.
Highlighted saint
Sts. Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, and Companions
The North American Martyrs - missionaries who spent and were spent for souls.
The proper feast kept in the dioceses of the United States honors eight Jesuit missionaries whose preaching and blood consecrated the first fruits of the Faith in North America: John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, Gabriel Lalemant, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, René Goupil, and John de Lalande.
Holy Mother Church places upon their feast the words of the Apocalypse: they came out of great tribulation and made their robes white in the Blood of the Lamb. Their Epistle gives the missionary heart of St. Paul: 'I most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls.' Their martyrdom was not a search for suffering, but the final cost of refusing to abandon the souls entrusted to them.
Their Collect asks that the Christian harvest may increase everywhere through their intercession. Their blood therefore remains missionary seed: a rebuke to comfort without zeal, but also a summons to pray and labor patiently for the conversion of souls.
Virtue to practice
Apostolic fortitude willing to spend and be spent for souls.
Error to resist
A comfortable religion that praises missionary courage while surrendering the duty to seek the conversion of souls.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask the North American Martyrs for a love stronger than fear. Their feast does not permit zeal to become harshness or charity to become silence: souls are loved by giving them Christ and remaining faithful when fidelity costs dearly.
Imitate today
- Offer one real sacrifice for the conversion and perseverance of souls.
- Ask for the courage to remain at the duty God has assigned when fear invites retreat.
- Pray for missionaries and priests who must preach the whole Faith without compromise.
Sources
- The New Roman Missal in Latin and English, ed. Rev. F. X. Lasance and Rev. Francis Augustine Walsh, O.S.B., Benziger Brothers, 1945, Proper Masses for the United States, September 26, printed pp. 1611-1615.
- The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore edition, 1916, notices of the individual North American Martyrs on their respective dies natalis.
Gospel of the day
Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you for the Son of man's sake.
Sts. Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, and Companions, Martyrs - Luke 6:17-23
“Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.”
What Our Lord teaches
- Our Lord does not call hatred good. He calls blessed the fidelity that endures hatred for His sake and refuses to abandon Him when the world punishes confession.
- The North American Martyrs carried the Gospel where the work demanded privation, danger, patience, and finally blood. Their reward was not earthly safety but the kingdom promised by Christ.
- The same Gospel joins suffering to mercy: the multitude came to hear Christ and to be healed. Missionary endurance exists so that wounded souls may hear the truth and receive the life of grace.
Virtue to practice
Missionary fortitude rooted in love of Christ and souls.
Error to resist
The false prudence that treats rejection as proof that the whole Faith should no longer be preached.
For the pilgrim in exile
Do not seek conflict, but do not purchase acceptance by hiding Christ. Ask the martyrs for patient courage: speak truth with charity, remain at duty, and entrust visible results to God.
Sources
- Luke 6:17-23, Douay-Rheims.
- The New Roman Missal in Latin and English, ed. Rev. F. X. Lasance and Rev. Francis Augustine Walsh, O.S.B., Benziger Brothers, 1945, Proper Masses for the United States, September 26, printed pp. 1613-1614.
Meditation
Growth After Pentecost
The Time after Pentecost teaches perseverance after the great feasts. Many souls receive light and then return to forgetfulness. The pilgrim must instead turn light into rule: morning prayer, the Angelus, Rosary, examination, custody of speech, and fidelity to the duty before him.
Related paths
Walk the day through the City.
Today's chapters
Read with the feast.
Prayer
The day should become prayer.
O Lord, bring this day to judgment before Thy mercy. Show me where I obeyed, where I resisted, where I loved, and where I must begin again.
Thought for the pilgrim
The day must end beneath truth.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Offer one deliberate sacrifice for the conversion and perseverance of souls, and ask the North American Martyrs for courage to remain faithful when duty becomes costly.
Source notes
Universal Roman Calendar under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X, with verified United States propers
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.
- The New Roman Missal in Latin and English, ed. Rev. F. X. Lasance and Rev. Francis Augustine Walsh, O.S.B., Benziger Brothers, 1945, Proper Masses for the United States, September 26, printed pp. 1611-1615: Double of the Second Class in red, with commemoration of Ss. Cyprian and Justina.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xiii and xv: the September Ember Days are kept on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following the third Sunday of September.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Division of the Ecclesiastical Year, p. x: Ember Days are non-privileged ferias; their commemoration remains distinct from the feast and from the separate 1952 fasting layer.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition; proper Mass or devotion named in this entry.
- Luke 2:34-35 and John 19:25-27, Douay-Rheims.
- Luke 2:19 and John 19:25-27, Douay-Rheims.
- The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims, Luke 1:46-55 (the Magnificat).
- Enchiridion indulgentiarum: preces et pia opera in favorem omnium christifidelium vel quorumdam coetuum personarum, Vatican Polyglot Press, 1952, no. 320, printed pp. 203-204 (grants of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, September 20, 1879, and February 22, 1888; Sacred Penitentiary, February 18, 1936, and April 12, 1940).
- Sister Lucia dos Santos, Fourth Memoir, December 8, 1941, account of the apparition of August 19, 1917.