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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

Feria of Advent

Tuesday, December 22, 2026

Season: Advent

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

Feria of Advent

Rank: Feria

Color: violet

Quote for the day

St. John Vianney

“Nothing makes us more like Our Lord than carrying His Cross.”

Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology - December 22

At Rome, between the two bay -trees on the Lavican road, the birthday of thirty holy martyrs, who were ajl on one day crownd with martyrdom, in the persecution of Diocletian. — In the same city, St. Flavian, ex-prefect, who, under Julian the Apostate, was condemned to be branded for Christ, and banished to Aquae Taurinae, where he gave up his soul to God in prayer. — At Ostia, the holy martyrs Demetrius, Honoratus and Florus. — At Alexandria, the holy martyr Ischyrion. Because he dispised all the cruelties they made him suffer to force him to sacrifice to idols, they transpierced his bowels with a sharp-pointed stake, and thus put him to death. — In Egypt, the Saint Chseremon, bishop of Nilopolis, and many other martyrs. Some of them fled whilst the persecution of Decius was raging, and wandering in different directions through deserts, were killed by wild beasts; others perished by famine, cold and sickness; others again were murdered by barbarians and robbers, and thus all were crowned with a glorious martyrdom. — At Nicomedia, St. Zeno, soldier, who derided Diocletian for sacrificing to Ceres, wherefore he had his jawbones fractured, his teeth plucked out and his head struck off.

Read and verify the full entry

Highlighted saint

The Advent Feria

The Church waiting for the coming of Our Lord.

The Advent feria is a school of sober expectation, teaching the faithful to wait for the coming of Christ with repentance, desire, vigilance, and hope.

These weekdays keep the soul from treating Advent as mere atmosphere. The Church asks for preparation: crooked ways made straight, hearts awakened, and the Saviour truly desired.

Advent is gentle, but it is not vague. The heart prepares for the Child by becoming willing to be ruled, cleansed, forgiven, and taught.

Virtue to practice

Watchful expectation.

Error to resist

The seasonal distraction that celebrates before it has prepared the heart for Christ.

For the pilgrim in exile

Let Advent weekdays make room in the soul. The City waits with lamps lit, not with noise.

Imitate today

  • Make one concrete preparation for Christmas.
  • Pray for a watchful heart.
  • Remove one small obstacle to recollection.
  • Ask Christ to come as Saviour, not merely as comfort.

Sources

  • Luke 3:1-6, Douay-Rheims.
  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Advent ferias.

Breviary Witness

Waiting with the Church.

Matins - Feria of Advent

Breviary witness

  • The Advent ferias school the faithful in expectation, repentance, vigilance, and desire for the coming Saviour.
  • Their witness is sober hope: the Church waits not as the world waits, but with prayer, preparation, and longing for Christ.

For the pilgrim in exile

Let the waiting become clean and watchful. Advent is not delay; it is preparation.

Sources

  • Roman Breviary, ferial Matins in Advent.
  • Luke 3:1-6, Douay-Rheims.

Meditation

The Coming of the King

The mystery of the coming of Christ teaches the pilgrim to wait without surrender, to recognize divine humility, and to adore the King where He truly appears. Sacred time trains hope, but hope must remain disciplined by doctrine and worship.

Prayer

The day should become prayer.

O Lord, when confusion, scarcity, or loneliness presses upon me, keep me from despair. Thou hast not abandoned the faithful who cling to truth.

Thought for the pilgrim

The soul in exile is not abandoned.

Practice

The day should become obedience.

Name one grace God has preserved for you in exile and thank Him for it plainly.

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, Division of the Ecclesiastical Year, p. x: Lent has a proper Mass for each feria; other ferias without a proper Mass use the Mass of the Sunday.
  • This is a temporal fallback only; it does not assert a saint, a fast, or an unentered proper Mass.
Browse the Roman Martyrology