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
Lenten Ember Day
Saturday, February 20, 2027
Season: Lent
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
Lenten Ember Day
Rank: Non-privileged Feria
Color: violet
Quote for the day
St. Francis de Sales
“Prayer places our mind in the brightness and light of God, and exposes our will to the heat of heavenly love.”
An Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, chapter 1, p. 46
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.
February intention
The Holy Family
At Nazareth, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph show how hidden duties become holy when they are performed in obedience and charity. This month asks the pilgrim to carry the order of Nazareth into his own home.
Intention
For Catholic homes, the preservation of marriage and family life, and families divided by sin, error, absence, or sorrow.
A faithful act
Perform your ordinary household duties promptly and without complaint for the good of those entrusted to you.
Prayer
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, order our homes in truth, purity, obedience, and peace.
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
Blessed Mother, keep me under thy mantle, receive this day into thy hands, and lead me in all things to Jesus.
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - February 20
At Tyre, in Phoenicia, the commemoration of many blessed martyrs, whose number is known to God alone. Under the emperor Diocletian, they were put to death after a long and varied series of torments by the military commander Veturius. They were first lacerated with whips, and then delivered to several kinds of beasts. But, through the interposition of Providence, remaining unhurt, they consummated their martyrdom by the torment of fire and by the sword. This glorious multitude were incited to victory by the bishops Tyrannic, Silvanus, Peleus, and Nilus, and the priest Zenobius, who, together with them, won the palm of martyrdom by a successful combat. — In the island of Cyprus, the holy martyrs Pothamius and Nemesius. — At Constantinople, St. Eleutherius, bishop and martyr. — In Persia, in the time of king Sapor, the birthday of St. Sadoth, bishop, and one hundred and twentyeight others, who refused to adore the sun, and by a cruel death purchased for themselves bright crowns. — At Catania, in Sicily, St. Leo, bishop, illustrious for virtues and miracles. — The same day, St. Eucherius, bishop of Orleans, whose miracles increased in proportion to the slanders of the envious. — At Tournai, in Belgium, St. Eleutherius, bishop and confessor.
Highlighted saint
The Lenten Ember Day
The season sanctified by fasting, prayer, and ordination.
The Lenten Ember Days belong to the Church's quarterly sanctification of the seasons, joining fasting and prayer to the needs of the clergy and the whole Christian people.
In Lent the Ember discipline presses more deeply: the faithful ask God to purify the Church, strengthen sacred ministers, and make penance fruitful rather than theatrical.
Virtue to practice
Ecclesial penance and prayer for sacred ministers.
Error to resist
The individualism that forgets fasting belongs to the whole Church and her sacred order.
For the pilgrim in exile
Let the Ember day widen your Lent. Your penance is not merely personal improvement; it is prayer with the Church for the Church.
Imitate today
- Pray for worthy priests and clerics.
- Offer some fasting or restraint for the sanctification of the Church.
- Ask God to make penance humble and hidden.
Sources
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar: Ember Days occur in Lent.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Division of the Ecclesiastical Year: Ember Days are non-privileged ferias.
Breviary Witness
Fasting with the Church for the Church.
Matins - Lenten Ember Day
Breviary witness
- The Lenten Ember Days join the penitential season to the Church's prayer for sacred ministers and the sanctification of the Christian people.
- Their witness teaches that fasting is ecclesial. The faithful do penance not as isolated souls, but as members of the Mystical Body pleading for purity and holy order.
For the pilgrim in exile
Offer penance for the Church, her ministers, and those who hunger for valid sacraments.
Sources
- Roman Breviary, Lenten Ember Days.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Lenten Ember Days.
Meditation
The Cross in Exile
Humiliation, opposition, and penance do not mean that God has ceased to govern. Our Lord redeemed the world through His obedient suffering on the Cross. When Catholics accept unavoidable trials without sin, perform penance, and continue obeying the truth, those sufferings can humble pride and deepen fidelity rather than lead to despair.
Related paths
Walk the day through the City.
Today's chapters
Read with the feast.
Prayer
The day should become prayer.
O Lord Jesus Christ, by Thy Precious Blood cleanse my conscience, strengthen my will, and teach me never to treat grace as cheap.
Thought for the pilgrim
The Precious Blood teaches the price of grace.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Give thanks for the Precious Blood and guard every known occasion where grace could be wasted.
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 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.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xiii and xv: Ember Days occur in Advent, Lent, Whitsuntide, and after September 14.
- 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, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition; proper Mass or devotion named in this entry.
- Luke 2:51-52, Douay-Rheims.
- Luke 2:19 and John 19:25-27, Douay-Rheims.
- Sister Lucia dos Santos, Fourth Memoir, December 8, 1941, account of the apparition of August 19, 1917.