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. Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs
Friday, August 13, 2027
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. Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs
Rank: Simple
Color: red
Quote for the day
St. Paul
“Stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned.”
2 Thessalonians 2:14, 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.
August intention
The Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Immaculate Heart of Mary is wholly ordered to God: pure, recollected, obedient, and steadfast beneath the Cross. Entrust this month to Our Lady and ask her to teach you to keep the words of Christ, hate sin, and remain faithful when fidelity costs you.
Intention
In reparation for offenses against Our Lady; for the conversion of sinners; and for purity, recollection, fidelity to Catholic truth, and perseverance beneath the Cross.
A faithful act
Offer all your daily duties to God through Mary before beginning them, and guard a short period of silence in imitation of her recollection.
Prayer
Immaculate Heart of Mary, take this month's prayer, work, and suffering into thy hands and lead us faithfully to Jesus.
Friday remembrance
The Passion and Sacred Heart of Jesus
Friday keeps Calvary before the Christian soul. Unite the day's labor and suffering to the Passion of Christ, remembering that His Sacred Heart was opened for sinners and that love proves itself by sacrifice and obedience.
Intention
In reparation for sin; for the conversion of sinners; and for those who suffer, are persecuted, or will die this day.
A faithful act
Keep the Church's Friday abstinence and add hidden self-denial in memory of the Passion.
Prayer
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, through Thy bitter Passion, have mercy on us and on poor sinners.
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - August 13
At Rome, blessed Hippolytus, martyr, who glorious- -" ly confessed the faith, under the emperor Valerian After enduring other torments, he was tied by the feet to the necks of wild horses, and being cruelly dragged through briars and brambles, and having all his body lacerated, he yielded up his spirit. On the same day, suffered also blessed Concordia, his nurse, who being scourged in his presence with leaded whips, went to our Lord; and nineteen others of his house, who were beheaded beyond the Tiburtine gate, and buried with him in the Veran field. — At Imola, the birthday of St. Cassian, martyr. As he refused to worship idols, the persecutor called the boys whom the saint taught and who hated him, giving them leave to kill him. The torment suffered by the martyr was the more grievous, as the hand which inflicted it, by reason of its weakness, rendered death more tardy. — At Todi, St. Cassian, bishop and martyr, under the emperor Diocletian. — At Burgos, in Spain, the Saints Centolla and Helena, martyrs. — At Constantinople, St. Maximus, a monk, distinguished for learning and for zeal for Catholic truth. Combating valiantly the Monothelites, he had his hands and tongue torn from him by the heretical emperor Constans, and was banished to Chersonesus, where he breathed his last. At this time, two of his disciples, both called Anastasius, and many others endured diverse torments and the hardships of exile. — In Germany, St. Wigbert, priest and confessor. — At Rome, St. John Berchinans, a scholastic of the Society of Jesus, illustrious for his innocence and for his fidelity to the rules of the religious life. He was canonized by Leo XIII. — At Poitiers, St. Radegundes, queen, whose life was renowned for miracles and virtues.
Highlighted saint
Ss. Hippolytus and Cassian
Martyrs who teach public fidelity and faithful instruction.
St. Hippolytus gloriously confessed the Faith under the emperor Valerian. After other torments, he was tied to wild horses and dragged to death; St. Concordia and nineteen members of his household also suffered martyrdom.
St. Cassian was a teacher at Imola who refused to worship idols. His persecutor delivered him to the pupils he had taught, and their weak hands prolonged the torment by which he died for Christ. His witness gives a grave lesson to every instructor: teaching is never neutral when souls are being formed.
The Church places martyrs before us so we do not imagine Catholic truth can remain only inward. Faith must govern office, speech, instruction, correction, and the duties by which others are shaped.
Virtue to practice
Faithful instruction unto witness.
Error to resist
The neutral classroom, office, or household that forms souls as though Christ had no claim there.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask these martyrs for courage in the places where others learn from you. A father, mother, teacher, employer, or older child teaches by word, silence, permission, and example. Let Christ rule there too.
Imitate today
- Teach truths clearly to those entrusted to you.
- Pray for Catholic teachers, parents, and catechists.
- Refuse the lie that public duties can be separated from Christ.
Sources
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, August 13.
- Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, August 13.
From the Roman Martyrology
The soldier and the teacher who confessed Christ publicly.
Martyrology - Martyrology Notice - Ss. Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs
Roman Martyrology, Notice for August 13
“The torment suffered by the martyr was the more grievous, as the hand which inflicted it, by reason of its weakness, rendered death more tardy.”
Doctrine taught
- The Martyrology remembers St. Hippolytus confessing the Faith under Emperor Valerian and enduring death after being dragged by wild horses; St. Concordia and nineteen members of his household suffered with the same constancy.
- St. Cassian, a teacher at Imola, refused idolatry and was delivered to the pupils he had instructed. The very office by which he had formed others became the scene of his prolonged witness.
- Their martyrdoms reject the fiction of a religious faith sealed away from household, school, or public duty. Christ claims the places where souls are formed as surely as He claims private prayer.
For the pilgrim in exile
Pray for parents, teachers, and all who form souls. Instruction is never neutral: word, silence, permission, correction, and example either serve truth or train others to live without it.
Sources
- The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore: John Murphy Company, 1916, August 13, printed pp. 242-243; local checked transcription at content/martyrology/roman-martyrology-1916-raw.txt, lines 8319-8361.
Meditation
Growth After Pentecost
In the Time after Pentecost, the Church sends the faithful back into daily labor under the light of the Holy Ghost. The soul must not seek fire as excitement only. It must seek the fire that purifies speech, strengthens duty, exposes false peace, and keeps the Church's received worship dear.
Related paths
Walk the day through the City.
Today's chapters
Read with the feast.
- The Holy Ghost and the Gift of Recollection: The Cenacle Before Fire
- The Sevenfold Gift and the Remnant Formed for Endurance
- Pentecost: The Holy Ghost, Public Doctrine, and the Church Gathered Into One Voice
- The Apostolicity of the Church: Continuity of Faith, Mission, and Authority
- Perseverance, Reparation, and Hope
Prayer
The day should become prayer.
O Lord, make me patient in household division, firm without cruelty, and charitable without compromise. Let peace be made beneath truth, not against it.
Thought for the pilgrim
Family peace cannot be purchased by surrendering the Faith.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Pray for family members and friends. Love them sincerely, but do not pretend the truth is less serious just to keep peace.
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. xvii–xxviii.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition, Mass of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pp. 1520-1524.
- Luke 2:19 and 2:35, Douay-Rheims.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition; proper Mass or devotion named in this entry.
- John 19:30-37, Douay-Rheims.