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
St. Philip Benizi, Confessor
Monday, August 23, 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
St. Philip Benizi, Confessor
Rank: Double
Color: white
Vigil: Vigil of St. Bartholomew, Apostle.
Quote for the day
St. Francis de Sales
“It is a work of charity to shout: 'Here is the wolf!' when it enters the flock or anywhere else.”
Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter 29
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.
Monday remembrance
The Holy Souls in Purgatory
Begin the working week with an act of mercy toward the faithful departed. Their helplessness calls forth charity, while their purification reminds the living to repent before death.
Intention
For the most abandoned soul in Purgatory and for deceased relatives, benefactors, priests, and those who have no one to pray for them.
A faithful act
Offer the first difficulty of the week for the Holy Souls and pray the De profundis.
Prayer
Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them.
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
St. Philip Benizi
Servite confessor and humble servant of Our Lady.
St. Philip Benizi entered the Order of the Servants of Mary and became a witness of humility, penance, preaching, and devotion to the sorrows of Our Lady.
He served without seeking honors, and the Church remembers in him a soul made strong by hidden obedience. Marian service is not sentiment. It forms the will to stand with Mary near the Cross and to serve Christ where obedience places us.
His feast also stands near the vigil of St. Bartholomew, reminding the faithful that apostolic work needs recollection, humility, and sorrow for sin.
Virtue to practice
Humble Marian service.
Error to resist
The Marian language that praises Our Lady while avoiding humility, penance, and obedience.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask St. Philip Benizi for Marian devotion that changes the will. To belong to Our Lady is to become more faithful to Christ, more patient under the Cross, and more ready to serve without display.
Imitate today
- Serve Our Lady by obeying her Son.
- Perform hidden acts of service without seeking notice.
- Pray with Our Lady for sinners and for perseverance.
Sources
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, August 23.
- Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, August 23.
From the Roman Martyrology
The Servite enlarged by humility beneath Our Lady.
Martyrology - Martyrology Notice - St. Philip Benizi, Confessor, with the Vigil of St. Bartholomew
Roman Martyrology, Notice for August 23
“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.”
Doctrine taught
- The Martyrology joins the Vigil of St. Bartholomew to St. Philip Benizi, whose labor greatly enlarged the Servite Order and whose distinguishing mark was profound humility.
- Service beneath Our Lady is measured by obedience to Christ, sorrow for sin, hidden labor, and willingness to diminish while the work of God grows.
- The approaching apostolic feast places humility before mission. Catholic labor becomes fruitful through fidelity and grace, not through the servant's hunger to be seen.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask St. Philip for Marian service that reforms the will. Do the duties that advance Christ's work, accept hiddenness, and prepare for the Apostle's feast by rejecting self-display.
Sources
- The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore: John Murphy Company, 1916, August 23, printed p. 254; local checked transcription at content/martyrology/roman-martyrology-1916-raw.txt, lines 8726-8768.
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, give me holy fear before Thy altar. Preserve me from casualness, invention, and every worship that weakens faith in Thy sacrifice.
Thought for the pilgrim
False worship wounds souls because worship forms belief.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Show reverence for the Holy Sacrifice in thought, word, and conduct, and pray for souls misled by false worship.
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.
- Psalm 129 and 2 Machabees 12:43-46, Douay-Rheims.