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. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs
Tuesday, September 26, 2028
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. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs
Rank: Simple
Color: red
Quote for the day
Holy Scripture
“Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7, 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the pilgrim learns compassion for the Passion of Christ, patience in affliction, and fidelity when consolation is withdrawn.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.
Tuesday remembrance
The Holy Angels
God has appointed His angels as ministers of His providence. Honor them by greater purity, recollection, and prompt obedience to grace, never forgetting that their whole service leads the soul to God.
Intention
For protection against temptation, guidance in duty, and the defense of children, travelers, and souls in spiritual danger.
A faithful act
Before a difficult duty or conversation, ask your Guardian Angel to help you act without sin and for God's glory.
Prayer
Holy Angel, my guardian, keep me from sin and direct me in the faithful accomplishment of today's duties.
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
Ss. Cyprian and Justina
Martyrs of conversion, chastity, and deliverance from evil.
The Martyrology records that St. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted St. Cyprian, who had tried by magical practices to bring her under his power.
They afterwards suffered martyrdom together under Diocletian. Their feast teaches the victory of grace over occult bondage—the search for hidden spiritual power apart from God—impurity, and the attempt to dominate another soul.
Virtue to practice
Chaste courage and conversion.
Error to resist
The superstition that seeks power apart from God and calls it harmless.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask Saints Cyprian and Justina for clean freedom. Christ breaks the pride that tries to possess, manipulate, or corrupt another soul.
Imitate today
- Reject superstition and occult practices completely.
- Guard purity by prayer and resistance.
- Pray for conversions that turn enemies into saints.
Sources
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, September 26.
- Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, September 26.
From Matins
True worship breaks the power of sorcery.
Matins - One Nocturn - Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs
Roman Breviary, Proper lesson for Ss. Cyprian and Justina
“No art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ.”
Doctrine taught
- The Breviary presents St. Justina's chastity and true worship of Christ as unconquered by spells, sorcery, and an attempted demonic coercion of her will.
- St. Cyprian's conversion requires more than fear of occult power: he grieves over his former life, abandons the magical arts, and gives himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord.
- Their shared martyrdom completes the lesson. Conversion and purity are preserved through steadfast confession of the Christian religion, even under imprisonment, torture, and death.
For the pilgrim in exile
Reject spells, divination, charms, mediums, occult curiosity, and every attempt to obtain hidden power apart from God. If you have taken part in such things, renounce them completely and bring them honestly to sacramental Confession. Ask Saints Cyprian and Justina for repentance, chastity, true worship, and perseverance in the Catholic Faith.
Full Breviary lessons
Third Lesson - From Sorcery to the Faith of Christ
Cyprian, at first a magician and afterwards a martyr, was attempting by spells and sorceries to entice the Christian virgin Justina, whom a certain young man ardently loved, to consent to that young man's lust. He consulted a demon as to how he might accomplish this. The demon answered him that no art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ. Moved by this answer, Cyprian began bitterly to grieve over his former way of life. And so, abandoning the magical arts, he converted himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord. For this reason he was arrested together with the virgin Justina, and both were beaten with fists and scourges; they were soon cast into prison, in case they might perhaps change their resolve. But when they were afterwards brought out and found most steadfast in the Christian religion, they were cast into a pan filled with boiling pitch, fat, and wax. Finally, they were beheaded at Nicomedia. After their cast-off bodies had lain unburied for six days, certain sailors secretly placed them aboard a ship by night and carried them to Rome. They were first buried on the estate of Rufina, a noblewoman; afterwards, having been translated into the City, they were laid in the Constantinian Basilica near the baptistery.
Sources
- Breviarium Romanum, Pii Papae X auctoritate reformatum, Desclee & Socii, 1942, Pars Autumnalis, September 26, Ss. Cyprian and Justina, lesson iii, printed p. 568.
- The complete lesson above is a faithful editorial English translation prepared directly from the visually checked Latin text; it is not presented as an edition-issued English Breviary translation.
Breviary Witness
Grace stronger than occult bondage.
Matins - Ss. Cyprian and Justina
Breviary witness
- The Martyrology remembers St. Justina's suffering for Christ and the conversion of St. Cyprian, who had once tried by magical practices to bring her under his power.
- Their martyrdom together teaches the victory of chastity, conversion, and divine grace over superstition and spiritual domination.
For the pilgrim in exile
Reject every occult compromise without curiosity. Christ gives freedom; false powers seek possession, impurity, and pride.
Sources
- Roman Breviary, Matins remembrance for September 26, Ss. Cyprian and Justina.
- Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, September 26.
Meditation
Growth After Pentecost
The Time after Pentecost is the long school of the Holy Ghost. The fire given at Pentecost must become doctrine believed, worship guarded, commandments kept, homes ordered, tongues governed, and charity practiced without novelty or disorder.
Related paths
Walk the day through the City.
Today's chapters
Read with the feast.
Prayer
The day should become prayer.
O Lord, place this day beneath Thy Providence. Keep my mind in truth, my heart in charity, and my work in obedience until evening.
Thought for the pilgrim
The faithful soul receives the day before it spends it.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Begin ordinary labor with deliberate recollection and return to God whenever distraction scatters the mind.
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; proper Mass or devotion named in this entry.
- Luke 2:34-35 and John 19:25-27, Douay-Rheims.
- Psalm 90:11 and Matthew 18:10, Douay-Rheims.