City of God in Exile
Main Gate

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

St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr

Saturday, November 25, 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

St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr

Rank: Double

Color: red

Quote for the day

St. Clement of Rome

“Let the wise man display his wisdom, not by [mere] words, but through good deeds.”

First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 38

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.

November intention

The Holy Souls in Purgatory

Christian charity crosses the boundary of death. Remember the faithful departed who can no longer merit for themselves, and let prayer for them keep judgment, mercy, and eternity before your own soul.

Intention

For the relief of the Holy Souls, especially the most forgotten, and for the grace of final perseverance for the living.

A faithful act

Offer a prayer, indulgenced work under the Church's conditions, or sacrifice for a forgotten soul in Purgatory.

Prayer

Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

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 - November 25

The birthday of St. Catharine, virgin and martyr, under the emperor Maximinus. For the confession of the Christian faith, she was cast into prison at Alexandria, and afterwards endured a long scourging with whips garnished with metal, and finally ended her martyrdom by decapitation. Her body was miraculously conveyed by angels to Mount Sinai, where pious veneration is paid to it by a great concourse of Christians. — At Rome, St. Moses, priest and martyr, who, with others detained in prison, was often consoled by the letters of St. Cyprian. After he had withstood with unbending courage not only the Gentiles, but also the Novatian schismatics and heretics, he was finally, in the persecution of Decius, crowned with a martyrdom which fills the mind with admiration, according to the words of pope St. Cornelius. — At Antioch, St. Erasmus, martyr. — At Caesarea, in Cappadocia, St. Mercury, soldier, who vanquished the barbarians and triumphed over the cruelty of Decius through the protection of his guardian angel. Finally, having acquired great glory from his sufferings, he was crowned with martyrdom and went to reign forever in heaven. — In Emilia, a province of Italy, St. Jucunda, virgin.

Read and verify the full entry

Highlighted saint

St. Catherine

Virgin and martyr of Alexandria.

The Martyrology honors St. Catherine, virgin and martyr, who confessed the Christian faith at Alexandria under Maximinus.

She was cast into prison, endured a long scourging with metal-tipped whips, and completed her martyrdom by decapitation; her body is venerated at Mount Sinai.

Virtue to practice

Courageous confession of Christian truth.

Error to resist

The worldly wisdom that treats Christian confession as childish before power and learning.

For the pilgrim in exile

Ask St. Catherine for a clear mind and a brave heart. Truth is not less true because rulers threaten it.

Imitate today

  • Confess the faith without shame.
  • Guard virgin purity and courage.
  • Use learning and speech in service of Christ.

Sources

  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, November 25.
  • Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, November 25.

From Matins

Learning made fearless before persecuting power.

Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr

Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Catherine

“She prevailed over the chiefest wits.”

Doctrine taught

  • The Breviary joins Catherine's liberal learning to fervent faith, purity, and public defense of Christians under persecution.
  • Her reasoning did not seek applause: it converted the philosophers sent to defeat her and prepared them to die for Christ.
  • Promises, hunger, scourging, the wheel, and death could not separate intellectual courage from virgin fidelity and martyr charity.

For the pilgrim in exile

Study for confession, not vanity. Catholic learning becomes luminous when it defends the persecuted, exposes idols, converts opponents, and remains willing to suffer for the truth it speaks.

Full Breviary lessons

Fourth Lesson - Learning Used to Defend the Faith

This Katharine was a noble maiden of Alexandria, who from her earliest years joined the study of the liberal arts with fervent faith, and in a short while came to such an height of holiness and learning, that when she was eighteen years of age she prevailed over the chiefest wits. When she saw many diversely tormented and haled to death by command of Maximin, because they professed the Christian religion, she went boldly unto him and rebuked him for his savage cruelty, bringing forward likewise most sage reasons why the faith of Christ should be needful for salvation.

Fifth Lesson - Philosophers Converted and Prepared for Martyrdom

Maximin marvelled at her wisdom, and bade keep her, while he gathered together the most learned men from all quarters and offered them great rewards if they would confute Katharine and bring her from believing in Christ to worship idols. But the event fell contrariwise, for many of the philosophers who had come to dispute with her were overcome by the force and skill of her reasoning, so that the love of Christ Jesus was kindled in them, and they were content even to die for His sake. Then did Maximin strive to beguile Katharine with fair words and promises, and when he found it was lost pains, he caused her to be hided, and bruised with lead-laden whips, and so cast into prison, and neither meat nor drink given to her for the space of eleven days.

Sixth Lesson - The Wheel Broken and Two Crowns Received

At that time Maximin's wife and Porphyry the Captain of his host, went to the prison to see the damsel, and at her preaching believed in Jesus Christ, and were afterwards crowned with martyrdom. Then was Katharine brought out of ward, and a wheel was set, wherein were fastened many and sharp blades, so that her virgin body might thereby be most direfully cut and torn in pieces, but in a little while, as Katharine prayed, this machine was broken in pieces, at the which marvel many believed in Christ. But Maximin was hardened in his godlessness and cruelty, and commanded to behead Katharine. She bravely offered her neck to the stroke and passed away hence to receive the twain crowns of maidenhood and martyrdom, upon the 25th day of November. Her body was marvellously laid by Angels upon Mount Sinai in Arabia.

Sources

  • The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. IV, Autumn, Second Nocturn for St. Catherine, lessons iv-vi, printed p. 769.
  • Bute 1908 is used here as an accessible pre-Pius X Breviary witness and is cited distinctly from the 1936-1937 Benziger / Burns Oates edition.

Breviary Witness

Confession of faith before power.

Matins - St. Catherine

Breviary witness

  • The Martyrology honors St. Catherine as virgin and martyr who confessed the Christian faith at Alexandria, endured prison and scourging, and was beheaded.
  • Her witness teaches the courage of truth before rulers, learning, and threats.

For the pilgrim in exile

Ask for a mind and heart loyal to Christ. The faith need not apologize for being hated by worldly power.

Sources

  • Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for November 25, St. Catherine.
  • Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, November 25.

Meditation

Wisdom That Refused the Idol

St. Catherine joined virginal purity, learned defense of truth, and martyr courage before pagan power. Her wisdom did not seek admiration; it exposed idolatry and remained obedient to Christ when argument gave way to violence. Ask for an intellect that serves truth and a will prepared to bear its cost.

Prayer

The day should become prayer.

O Lord, through St. Catherine, make my mind clear, my heart pure, and my confession courageous before the idols of the age.

Thought for the pilgrim

Catholic learning reaches maturity when it would rather suffer than adore an idol.

Practice

The day should become obedience.

Identify the modern idols that govern you—comfort, approval, pleasure, power, or autonomy—and refuse the acts by which you usually serve them.

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.
  • 2 Machabees 12:43-46, 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.
Browse the Roman Martyrology