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. John, Apostle and Evangelist
Wednesday, December 27, 2028
Season: Christmastide
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. John, Apostle and Evangelist
Rank: Double of the Second Class
Color: white
Octave: Within the Privileged Octave of the Nativity (Privileged Octave of the Third Order).
Quote for the day
St. John
“That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you.”
1 John 1:3, 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.
December intention
The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
As Advent prepares the Church for the Nativity, the Immaculate Conception displays God's victorious preparation of the Mother of the Redeemer. Ask for hatred of sin, purity of heart, and readiness to receive Christ.
Intention
For the preservation of baptismal innocence, the recovery of purity through repentance, and faithful preparation for the coming of Our Lord.
A faithful act
Remove voluntary occasions of sin and needless distractions as an Advent offering through Our Lady.
Prayer
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and prepare our souls for Jesus.
Wednesday remembrance
St. Joseph
Midweek, turn to St. Joseph, whose hidden labor guarded Jesus and Mary. He teaches authority without self-importance, work without complaint, and silence joined to decisive obedience.
Intention
For fathers, laborers, families, the protection of the Church, and those approaching death.
A faithful act
Do necessary tasks thoroughly without seeking notice or praise.
Prayer
St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church, guard our homes and obtain for us purity, courage, and a holy death.
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - December 27
At Ephesus, the birthday of St. John, apostle and evangelist, who, after writing his gospel, and after enduring exile and writing the divine Apocalypse, lived till the time of the emperor Trajan, and founded and governed the churches of all Asia. Worn out with age, he died in the sixty-eighth year after the passion of our Lord, and was buried near Ephesus. — At Alexandria, St. Maximus, bishop, who became a renowned and distinguished confessor of the faith. — At Constantinople, the holy confessors Theodore and Theophanes, brothers, who were brought up from their childhood in the monastery of St. Sabbas. Afterwards, combating bravely for the worship of holy images against Leo the Armenian, they were scourged by his command and banished. After his death, they again firmly opposed the emperor Theophilus, who was imbued with the same impiety, and were scourged a second time and driven into exile, where Theodore expired in prison. Theophanes, after peace had at length been restored to the Church, was made bishop of Mcsea and rested in the Lord. — In the same city, St. Niceras, virgin, who was renowned for sanctity, in the time of the emperor Arcadius.
Highlighted saint
St. John
Apostle, Evangelist, and witness of charity and truth.
St. John stood near the Cross, received the Mother of God into his care, and gave the Church the Gospel that opens with the eternal Word.
His witness is not soft sentiment. He teaches charity in truth, fidelity beneath the Cross, hatred of falsehood, and perseverance in the doctrine received from Christ.
Virtue to practice
Charity governed by truth.
Error to resist
The sentimentality that speaks of love while tolerating falsehood about Christ.
For the pilgrim in exile
Let St. John keep charity exact and tender. The disciple of love is also the witness who tests spirits and remains near the Cross.
Imitate today
- Remain near the Cross when others flee.
- Love Our Lady and the Church with filial fidelity.
- Reject false doctrine while keeping charity.
Sources
- John 1:1-14; John 19:25-27; 1 John 4:1-6, Douay-Rheims.
- Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, December 27.
From Matins
The Evangelist who rose to the Word.
Matins - Second Nocturn - St. John, Apostle and Evangelist
St. Jerome, Priest, Book on Ecclesiastical Writers and Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians
“The Apostle John, whom Jesus loved, was a son of Zebedee, and brother of the Apostle James.”
Doctrine taught
- The Breviary honors St. John as apostle, evangelist, beloved disciple, witness, and virgin.
- St. Jerome teaches that John received special love from the Lord and care of the Virgin Mother, and that his Gospel rises above the earth to the eternal Word.
- His feast keeps Christmas contemplative: the Child in the crib is the Word who was with God and was God.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask St. John for clean contemplation and exact witness. The soul that leans near Christ must also confess the Word made flesh without dilution.
Full Breviary lessons
Fourth Lesson - The Evangelist against the Heretics
The Apostle John "whom Jesus loved" was a son of Zebedee, and brother of the Apostle James, who was beheaded by Herod soon after our Lord suffered. He was the last of the Evangelists to write his Gospel, which he published at the request of the Bishops of Asia, against Cerinthus and other heretics, and particularly against the then spreading doctrine of the Ebionites, who asserted that Christ had had no existence before Mary. It was therefore needful for the Evangelist to declare His Eternal and Divine Generation.
Fifth Lesson - Patmos, the Apocalypse, and the Churches of Asia
In the fourteenth year after Nero, Domitian stirred up the second persecution, and John was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he wrote his Apocalypse, which hath been explained by Justin the Martyr and Irenaeus. When Domitian was killed, the Senate annulled all his acts, on account of his savage cruelty, and the Apostle returned to Ephesus, during the reign of Nerva. He remained at Ephesus until the time of Trajan, and founded and governed all the Churches of Asia. There, in an extreme old age, he died, in the sixty-eighth year after the Lord's passion, and was buried near the city.
Sixth Lesson - My Little Children, Love One Another
The Blessed Evangelist John lived at Ephesus down to an extreme old age, and, at length, when he was with difficulty carried to the Church, and was not able to exhort the congregation at length, he was used simply to say at each meeting, "My little children, love one another." At last the disciples and brethren were weary with hearing these words continually, and asked him, "Master, wherefore ever sayest thou this only?" Whereto he replied to them, (worthy of John,) "It is the commandment of the Lord, and if this only be done, it is enough."
Sources
- The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. I, Winter, Second Nocturn for St. John, lessons iv-vi, printed pp. 288-289.
- 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
The beloved disciple who gives true testimony.
Matins - St. John
Breviary witness
- The Breviary honors St. John as apostle and evangelist, witness of the eternal Word and disciple standing near the Cross.
- His witness joins charity to truth, contemplation to testimony, and filial love for Our Lady to fidelity to Christ.
For the pilgrim in exile
Let charity become more truthful, not softer. St. John teaches love that adores the Word and rejects falsehood about Him.
Sources
- Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for December 27, St. John.
- John 1:1-14; 1 John 4:1-6, Douay-Rheims.
Gospel of the day
This is that disciple who giveth testimony.
St. John, Apostle and Evangelist - John 21:19-24
“This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things, and hath written these things.”
What Our Lord teaches
- St. John bears witness to what he has seen and heard from Christ.
- The beloved disciple teaches the Church contemplative fidelity and truthful testimony.
Virtue to practice
Bear witness without curiosity about another's path.
Error to resist
The distraction that asks, 'What about this man?' instead of following Christ.
For the pilgrim in exile
Follow the path given to you. St. John teaches that love can be both tender and exact in testimony.
Sources
- John 21:19-24, Douay-Rheims.
- Traditional Roman Gospel for St. John.
Meditation
The Disciple Who Saw and Testified
St. John rests near the Heart of Jesus and speaks as an eyewitness of the Word made flesh. His purity, doctrine, and charity belong together: love does not dissolve commandments or reduce truth to feeling. Ask him to lead you through Mary to a more reverent knowledge of Christ and a more faithful keeping of His word.
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, through St. John the Apostle, purify my heart, strengthen my faith, and make my charity faithful to Thy commandments.
Thought for the pilgrim
The beloved disciple teaches that true love sees, believes, testifies, and obeys.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Read a passage from St. John's Gospel and obey every command of Our Lord found there.
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, Division of the Ecclesiastical Year, p. ix.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition; proper Mass or devotion named in this entry.
- Genesis 3:15 and Luke 1:28, Douay-Rheims.
- Matthew 1:19-24, Douay-Rheims.