Pope invites Dioceses to commemorate their Saints and Blesseds on 9 November

Vatican News

Particular Churches, starting with the Jubilee of 2025, are invited to remember and honor the examples of holiness which have characterized the Christian life of faith and local spirituality each year, on November 9, the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of Lateran. Pope Francis set this date and this recurrence in a letter published on November 16.

A single date for the commemoration

Reaffirming that holiness, more than the fruit of human effort, means leaving room for God’s action, Pope Francis writes of the universal call to holiness, also at the heart of the teachings of Vatican II. He considers it important that all particular Churches commemorate on a single date the Saints and Blesseds, as well as the Venerable and Servants of God of their respective territories.

The Pope writes that it is not a question of inserting a new memory into the liturgical calendar, but of promoting, through appropriate initiatives, outside the liturgy, or of recalling within it, during the homily or other appropriate times, examples of people who characterized local Christian life. of faith and spirituality.

Guidelines for bishops’ conferences

The Pope writes that this will allow the different diocesan communities “to rediscover or perpetuate the memory of the extraordinary disciples of Christ who left a living sign of the presence of the risen Lord and who are still today reliable guides on the common path towards God, protecting and supporting us.” It notes that recommendations and pastoral guidelines may be developed and proposed by local bishops’ conferences.

The Saints “next door”

In the letter, the Pope once again underlines the importance of what he has already called the “saints next door”, the “daily holiness” of which the Church scattered throughout the world is always rich. He encourages us to cultivate a continuous and close relationship with those who can rightly be considered “our friends, our traveling companions, who help us to fully realize our baptismal vocation and show us the most beautiful face of the Church, who is holy and who is the mother of saints.

It recalls the martyrs, the Servants of God (whose cause for beatification and canonization is in progress) and the Venerables (whose heroic virtues are recognized), and offers several examples that we find in the daily life of each person, among which: “spouses who have faithfully lived their love by opening themselves to life; men and women who, in their various professional activities, supported their families and collaborated in the propagation of the Kingdom of God; with enthusiasm; pastors who, through their ministry, have poured out the gifts of grace on the holy people of God; religious men and women who, by living the evangelical counsels, have been living images of Christ the Bridegroom… the poor, the sick, the suffering who in their weakness have found support from the divine Master.