October Is Ablaze With Saints

National Catholic Register, 9 October 2026

As the Church’s universal calendar illustrates, it’s not possible to have too many saints.

I had hoped for a new feast day to be announced on Monday. To be more precise, I had hoped that another feast day would be added to the universal calendar. Which is likely a bit liturgically greedy, as October is already packed with feast days.

Monday marked the centennial of the 1926 death of St. Bartolo Longo, who was canonized by Pope Leo XIV last year. His feast day is assigned to his death anniversary, his “birthday” (dies natalis) into heaven: Oct. 5. I had hoped that the Holy Father, who has a special devotion to Our Lady of Pompeii — he was elected on her feast day, May 8 — might honor Longo, “apostle of the Rosary” and builder of the basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, by adding him to the universal calendar.

October is a good month to learn about feast days. Every saint is assigned a feast day at beatification. For example, Blessed Fulton Sheen was assigned Dec. 9, the date of his death, at his recent beatification in St. Louis. Given that there are thousands of saints, each date has multiple saints assigned to it, sometimes a great many. The Catholic Church provides guidance for which feast days should be celebrated publicly. Those feast days appear on the “universal calendar,” which governs the whole Church.

(National calendars add saints of particular local devotion; Blessed Fulton will likely be added to the calendar for the United States.)

Consider that Oct. 9 on the universal calendar includes not one, not two, but three saints. There is St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris, martyred in the third century. There is also St. John Leonardi, an Italian founder who died in 1609. And following his declaration as a Doctor of the Church in 2025, St. John Henry Newman’s feast day was added to the universal calendar by Pope Leo. 

The three saints of Oct. 9 — the date of Newman’s reception into the Catholic Church when he converted in 1845 — have what are called “optional memorials.” It means that the celebrant at Holy Mass can choose which feast day to observe — or not to observe any at all.

Terminology can be a bit confusing. Catholics usually speak of the “feast day” of a saint, regardless of its proper liturgical rank. The universal calendar has four ranks of “feast days,” though, in ascending order: optional memorial, memorial, feast and solemnity.

Most saints on the universal calendar get “optional memorials.” October includes many of that rank, including St. Faustina Kowalska (Oct. 5), St. John XXIII (Oct. 11), the Jesuit Martyrs of North America (Oct. 19) and St. John Paul II (Oct. 22). 

Some saints of greater historic or devotional impact are given obligatory memorials, which, as the name suggests, are mandatory to observe. October has several of those: Thérèse of Lisieux (Oct. 1), Guardian Angels (Oct. 2), Francis of Assisi (Oct. 4), Teresa of Ávila (Oct. 15) and Ignatius of Antioch (Oct. 17). By definition, there cannot be more than one obligatory memorial on any given day.

The next rank is that of “feast,” not in the generic sense, but as a specific liturgical rank. On “feasts” the Gloria is recited at the Holy Mass, which is not usually done on weekdays. “Feasts” are reserved for the apostles and evangelists, with some exceptions, including Sts. Mary Magdalene (July 22), Lawrence (Aug. 10) and Stephen (Dec. 26). October has two specific “feasts”: St. Luke (Oct. 18) and the Apostles Simon and Jude (Oct. 28).

The highest-ranking feast day is the “solemnity,” such as St. Joseph (March 19), Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29) and All Saints (Nov. 1). The Blessed Virgin Mary has feast days of all ranks, including several solemnities: Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), Mary, Mother of God (Jan. 1) and her Assumption (Aug. 15). 

In October, there are no solemnities, which are celebrated like Sunday Masses, with two readings, the Gloria and the Creed.

It is not possible to have too many saints; it is what the Church exists for. Yet space on the universal calendar is limited, so being included is the exception. For example, Oct. 12 is the feast day of St. Carlo Acutis. Despite having widespread devotion, he is not on the universal calendar. Nor is St. Pier Giorgio Frassati (July 4), who was canonized together with St. Carlo last year.

Sometimes inclusion in the universal calendar is predictable. The martyrs of Auschwitz, Sts. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Aug. 9) and Maximilian Kolbe (Aug. 14), were added to the universal calendar after their canonizations, as were Mother Teresa (Sept. 5) and Padre Pio (Sept. 23).

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