Father Tomaž Mavrič explains the revised official Vincentian calendar.
Rome, 8 March 2017
To all the members of the Congregation of the Mission
To all the Daughters of Charity
To all members of the Vincentian Family
Dear Confreres, Sisters, and members of the Vincentian Family,
May the grace and peace of Jesus be always with us!
It recently came to our attention that the information on the updated Vincentian Liturgical Calendar was never communicated to you. Apparently, the letter to be translated was lost between one office and the other of the CM General Curia. We regret the delay in sending you this information, which you should have received last April.
- Therefore, I am sending you now the updated Vincentian Liturgical Calendar. The Vincentian Liturgical Calendar is approved for the Congregation of the Mission and Daughters of Charity. It is not restricted to the Vincentian Family.
- The change of date, from 15 March to 9 May, for celebrating the solemnity of Saint Louise de Marillac was communicated to you last year.
- Another change of date is the celebration of the memorial of Saint Francis Regis Clet. It is moved from 18 February to 9 July. The reason for this is to unite the memorial with that of other martyrs of the same category in the universal calendar. As the calendar is proper, we have the privilege to mention first the name of Saint Francis Regis Clet, followed by Augustini Zhao Rong and companions.
- On 28 July, you will find the name of a saint who is not a Vincentian. In fact, in the universal calendar the memorial of Saint Peter Chrysologus falls on 30 July. However, in order for us to maintain the date of 30 July for Saint Justin De Jacobis, we had to insert the name of Saint Peter Chrysologus on another date in our calendar. This occurs only when we have a memorial that coincides with that of another saint in the universal calendar.
- You will observe that some of the memorials have become optional memorials in the present calendar. However, they are obligatory memorials for the country of origin of the Blessed/Saint. This does not mean that others may not celebrate these memorials.
- It was suggested that we remove the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul (25 January) from our proper calendar, because it is a universal feast. However, it was accepted that it remain on our calendar because we already have prayers approved for this feast of the Congregation.
- Where the names of martyrs are not mentioned in the officially approved document of the Vincentian Calendar (for example 26 June), we have the freedom to mention all the names in the Ordo.
Thank you for your attention to these changes. May God bless each of us as we continue celebrating the Jubilee Year marking the birth of our charism.
Your brother in Saint Vincent
Tomaž Mavrič, CM
Superior General
Vincentian Calendar Decree (PDF)
Revised Calendar (PDF)
