What happens when a saint's feast falls on a Sunday?

[PazzoGrande]

This saint is especially important to my diocese because he came from here and was ordained at our Cathedral.

Next year, his feast will fall on a Sunday. Normally, as I understand it, saints’ feasts that fall on a Sunday aren’t celebrated for that year. But since it’s a special case in our diocese and is even obligatory for all of our local parishes, are there rubrics that allow for his feast to be celebrated on the day before or after?

 

[marty1818]

This may help.

 

[G_S]

Solemnities and Feasts of the Lord take precedence over Sundays in Ordinary time but not in Lent, Advent, or the Easter Season. e.g. September 14th, the Exaltation of the Cross, August 15th, the Assumption of Mary, June 29th, SS Peter and Paul all bump the Sunday readings because they occur in Ordinary Time. The Immaculate Conception, even though it is a solemnity, since it always occurs in Advent, moves to the next day when it occurs on Sunday.

 

[FrDavid96]

It depends on the Sunday. If it’s a Sunday in Ordinary Time, then it might be celebrated on that Sunday.

See #58 General Instruction on the Calendar
58. For the pastoral advantage of the people, it is permissible to observe on the Sundays in Ordinary Time those celebrations that fall during the week and have special appeal to the devotion of the faithful, provided the celebrations take precedence over these Sundays in the Table of Liturgical Days. The Mass for such celebrations may be used at all the Masses at which a congregation is present.

The only way to really know would be to know exactly how that saint’s day is defined in the calendar of the diocese. It might be one of the categories in #4 or it might be #8. The only way to know for certain is to look at the official calendar for your own diocese.

Table of Liturgical Days

I

1. Easter triduum of the Lord’s passion and resurrection.
2. Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, and Pentecost. Sundays of Advent, Lent, and the Easter season. Ash Wednesday. Weekdays of Holy Week from Monday to Thursday inclusive. Days within the octave of Easter.
3. Solemnities of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and saints listed in the General Calendar. All Souls.
4. Proper Solemnities, namely:

a. Solemnity of the principal patron of the place, that is, the city or state.

b. Solemnity of the dedication of a particular church and the anniversary.

c. Solemnity of the title, or of the founder, or of the principal patron of a religious order or congregation.

II.

1. Feasts of the Lord in the General Calendar.
2. Sundays of the Christmas season and Sundays in Ordinary Time.
3. Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the saints in the General Calendar.
4. Proper feasts, namely:

a. Feast of the principal patron of the diocese.

b. Feast of the anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral.

c. Feast of the principal patron of a region or province, or a country, or of a wider territory.

d. Feast of the title, founder, or principle patron of an order or congregation and of a religious province, without prejudice to the directives in no. 4.

e. Other feasts proper to an individual church.

f. Other feasts listed in the calendar of a diocese or of a religious order or congregation.

1. Weekdays of Advent from 17 December to 24 December inclusive. Days within the octave of Christmas. Weekdays of Lent.

III.

1. Obligatory memorials in the General Calendar.
2. Proper obligatory memorials, namely:

a. Memorial of a secondary patron of the place, diocese, region, or province, country or wider territory, or of an order or congregation and of a religious province.

b. Obligatory memorials listed in the calendar of a diocese, or of an order or congregation.

1. Optional memorials; but these may be celebrated even on the days listed in no. 9, in the special manner described by the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and of the Liturgy of the Hours. In the same manner obligatory memorials may be celebrated as optional memorials if they happen to fall on the Lenten weekdays.
2. Weekdays of Advent up to 16 December inclusive. Weekdays of the Christmas season from 2 January until the Saturday after Epiphany. Weekdays of the Easter season from Monday after the octave of Easter until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive. Weekdays in Ordinary Time.

 

[PazzoGrande]

Oh, I see. In this case, the saint’s feast day will occur during a Sunday in the Easter Season in 2015. It’s what’s described in 11b.

So I guess it gets skipped that year. Little too bad, this saint is a big deal here.

 

[G_S]

Well, the saint could be mentioned in the announcements and the Prayers of the Faithful. It’s not as though there’s a code of silence about the saint. However, the readings, prayers and preface are for the Sunday in Easter. Mention of the saint in the homily is also possible but should be in the context of illustrating the scriptures and the liturgy of the Sunday and not the theme of the homily. If there is a custom of having a community gathering with a meal on the day, it could still be held on the Sunday. Every Sunday, and in a certain more focused way, every Sunday in Easter is really celebrating the Resurrection of Christ that makes sainthood possible.

 

[FrDavid96]

Oh, I see. In this case, the saint’s feast day will occur during a Sunday in the Easter Season in 2015. It’s what’s described in 11b.

So I guess it gets skipped that year. Little too bad, this saint is a big deal here.

Nothing can replace a Sunday in the Easter Season (#2).

Note on 11b. It means that the local priest is obligated to observe that saint’s day at Mass (in other words, not optional but obligatory) as a memorial.

If the bishop designates it a “feast” or a “solemnity” it gets a higher ranking, but still not higher than a Sunday of the Easter Season.

It does not necessarily mean that the day gets skipped though. The diocese and parishes can certainly celebrate the saint’s day. It just means that the text and readings of the Mass (and Liturgy of the Hours) must be those of that Sunday. There’s nothing prohibiting (or even discouraging) other forms of celebration like processions, prayers after the Mass (maybe a litany or novena), special blessings, etc. etc. Other things certainly could be done.

 

[Mary_Ellen]

Oh, I see. In this case, the saint’s feast day will occur during a Sunday in the Easter Season in 2015. It’s what’s described in 11b.

So I guess it gets skipped that year. Little too bad, this saint is a big deal here.

If it’s actually a solemnity in your diocese (which it very well may be) it would be moved to either the Saturday before or the Monday after. The best way to get an answer to your question would be to simply … call or write your diocese and ask them.

 

[PazzoGrande]

Nothing can replace a Sunday in the Easter Season (#2).

Note on 11b. It means that the local priest is obligated to observe that saint’s day at Mass (in other words, not optional but obligatory) as a memorial.

If the bishop designates it a “feast” or a “solemnity” it gets a higher ranking, but still not higher than a Sunday of the Easter Season.

It does not necessarily mean that the day gets skipped though. The diocese and parishes can certainly celebrate the saint’s day. It just means that the text and readings of the Mass (and Liturgy of the Hours) must be those of that Sunday. There’s nothing prohibiting (or even discouraging) other forms of celebration like processions, prayers after the Mass (maybe a litany or novena), special blessings, etc. etc. Other things certainly could be done.

I was especially wondering because by the saint’s feast day next year, I’ll be in a Vatican Order of Knighthood. Our Bishop invites members to wear their ceremonial vestments during this saint’s feast day Mass. It’ll be the first time after my Investiture that I’ll get to wear it, so I was wondering if I’ll get to do it next year or not.

They also bring out a major relic of the saint, and priests from around the diocese come in to concelebrate, but I’m guessing that’ll be impractical if it’s going to fall on a Sunday of the Easter Season next year since they’ll all have their own Sunday schedules at their own parishes. Usually the feast day is celebrated on the evening of the feast day, so the priests from around the diocese can come too.

Taking into account what you said, I guess everything could be done the same except that there wouldn’t be as many concelebrants.

 

[FrDavid96]

I was especially wondering because by the saint’s feast day next year, I’ll be in a Vatican Order of Knighthood. Our Bishop invites members to wear their ceremonial vestments during this saint’s feast day Mass. It’ll be the first time after my Investiture that I’ll get to wear it, so I was wondering if I’ll get to do it next year or not.

They also bring out a major relic of the saint, and priests from around the diocese come in to concelebrate, but I’m guessing that’ll be impractical if it’s going to fall on a Sunday of the Easter Season next year since they’ll all have their own Sunday schedules at their own parishes. Usually the feast day is celebrated on the evening of the feast day, so the priests from around the diocese can come too.

Taking into account what you said, I guess everything could be done the same except that there wouldn’t be as many concelebrants.

I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see until the schedule gets announced.

The only thing I can say is that there’s certainly no prohibition against celebrating the saint’s day. It just has to be done within certain parameters.

Most people would probably not notice that “the Collect today was an Easter one, not that of the saint” but instead would likely notice and remember that the saint was being celebrated.

It’s even possible for the bishop to request permission to celebrate the entire Mass as his feast day Mass (and might even already have it).

There’s nothing on the 2015 diocese calendar of events yet for his feast day.