Above: "Before Martyrdom" (2026) by artist Clorinda Galdos Bell. (OSV News photo/courtesy Clorinda Galdos Bell) Photo credit.
XXII Sunday after Pentecost
XXX Sunday Tempus per Annuam (aka “Ordinary Time”)
The Culture of Romanitas
* Old Roman Rite: also known as the “Latin Mass,” “Tridentine Mass,” “Mass of St. Pius V,” or the “Ancient Roman Rite”
* New Roman Rite: also known as the “English Mass,” “Novus Ordo Missae,” “Mass of St. Paul VI,” or the “New Mass.”
* East Roman Rite: also known as the Byzantine Rite, the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom / St. Basil, or the Greek or Slavic rite.[1]
An important thing to note here is that both old and new Roman rites contain ancient and modern elements.
* The old Roman rite contains ancient things, like the pre-Lenten Sundays, but also modern feasts, like the Feast of the Precious Blood.
* The new Roman rite restores ancient things, like lectio continua (the Biblical mind of the Church Fathers), or the spirituality of the Paschal Mystery and salvific efficacy of the Resurrection. But it also contains modern things like the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church.
MONDAY October 26
· St. Demetrios the Great Martyr, Myrrh-gusher (East)
TUESDAY October 27 – Vigil of Ss. Simon & Jude (Holy Day of Opportunity)
· Servant of God Camilla Nikolaevna Kruszelnicka – shot by Soviets on this day in 1937.
WEDNESDAY October 28 – Apostles Ss. Simon & Jude
· “In Persia, the birthday of the blessed Apostles Simon the Canaanite and Thaddeus, who is also called Jude; Simon preached the Gospel in Egypt and Thaddeus in Mesopotamia, and then they both entered Persia and suffered martyrdom there, after having made subject an innumerable multitude of that people to the yoke of Christ” (Roman Martyrology)
THURSDAY October 29
· Blessed Chiara Badano (1971-1990) – Italian young woman died of painful bone cancer and lived in abandonment to divine providence. Beatified by Pope Benedict
FRIDAY October 30
· St. Marcellus the Centurion
· St. Alphonsus Rodriguez (1617) – widower, lay brother (birthday into eternity Halloween)
SATURDAY October 31 – the Halloween Triduum
· The Beatification of the Georgian Martyrs
* Franciscans evangelising up the coast from Spanish Florida (St. Augustine)
* Martyred in odium fidei in September 1597
* Primary issue was polygamy and divorce/remarriage
* Approved under Pope Francis January of 2025
[1] The term “Byzantine” was originally a pejorative term when it began to be used by western Christians in the 16th centuries. The “Greeks” who lived in New Rome (Constantinople) and its surrounding regions called themselves “Romans” and their emperor was called the “Roman Emperor” for centuries. Nowadays, the term “Byzantine” is used by most Catholics without any pejorative meaning. Nevertheless the term feels foreign to many. Moreover, it is important to the liturgical controversies of our time to emphasize the Roman character of this rite, since the new Roman rite borrows from this rite in many significant ways (for example, the custom of standing for Holy Communion, or the formula for Confirmation). This is a subject for another book, but this is the term that will be used in this book for the purposes already stated.
