Calendar of Feasts and Memorials
Documents regarding the New Liturgical Calendar:
Letter to the Order from Fr. Michael Farrugia O. Carm.
Decree on the Calendarium proprium
January 3 Optional Memorial in the regions of India
Saint Kuriakos Elias Chavara, co-founder and first prior general of the congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, was born at Kainakary in Kerala, India, on 10 February 1805.
January 8 Feast
Born in Perigod, France, around 1305, Saint Peter Thomas joined the Carmelite Order when twenty years of age.
January 9 Feast
Born in Florence at the beginning of the 14th century, he entered religious life in the Carmelite house in his native city.
January 20 Optional Memorial
(Obligatory Memorial in the Italian Provinces)
Angelo was born on September 1, 1642. His life can be divided into two periods: the years spent in his religious province of Tuscany, and those spent in Rome
29 January Optional Memorial in the Italian Provinces
Bl. Archangela Girlani was born Elanor Girliani in 1460 at Trino, on Monte Ferrato in northern Italy to a noble family.
1 February Optional Memorial in Latin America
Bl Candelaria was born Susana Paz-Castillo Ramírez in 1863. She enthusiastically welcomed the call of God to holiness, and since her youth, stood out in practicing living and effective charity,
19 March Solemnity
This celebration has profound Biblical roots; Joseph is the last Patriarch who receives the communications of the Lord through the humble way of dreams (cf. Gn 28, 12-14; Mt 1, 20-24).
7 November Optional Memorial in the Provinces of Spain
Francis Palau y Quer was born on 29th December 1811 at Aytona in Spain.
17 April Memorial
Born in Mantua on 17th April 1447, Bl. Baptist's father was of Spanish origin. He entered the Carmelites in Ferrara and professed his religious vows in 1464.
4 May Optional Memorial
(Obligatory Memorial in the Provinces of Spain)
In 1936, thirty-six Spanish religious, members of various Carmelite communities, gave their lives in defense and witness of their Christian faith and consecration to Jesus Christ.
5 May Memorial
Angelus is thought to have been one of the first Carmelites to return to Sicily from Mount Carmel and, according to a long-standing tradition, he was murdered in Licata during the first half of the 13th century.
8 May Optional Memorial
Information about the Blessed comes from witness statements gathered for the Acts of the 1533 diocesan process for the beatification of Aloysius Rabatà. The Acts do contain, as expected, details about his character, the works he performed, and his death as well as his physical appearance and his eating habits.
9 May Optional Memorial
(Obligatory Memorial in the province of Malta)
Saint George Preca was born in Malta on 12 February 1880. He lived in Valletta, the capital of Malta, near the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
16 May Optional Memorial
(Obligatory Memorial the province of Great Britain)
As far as can be ascertained from the earliest references, Simon Stock was an English Prior General, known for his holy way of life, who died about 1265 in Bordeaux in France.
22 May Optional Memorial
Saint Joachina was born on April 16, 1783 in Barcelona, Spain. She wanted to become a Carmelite cloistered nun but was rejected due to her young age.
25 May Feast
Mary Magdalene bore the surname of the noble family of Pazzi in Florence. Already by the 15th century, the Pazzi family exercised great political power.
12 June Optional Memorial
Hilary Januszewski was born on 11 June 1907 in Krajenki (Poland) and was given the name of Pawel. He received a Christian education from his parents, Martin and Marianne.
14 June Memorial
"Elisha came to Elijah, who threw his cloak over him and he, abandoned the oxen, followed Elijah and became his servant" (1 Kgs 19: 19, 21).
4 July Optional Memorial in the Italian provinces
Mother M. Crocifissa Curcio was born on 30 January 1877 in Ispica (Rg), Italy. From the time of her adolescence she realised that she was called to follow Christ in a radical manner,
9 July Optional Memorial
Born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 1439, Bl. Jane Scopelli began her religious life at home living as a Carmelite mantellata (member of a Carmelite lay confraternity, wearing the white cloak or mantella).
13 July Optional Memorial in Latin America
Juana Fernandez Solar was born on 13th July 1900 at Santiago in Chile, to Christian middle-class parents. Two days after her birth, she was baptized.
16 July Solemnity
Sacred Scripture exalts the beauty of Mount Carmel, there where Prophet Elisha defended the purity of the faith of Israel in the living God. In those places, at the beginning of the XIII century the Carmelite Order, had, as to say its juridical origin, under the title of Blessed Mary of Carmel.
17 July Optional Memorial
These were a community of sixteen Discalced Carmelite nuns from the monastery of the Incarnation at Compiégne in France.
20 July Solemnity
Elijah's memory was kept alive especially on Mount Carmel where he challenged the people to stop hobbling first on one foot and then on the other but to choose who is God in Israel - Yahweh or Baal.
24 July Memorial
John Soreth was born near Caen in Normandy in 1394 and entered the Carmelite house there. Ordained priest around 1417, he became a doctor of theology in Paris in 1438.
26 July Memorial
The names of the parents of Mary are known from the apocryphal “Proto-Gospel of James” (II century).
27 July Obligatory Memorial (Feast: Ger, Phil, Del Colombia)
Born in the Frisian city of Bolsward, Holland, in 1881, St. Titus Brandsma joined the Carmelites in 1898 at the age of 17. He made his first profession in 1899 and then he was ordained to the priesthood in 1905.
7 August Feast
Born in Trapani (Scilia) in the 13th century. He distinguished himself for his dediction to mendicant preaching and the notoriety of his miracles. In the years 1280 and 1289 he was in Trapani and shortly afterwards in Messina.
9 August Memorial
(Feast in the provinces of Europe: Patron of Europe)
Edith Stein was born at Breslau on 12th October 1891 to German Jewish parents, and after her secondary education, she enroled in the department of philosophy in the city university.
12 August Optional Memorial
Bl. Isidore Bakanja, a member of the Boangi tribe, was born in Bokendela (Congo) between 1880 and 1890. In order to survive, even as a boy, he had to work as bricklayer or in farms.
17 August Optional Memorial
The year of birth of Bl. Angelus Mazzinghi in Florence, Italy, or nearby, is unknown but it was certainly before 1386. He was received into the Order in 1413.
25 August Optional Memorial
Mariam Baouardy was born at Abellin in Galilee on 5th January 1846 to very poor parents who were good living and devoted Greek-rite Catholics.
26 August Optional Memorial
Bl. Jacques Retouret was born at Limoges in France on 15th September 1746 to a merchant family. He was a serious young man, a lover of books and greatly gifted. At fifteen years of age, he entered the Carmelite house in his native city.
1 September Optional Memorial
Saint Teresa Margaret Redi was born in Arezzo on 1st September 1747 into the noble family of Redi. In 1764, she entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Florence, changing her baptismal name of Anna Maria to that of Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
17 September Feast
Saint Albert was born towards the middle of the 12th century in Castel Gualtieri in Emilia, Italy. He entered the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross at Mortara, Pavia, and became Prior there in 1180.
1 October Feast
Saint Thérèse was born at Alençon in France on 2nd January 1873. Her parents were Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin. After the death of her mother on 28th August 1877, Thérèse and her family moved to Lisieux.
15 October Feast
Known to her family as Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, she became the reformer of Carmel, mother of the Discalced Carmelite nuns and friars, "spiritual mother" (as is engraved under her statue in the Vatican Basilica), patron of Catholic writers (from 1965) and Doctor of the Church (1970)
5 November Optional Memorial
Bl. Frances D'Amboise was born in 1427, probably at Thouars, France. At fifteen years of age, she was married to Peter II, Duke of Brittany and crowned with him in the cathedral at Rennes in 1450. She was widowed in 1457.
6 November Memorial
Nuno Álvares Pereira was born in Portugal on 24th June 1360, most probably at Cernache do Bomjardin, son of Brother Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira, Hospitalier Knight of St. John of Jerusalem.
8 November Optional Memorial
Elizabeth Catez was born on 18th July 1880 in Campo d'Avor near Bourges, France, and she was baptized four days later. In 1887, her family moved to Dijon where her father died the same year.
13 November Optional Memorial in the Italian Provinces
Maria Teresa Scrilli (1825-1889) founded the Congregation at Montevarchi (Arezzo) on October 15, 1854, with the approval of the Bishop of Fiesole, the superiors of the Order, and with the agreement of the Grand Duke Leopold II.
14 November Feast
"Like the prophet Elijah, all the Saints of Carmel have been shaped through a school of spiritual fire. They also intimated the example of Mary and made their truest expression in the experience of love and that love makes the history of the Order.
15 November Optional Memorial
The Order of Carmel continues to grow and develop today because of the presence and contributions of all those who built upon its spiritual foundations, and not just its great saints.
19 November Optional Memorial in the province of Poland
Raphael of St. Joseph (in lay life: Joseph Kalinowski) was born at Vilna to a Polish family on 1st September 1835 and died at Wadowice on 15th November 1907.
29 November Optional Memorial
The two left Goa with the delegation on Sept. 25, 1638, and after a successful voyage arrived at Achén on Oct. 25. The joy with which they were received was feigned; they were soon made prisoners.
5 December Optional Memorial
A native of Mantua, Italy, he was a Carmelite in the Mantuan Congregation and already ordained priest by 1452.
14 December Feast
Saint John was born, probably in 1540, in Fontiveros, near Avila in Spain. In Medina in 1563 he was clothed in the Carmelite habit and, after a year's novitiate, was given permission to follow the unmitigated Carmelite Rule.
