Calendar of saints

A calendar of saints forms a way of organising a liturgical year on the finely-granulated level of days by assigning each day to association with a saint. This calendar system, when combined with major church festivals and movable and immovable feasts[?], constructs a very human and personalised yet often localised way of organising the year and identifying dates. Compare Roman Missal.

Medievalists[?] continue the old tradition of dating by saints' days: their works may appear "dated" as "The Feast of Saint Martin" or "Lammastide". Poets such as John Keats commemorate the importance of The Eve of Saint Agnes. Many children acquire baptismal or confirmational names from the saint associated with their date of birth, baptism or confirmation, and believing Eastern Orthodox Christians mark the "name day" of the saint whose name they bear with special attention.

Some traditional dates (Roman Catholic unless otherwise indicated) include:

• January 21: Saint Agnes
• January 25: Saint Paul of Tarsus
• February 4: Saint Ansgar
• February 14: Saint Valentine
• March 1: Saint David
• March 17: Saint Patrick
• March 19: Saint Joseph of Nazareth
• April 11: Saint Leo I
• April 14: Saint Timothy
• April 23: Saint George
• April 25: Saint Mark the Evangelist
• May 3: Saint Philip and Saint James[?]
• May 14: Saint Matthias the Apostle
• June 11: Saint Barnabas the Apostle
• June 20: Saint Adalbert of Magdeburg
• June 24: Saint John the Baptist
• June 29: Saint Peter and Saint Paul
• July 3: Saint Thomas the Apostle
• July 15: Saint Swithun (Anglican Church)
• July 15: Saint Vladimir the Great (Eastern Orthodox churches)
• July 22: Saint Mary Magdalene
• July 25: Saint James the Great
• July 31: Saint Ignatius of Loyola
• August 20: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
• August 24: Saint Bartholomew the Apostle
• September 21: Saint Matthew the Evangelist
• September 29: Saint Michael the Archangel
• September 30: Saint Jerome
• October 7: Saint Birgitta
• October 18: Saint Luke the Evangelist
• October 28: Saint Simon[?] and Saint Jude[?]
• November 1: All Saints
• November 11: Saint Martin of Tours
• November 23: Saint Clement I
• November 30: Saint Andrew the Apostle
• December 6: Saint Nicholas
• December 13: Saint Lucy of Syracuse
• December 26: Saint Stephen
• December 27: Saint John the Evangelist

See also: Namesdays in Sweden