VATICAN: Pope Francis Adds Feast Day of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus to Church’s Liturgical Calendar
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Pope Francis has added in the Church’s calendar the feast day of St. Mary and St. Lazarus into that of St. Martha which is normally commemorated July 29.
In a decree released Tuesday, February 2, the leadership of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments notes that Pope Francis has acknowledged the significance of the three siblings’ evangelical witness and that the indecision on Mary’s identity that led to adding St. Martha alone in the General Roman calendar has now been resolved.
The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, which designates annual dates of celebration of saints and mysteries of the Lord in the Roman Rite, wherever this liturgical rite is in use.
“The traditional uncertainty of the Latin Church about the identity of Mary Magdalene to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection, the sister of Martha and the woman whose sins the Lord had forgiven – which resulted in the inclusion of Martha alone on 29 July in the Roman Calendar, has been resolved in recent studies and times, as attested by the current Roman Martyrology, which also commemorates Mary and Lazarus on that day,” reads part of the decree and adds, “In some particular calendars the three siblings are already celebrated together.”
In the co-signed document by Robert Cardinal Sarah and Archbishop Arthur Roche the Prefect and Secretary of the Congregation of Divine Worship respectively, the Church highlighted that “considering the important evangelical witness they offered in welcoming the Lord Jesus into their home, in listening to him attentively, in believing that he is the resurrection and the life, and accepting the proposal of this Dicastery,” the Pontiff, “has decreed that 29 July be designated in the General Roman Calendar as the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus.”
The Pope’s decree explains further that “In the household of Bethany the Lord Jesus experienced the family spirit and friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.”
“Martha generously offered him hospitality, Mary listened attentively to his words and Lazarus promptly emerged from the tomb at the command of the One who humiliated death,” the decree adds.
According to the decree, the Memorial must therefore be added in the calendars and Liturgical books for the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours and must also be “adopted in the liturgical texts, attached to the present decree, must be translated, approved and, after confirmation by this Dicastery, published by the Episcopal Conferences.”
In a separate decree also released on Tuesday, February 2, Pope Francis has inscribed celebration of three other Saints in the Roman calendar as Doctors of the Church. Saint Gregory of Narek Abbot and Doctor of the Church will be on 27 February; Saint John De Avila, Priest and Doctor of the Church, on 10 May; and Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church on 17 September. The three Saints were declared doctors of the Church for their important contribution on the theology and spirituality.
According to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, those given the title of “Doctor of the Church” exemplify the “link between holiness and understanding of things divine and also human.”
“Indeed, the wisdom that characterizes these men and women is not solely theirs, since by becoming disciples of divine wisdom, they have themselves become teachers of wisdom for the entire ecclesial community,” reads the decree and continues, “It is in this light that the holy ‘doctors’ are inscribed in the General Roman Calendar.”
