Holy Women, Holy Men

Celebrating the Saints

Church Publishing

Copyright © 2010 The Church Pension Fund
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-89869-637-0

Contents

Foreword……………………………………………………………………………viiPreface…………………………………………………………………………….ixThe Calendar of the Church Year……………………………………………………….3The Weekdays of Advent and Christmas until the Baptism of Christ………………………….23The Weekdays of Lent…………………………………………………………………31The Weekdays of Easter Season…………………………………………………………67Holy Women, Holy Men…………………………………………………………………87Appendix……………………………………………………………………………708The Commons…………………………………………………………………………709The Common of Saints from the Book of Common Prayer……………………………………..711New Commons for Various Occasions……………………………………………………..727Guidelines and Procedures for Continuing Alteration of the Calendar……………………….741A Six-Week Eucharistic Lectionary with Daily Themes and Suggested Collects…………………747A Two-Year Weekday Eucharistic Lectionary………………………………………………753Index………………………………………………………………………………779

Preface

“There the Lord will permit us, so far as possible, to gather together in joy and gladness to celebrate the day of his martyrdom as a birthday, in memory of those athletes who have gone before, and to train and make ready those who are to come hereafter.” (Martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, A.D.156)

From its earliest days the Church has rejoiced to recognize and commemorate those faithful departed who were extraordinary or even heroic servants of God and of God’s people for the sake, and after the example, of their Savior Jesus Christ. By this recognition and commemoration, their devoted service endures in the Spirit, even as their example and fellowship continue to nurture the pilgrim Church on its way to God.

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Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints marks a further stage in the recovery within the Episcopal Church of the liturgical commemoration of the saints.

The first English Book of Common Prayer (1549) retained a small number of the many feasts contained in the Calendar of the Sarum Missal. All but one of these were major Holy Days directly linked to the New Testament; no post-Biblical saints were included. The 1662 Prayer Book, which Anglicans living in the American colonies used in the decades preceding independence, listed the names of sixty-seven saints in its Calendar, but made no provision for their liturgical commemoration.

The first American Book of Common Prayer (1789) listed no minor Holy Days (lesser feasts) in its Calendar, and this continued to be the case in the 1892 and 1928 Prayer Books. Only in 1964 did things change. In that year General Convention approved the inclusion in the Calendar of more than a hundred saints’ days with liturgical propers to facilitate their commemoration in the Church’s worship. Since then the number of saints listed in the Calendar has gradually increased, and as a consequence Lesser Feasts and Fasts has been revised every three years to take account of these additions.

In 2003 General Convention called for a wide-ranging revision of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, a revision ample enough “to reflect our increasing awareness of the ministry of all the people of God and of the cultural diversity of the Episcopal Church, of the wider Anglican Communion, of our ecumenical partners, and of our lively experience of sainthood in local communities.” Several years of extensive study and consultation led to the submission of Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints which was approved for trial use by General Convention in July 2009. None of the commemorations listed in Lesser Feasts and Fasts has been omitted, and just over a hundred new commemorations have been added (almost identical to the number added in 1964).

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews said: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb.12:1-2a). The greatly enriched Calendar contained within these covers gives flesh-and-blood reality to that host of witnesses which is not restricted by ordained status, denomination, gender, culture, or professional calling. The more faithfully this Calendar is observed, the more intimately will we be introduced to an extraordinary array of men and women who, like us, were all created by the Father, all baptized into the Son, and all empowered by the Spirit for ministry in the most diverse of settings and circumstances.

In these saints we encounter not models of absolute perfection but men and women whose lives, with all their diversity of gifts and graces, were reshaped by God’s redemptive activity. May we take heart as we realize that, in spite of their failings and ours, we are all alike redeemed sinners called to be saints, those in whom the risen Christ’s words to St. Paul come to fulfillment: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

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The lesser feasts listed in Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints are commended for optional observance and are not intended in any way to detract from the primacy of Sunday and the celebration of the major Holy Days.

To assist the liturgical commemoration of these saints’ days, Collects in both traditional and modern language have been provided in every case, along with three Scripture readings, should such be needed for a full Eucharistic celebration. An appropriate Preface has been suggested, and a biography of the person or persons being commemorated is also provided.

On some occasions two or more persons are to be commemorated jointly and consequently they share the same Proper; on other occasions two separate commemorations occur on the same day and they each have their own Proper. The decision will need to be made in each worshiping community as to which of the two commemorations will be observed on this day in a particular year.

Additional Commons have also been approved by General Convention and are included here.

As with past editions of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, this volume contains Lessons and Psalms for the weekdays of the Advent, Christmas (until the Baptism of Christ), Lent and Easter Seasons. A six-week Eucharistic Lectionary and a two-year Weekday Eucharistic Lectionary are also to be found here.

A debt of gratitude is owed to the many people who shaped the Calendar, composed the Collects, selected the Lessons and wrote the biographies contained in Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. Their devoted work over several years is deeply appreciated.

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