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
May 19: Saint Dunstan
June 11: Saint Barnabas the Apostle
June 20: Saint Adalbert of Magdeburg
June 22: Saint Alban
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 13: Saint John Chrysostom
September 21: Saint Matthew the Evangelist
September 29: Michael the Archangel
September 30: Saint Jerome
October 4: Saint Francis of Assisi
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 3: Saint Francis Xavier
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