Discovering the Feast Days of the Church
Throughout the year, the Church sets aside particular days to celebrate important events in the life of Christ and Mary, to honour the saints, and to remember men and women whose lives of faith have helped shape the story of the Church.
These observances form part of the rhythm of the liturgical year. Some are great celebrations observed throughout the universal Church, while others commemorate particular saints, events or traditions.
They are given different levels of importance in the liturgical calendar — Solemnities, Feasts, Memorials and Optional Memorials — but each offers us an opportunity to pause, remember and learn.
Here at Our Lady Queen of Peace, we have begun creating a new Feast Days & Liturgical Highlights section on our parish website.
Each entry offers a short introduction to the day — who or what the Church is commemorating, why the observance matters, and some of the history behind it.
For the saints in particular, we also hope to look beyond names and dates and learn something about the people themselves: what their faith meant to them, how they lived it in the circumstances of their own time, the challenges they faced, and why their witness still has something to say to Catholics today.
This is very much a growing collection.
As the liturgical year continues, new feast days will be added, while some stories may also be expanded, as time allows, with additional history, images, archival material and other pieces of their story.
A short list of upcoming feast days will also appear on our Parish Calendar page, giving parishioners an at-a-glance look at the saints and observances coming up in the following days.
You may find the story of a saint you have known about all your life — or discover someone you have never encountered before.
For the full collection, stories and history behind each observance, visit our Feast Days & Liturgical Highlights page.
Please check back often. There is much more to come.
