3 Types of Catholic Feast Days: Solemnities, Feasts, and Memorials
If you're Catholic, then you know we celebrate various feast days throughout the liturgical year. Although we use the term "feast day" to refer to all the special holy days throughout the year, there are actually three different levels of feasts to mark the importance of the days: solemnity, feast, or memorial.
So, what's the difference between a solemnity, feast, and memorial?
Solemnity
A solemnity is celebrated just like a Sunday. There are three readings at Mass as well as the other prayers that are normally only said on Sundays. Solemnities include all Sundays, Holy Days of Obligation like Christmas and Easter, and feast days of saints that had a significant role in the life of Jesus Christ (like St. Joseph, St. Peter, and St. Paul).
Feast
Feasts are not as significant as solemnities, but they still mark very important mysteries of the life of Christ or the Virgin Mary and saints that were closely connected to Jesus. The Transfiguration and the Baptism of Our Lord, for example, are feasts. Feast days celebrating the Apostles are also feasts (except St. Peter and St. Paul who get a solemnity).
Memorial
Most saint feast days are actually memorials. They may have special readings or prayers, but you might not hear them at daily Mass. A memorial can actually be obligatory or optional. While an obligatory memorial doesn't mean you have to go to daily Mass, it does mean that the saint must be celebrated at Mass that day. An optional memorial means that the priest may decide not to celebrate the day's saint during Mass. So you may not hear about that saint on an optional memorial. St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine have obligatory memorials since they are universally recognized saints, while St. Andre Bessette, St. John Paul II, and Our Lady of Lourdes are all optional memorials.
The FOCUS blog has a great infographic that will be useful in distinguishing between each type of feast day here: https://focusoncampus.org/content/wha...
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