Solemnity

In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite, a solemnity is a feast day of the highest rank celebrating a mystery of faith such as the Trinity, an event in the life of Jesus, his mother Mary, his earthly father Joseph, or another important saint. The observance begins with the vigil on the evening before the actual date of the feast. Unlike feast days of the rank of feast (other than feasts of the Lord) or those of the rank of memorial, solemnities replace the celebration of Sundays outside Advent, Lent, and Easter (those in Ordinary Time).

The word comes from postclassical Latin sollemnitas, meaning a solemnity, festival, celebration of a day.

Ranking

The solemnities of Nativity of the Lord, the Epiphany, the Ascension, and Pentecost are outranked only by the Paschal Triduum.

Other solemnities inscribed in the General Roman Calendar give way also to the following celebrations:

The Paschal Triduum

Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter

Ash Wednesday

Weekdays of Holy Week up to and including Thursday

Days within the Octave of Easter

Solemnities inscribed in particular calendars yield not only to these, but also to the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.

With the exceptions noted in the table below regarding the solemnities of Saint Joseph and the Annunciation of the Lord, a solemnity that falls on the same day as a celebration of higher rank is transferred to the next day not occupied by a solemnity, a Sunday or a feast.

Among solemnities inscribed in the General Roman Calendar, those of the Lord have precedence over those of the Blessed Virgin and these latter over solemnities of other saints. Thus if, for instance, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus coincides with that of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist or that of Saints Peter and Paul, it is these that are transferred to the next free day.

Among solemnities inscribed in particular calendars (proper solemnities) the order of precedence is:

The solemnity of the principal patron of the place, city or state

The solemnity of the dedication or anniversary of the dedication of one's own church

The solemnity of the title of one's own church (the mystery or saint to which it is dedicated)

The solemnity of either the title or the founder of a religious institute

List and dates

The solemnities inscribed in the General Roman Calendar and which are therefore observed throughout the Latin Church are indicated in the following list.

Date	Solemnity	Notes about date
1 January	Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God	Octave of Christmas, Circumcision of the Lord, New Year's Day
6 January	Epiphany of the Lord	Where not a holy day of obligation, transferred to the Sunday between 2 and 8 January, inclusive
19 March	Saint Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary	If the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, where observed as a holy day of obligation, coincides with Palm Sunday, it is, by exception to the general rule, anticipated to Saturday, 18 March; where not observed as a holy day of obligation, the episcopal conference may transfer it to a date outside Lent.
25 March	Annunciation of the Lord	If the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord falls on any day of Holy Week, it is always transferred to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter (30 March to 9 April), rather than, in accordance with the general rule, to the next day not occupied by a celebration with at least the rank of feast
(22 March to 25 April)	Resurrection of the Lord (Easter)	Concludes the Paschal Triduum that commemorates also the last supper, passion, death, burial and resurrection of Christ. See Computus for date computation. Begins Octave of Easter, eight consecutive days celebrated as one continuous solemnity, ending 29 March to 2 May. See also Resurrection of Jesus.
Thursday after the Sixth Sunday of Easter (40th day of Eastertide – 30 April to 3 June)	Ascension of the Lord	If not a holy day of obligation, transferred to replace the Seventh Sunday of Easter (3 May to 6 June)
50th day of Eastertide (10 May to 13 June)	Pentecost	(Whitsunday); always on a Sunday
Sunday after Pentecost (17 May to 20 June)	Trinity Sunday
Thursday after Trinity Sunday (21 May to 24 June)	Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ	"Corpus Christi"; in some dioceses, celebrated on the following Sunday (24 May to 27 June).
Friday (8 days after Corpus Christi Thursday, 5 days after Corpus Christi Sunday) (29 May to 2 July)	Feast of the Sacred Heart
24 June	Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
29 June	Feast of Saints Peter and Paul
15 August	Assumption of Mary
1 November	All Saints' Day
Last Sunday before Advent (20–26 November)	Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe	Replaces 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time
8 December	Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
25 December	Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)	everywhere a holy day of obligation; see also Nativity of Jesus

Proper solemnities

There are also solemnities not inscribed in the General Roman Calendar, which are observed in particular places, regions, churches or religious institutes. The optional memorial of Saint Patrick on 17 March is a solemnity in Ireland, the memorial of Saint Josemaría Escrivá on 26 June is a solemnity within the prelature of Opus Dei, and the optional memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on 16 July is a solemnity for the Carmelites.

A partial list of proper solemnities follows:

Date	Solemnity	Country or religious order
19 January	Saint Henry (bishop of Finland)	Finland
31 January	Don Bosco (Saint John Bosco)	Salesians of Don Bosco
1 March	Saint David	Wales
17 March	Saint Patrick	Ireland (holy day of obligation) and Australia
23 April	Saint George	England
23 April	Saint Adalbert of Prague	Poland
3 May	Our Lady, Queen of Poland	Poland
6 May (formerly 9 March)	Saint Dominic Savio	Salesians of Don Bosco
8 May	Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów	Poland
8 May	Our Lady of Luján (Nuestra Señora de Luján)	Argentina
24 May	Mary Help of Christians	Australia, Salesians of Don Bosco
24 May	Transfer of remains of Saint Dominic	Dominican Order (where 8 August is not a solemnity)
26 June	Saint Josemaría Escrivá	prelature of Opus Dei
3 July	Saint Thomas the Apostle	India and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (holy day of obligation in some Middle Eastern countries)
5 July	Saints Cyril and Methodius	Slovakia, Czech Republic
11 July	Saint Benedict of Nursia	Order of Saint Benedict
16 July	Our Lady of Mount Carmel	Carmelites, Discalced Carmelites, Bolivia, and Chile
20 July	Saint Elijah the Prophet	Carmelites (not discalced)
25 July	Saint James, son of Zebedee, the Apostle (Santiago el Mayor)	Spain (holy day of obligation)
29 July	King Saint Olaf II of Norway	Norway
31 July	Saint Ignatius of Loyola	Society of Jesus
8 August	Saint Mary MacKillop of the Cross	Australia
8 August	Saint Dominic	Dominican Order (where 24 May is not a solemnity)
11 August	Saint Clare of Assisi	Poor Clares and some other Franciscans
20 August	King Saint Stephen I of Hungary	Hungary
26 August	Black Madonna of Częstochowa	Poland
28 August	Saint Augustine of Hippo	Augustinians
30 August	Saint Rose of Lima	Peru
4 September (?)	Our Lady of Consolation	Augustinians
8 September	Nativity of Mary	Lithuania and Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (holy day of obligation in some Middle Eastern countries)
15 September	Our Lady of Sorrows	Slovakia
20 September	Saint Andrew Kim Taegon the Priest and Martyr	South Korea
28 September	Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia	Czech Republic
1 October	Saint Therese of Lisieux	Discalced Carmelites and France and some European Countries
4 October	Saint Francis of Assisi	Franciscan
12 October	Our Lady of Aparecida	Brazil
15 October	Teresa of Ávila	Discalced Carmelites
19 October (20 October in the United States)	Saint Paul of the Cross	Passionists
3 November	Saint Martin de Porres	Peru
16 November	Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn (Mother of Mercy)	Lithuania
19 November	Our Lady of Providence	Puerto Rico
30 November	Andrew the Apostle	Russia and Scotland
3 December	Saint Francis Xavier	India
12 December	Our Lady of Guadalupe	Mexico (holy day of obligation)
14 December	Saint John of the Cross	Discalced Carmelites

Observance

Even if it is a weekday, if the day is a Solemnity, then the Gloria is said, as well as the Creed at Mass, and there are two scriptural readings, not one, before the Gospel. Also, there will sometimes be processional and recessional hymns, and use of incense.

Some but not all solemnities are also holy days of obligation, on which, as on Sundays, Catholics are required to attend Mass and to avoid work and business that hinder divine worship or suitable relaxation of mind and body. All holy days of obligation have the rank of solemnity at least at local level, though not necessarily holding that rank in the General Roman Calendar. With the exception of the solemnities of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Annunciation of the Lord and the Birth of John the Baptist, all the solemnities inscribed in the General Roman Calendar are mentioned as holy days of obligation in canon 1246 of the Code of Canon Law, but are not necessarily all observed in a particular country.

When a solemnity falls on a Friday, the obligation to abstain from meat or some other food as determined by the episcopal conference does not apply.

See also

• Afterfeast
• Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church
• Liturgical year
• Holy day of obligation
• Octave (liturgical)
• Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite
• Synaxis

External links

• Universalis Liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite with the texts of the Liturgy of the Hours and of the readings at Mass.
• "Solemnity" article from The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)