CANTUS Logo

Liturgical Occasions (Feasts)
in the Cantus Database

The Liturgical Occasion Tables

The Sanctorale table includes the occasions for named saints, as well as the commune and memorials.  The Temporale table lists the liturgical occasions for the remainder of the year, as well as several "liturgical-occasion names" with their codes which are used as specific identifiers within the Cantus database (i.e., lacuna, palimpsest, etc.).  Click below for the desired table:

Temporale

Sanctorale


An introduction to the names and abbreviations that are used for liturgical occasions within the Cantus database:

The liturgical occasion names are in Latin; for the most part they are those employed by Hesbert in Corpus Antiphonalium Officii. When there is a choice between variants of the name of a saint not included in any of the sources surveyed in CAO, the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (Brussels: Society of Bollandists, 1898-1901) has been consulted.

Because the Cantus file structure provides only twenty characters in the field for liturgical occasions, many designations are extremely abbreviated. For this reason, each entry in the tables referenced here includes the liturgical-occasion name used within the Cantus database, an English translation of it, and a month and day for the occasion, if applicable.   Also included are the eight-digit "Liturgical Occasion Codes" found in the 144-column versions of the Cantus indices (see below for details).  These are some of the most commonly-used abbreviations:
 

Oct. X
 Octave of feast X 
X,8
 During the Octave of feast X 
Die 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, p. X
 First day, second day, etc. of feast X 
Fer. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. 
Sabb.
 "Sabbato" or Saturday
Dom.
 "Dominica" (Sunday) or "Domini" (of the Lord) 
Invent.
 "Inventio" (finding of a saint's relics)
Transl.
 "Translatio" (moving of a saint's relics) 

Please note the distinction between "Oct." and ",8" -- the former specifically designates the single day that falls one week after the original feast (the Octave), while the latter designates the entire week following the original feast (including the Octave).

There is also an important distinction between "Die 2" and "Fer. 2" ("Feria 2"): "Die 2" means "day 2" or the day after a feast; "Feria 2" means "day 2 of the week," i.e., Monday. The former usually applies to feasts that move throughout the week (e.g., Christmas) while the latter applies to feasts that do not (e.g., Easter Sunday or Ascension Thursday).

Saints' designations include the most common anglicized version of the name and Latin or orthographic variants as space allows, their type, and their feast day. For example:
 

Aegidii Aegidius (Giles), Abbot Sep.1
Praejecti Praejectus (Prix), Bishop Martyr Jan.25

It should be noted that in the Middle Ages, feast days for saints were not as stable as they are now, and sometimes varied from place to place; moreover, some dates have been changed since Vatican II. Thus, some of the dates in this file may not reflect the practices recorded by the manuscripts we have indexed; for possible local variations, please consult F. G. Holweck, A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Company, 1924; reprinted, Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1969).
 

Liturgical Occasion Codes:

These eight-digit codes provide a unique identification number for every day in the liturgical calendar.  The first two digits refer to the season or section of the calendar:  01 represents Advent, 07 Lent, 08 Easter and Paschal Time, 10 Historiae, 12 Commune, 14 Sanctorale, etc..  The remaining six digits function in various ways, depending on the type of occasion (movable or of fixed date).  For the Sanctorale (fixed dates, for the most part), they identify the month and day.  For movable occasions, these digits may identify the liturgical season in which the chant is intended to be sung, or may be applied arbitrarily.  For more information concerning these codes, please contact the Cantus research office.