By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
For Hawaii, the Vatican has upgraded the feast day of St. Damien, May 10, from an optional memorial to an obligatory memorial. This means that all Masses celebrated in Hawaii on that day — unless it falls on a Sunday — will have prayers that refer to Father Damien and readings selected for saints who were pastors.
The decree by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was dated Oct. 25, 2009, two weeks after Father Damien’s Oct. 11 canonization in Rome. It was granted at the request of Bishop Larry Silva.
An obligatory memorial is the third highest ranking of liturgical celebrations in the church. The highest is “solemnity,” followed by “feast.”
Examples of solemnities are All Saints Day (Nov. 1), the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25), St. Joseph (March 19), and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Jan. 1).
Examples of feasts are Holy Family (the Sunday after Christmas), the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan. 25), the Birth of Mary (Sept. 8), and the Visitation (May 31).
Obligatory memorials for the entire church include the Guardian Angels (Oct. 2), Our Lady of Sorrows (Sept. 15), St. Vincent de Paul (Sept. 27) and St. Augustine (Aug. 28).
“Optional memorials,” which are observable by the choice of the priest celebrating the Mass, include St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) and St. George (April 23).
The United States has about 20 memorials of its own, both obligatory and optional, for saints and blesseds who have some connection to the country. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s day (Jan. 4) and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (July 14) are national obligatory memorials. Blessed Junipero Serra (July 1), Independence Day (July 4), and St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (Nov. 18) are optional.
The memorial or feast day for a saint is traditionally the date of death — the day of birth into glory in heaven. St. Damien original memorial day was April 15, the day he died, but was changed to May 10, the day he stepped onto Molokai, at the request of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts.
According to Sacred Hearts Sister Helene Wood, superior of the Sacred Hearts Sisters in Hawaii, her order asked for the change because April 15 always fell during Lent, during which no obligatory memorials are celebrated.
The memorial day for Hawaii’s second sainthood candidate, Blessed Marianne Cope is celebrated in Hawaii and her home diocese of Syracuse, N.Y., and by her order of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities on Jan. 23, but is not yet on the U.S. church calendar. The Vatican issued a decree on Oct. 25, 2005, granting the placement of Blessed Marianne on the liturgical calendar of the Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y., as an optional memorial. A July 31, 2006, decree gave the same privilege to Hawaii. It generally takes five years after beatification before someone is approved for the national liturgical calendar. Mother Marianne was beatified in 2005.
Like Father Damien, Blessed Marianne’s day is not the day she died, Aug. 9. That date is the optional memorial for St. Teresa Benedict of the Cross (Edith Stein), a more well known 20th century saint. To avoid having two significant memorials on the same day, the Sisters of St. Francis asked the Vatican that Mother Marianne’s birthday, Jan. 23, be her special day.
Another optional memorial in Hawaii is July 9, the feast of Our Lady of Peace, the patroness of the Diocese of Honolulu.