Beginning in 2025, Pope Francis said local churches will remember their local saints every Nov 9, those spiritual individuals who have “marked the Christian journey and local spirituality” and “enriched history.”
In a letter published Nov 16, the pope emphasized that the call to holiness is at the heart of Christian life. “Holiness is not just the result of human effort, but making space for the action of God,” he explained. Thus, saints and blesseds are given to Christians “to be examples of life and intercessors.”
Furthermore, he added, they are “friends, companions on the journey who help us fully realize our baptismal vocation.”
Transmitting Christian memory and finding “sure guides”
More broadly, the pope mentioned at the beginning of his letter “the ‘everyday’ and ‘next door’ holiness with which the church is enriched worldwide”: couples who have lived their love faithfully, fathers and mothers who have “supported their families and contributed to the spread of the Kingdom of God,” priests, religious brothers, and sisters who have “bestowed grace upon God’s holy people” and “have been a living image of Christ the Bridegroom.”
Also, he continued, the poor and sick who “found support in the Divine Master” must not be forgotten.
Local churches can honor their prominent or lesser-known saintly figures during the homily on that day or “through appropriate initiatives” outside the liturgy. For Francis, rediscovering and transmitting the memory of these “extraordinary disciples of Christ” is a way of finding “sure guides” who protect and support today’s Christians, inspiring in them the desire and aspiration to become holy themselves. – La Croix International
