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What is a Saint's Day actually the anniversary of?

This is something that I have never really understood. Is a Saint's official Feast celebrated on their birthday, the day they died, they day they did the special thing that earned them sainthood or the day the Church officially recognised them as a Saint? Any of te four would seem to make the same amount of sense .....

For instance, was St George born on 23 April, did he die on 23 April, did he kill the dragon on 23 April or was 23 April the day the the Church made him a Saint?

Also, do different Churches have different rules for determining Feast Days? If the Roman Catholic Church admitted a new Saint, could he Church of England admit the same person as a Saint but with a different Feast Day?

10 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    3 years ago

    Typically, they are observed on the holidays of the people the christians conquered. A little tactic to partially incorporate native religions into the fold by renaming their deities as saints and repurposing their holidays as saints days, thus the people continue worshiping their own religion in secret, but a few generations later their children have no idea any religion other than christianity was ever involved. Examples include St. Patrick's Day, Christmas and Easter.

  • 3 years ago

    Traditionally a saint's day is the day of his death.

  • Anonymous
    3 years ago

    Satan's birthday -.-

  • ?
    Lv 7
    3 years ago

    You mean All Saints' Day. It's not an anniversary. It's in honor of the Catholic saints who didn't make it on the liturgical calendar. Saints are commemorated on every day of the year.

    Source(s): Greek Orthodox Christian
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  • 3 years ago

    Originally, only martyrs were made saints, and the saint's feast day was the day he or she was martyred. The tradition continued, with non-martyrs feast days still being their death dates.

    As there became more and more saints with feast days, steps were taken to try and avoid duplicates, so feast days were named NEAR their death dates, but not precisely on them.

    One reason there was argument among early Christians about even celebrating Christmas was because it was viewed as traditionally pagan to observe a deity's birth date - Christians observed martyrdom instead.

  • Anonymous
    3 years ago

    There’s a calendar made that every day there is a saint that died which is assigned to the day you are born. At childbirth, supposedly that child is already assigned a saint.

  • 3 years ago

    All the Saints who numbered beyond 365 had to have a day ( !0/31 ) to be celebrated ; probably so they wont haunt the Trick or Treaters .

  • User
    Lv 7
    3 years ago

    Most saint's days originally **commemorate the saint**.

    They typically are not on the anniversary of any particular event, nor are they intended to be.

    - Note that the same can be said for Christmas. It is the day that, traditionally, the birth of Jesus is celebrated, but it is NOT the anniversary of the date of Jesus' birth.

    Some saint's days commemorate a particular event in the saint's life (again, similarly, Christmas), but that is the exception rather than the rule.

  • Anonymous
    3 years ago

    Your birthday.

  • The feast day is generally the day the particular Saint died but if day of death is unknown the church just assigns a date on the calendar

    For example Saint Valentine was martyred on February 14th (which became Feast of Saint Valentine) aka Valentines Day

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_of_saints

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