General Roman Calendar
The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgical rite is in use. These celebrations are a fixed annual date; or occur on a particular day of the week (examples are the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in January and the Feast of Christ the King in November); or relate to the date of Easter (examples are the celebrations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of  Mary). National and diocesan calendars, including that of the diocese of Rome itself as well as the calendars of religious institutes and even of continents, add other saints and mysteries or transfer the celebration of a particular saint or mystery from the date assigned in the General Calendar to another date. These liturgical calendars also indicate the degree or rank of each celebration: Memorial (which can be merely optional), Feast, or Solemnity. Among other differences, the Gloria is said or sung at the Mass of a Feast but not at that of a Memorial, and the Creed is added on  Solemnities. The last general revision of the General Roman Calendar was in 1969 and was authorized by the motu proprio "Mysterii Paschalis" of Paul VI. The motu proprio and the decree of promulgation were included in the book "Calendarium Romanum", published in the same year by Libreria Editrice Vaticana. This contained also the official document "Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar", and the list of celebrations of the General Roman Calendar. Both these documents are also printed (in their present revised form) in the "Roman Missal", after the "General Instruction of the Roman Missal". The 1969 book  also provided a detailed unofficial commentary on that year's revision of the calendar. The contents of the General Roman Calendar and the names in English of the celebrations included in it are here indicated in the official English version of the Roman Missal. Selection of saints included. The General Roman Calendar assigns celebrations of saints to only about half the days of the year and contains only a fraction of the saints listed in the 776-page volume "Roman Martyrology", which itself is not an exhaustive list of all the saints legitimately venerated in the Catholic Church. The Martyrology  assigns several saints to each day of the year and gives a very brief description of each saint or group of saints. While canonization involves the addition of the saint's name to the Roman Martyrology, it does not necessarily involve the insertion of the saint's name also into the General Roman Calendar, which mentions only a very limited selection of canonized saints. There is a common misconception that certain saints, (e.g., Christopher) were "unsainted" in 1969 or that veneration of them was "suppressed". In fact, Christopher is recognized as a saint of the Catholic Church, being listed as  a martyr in the Roman Martyrology under 25 July. In 1969, Paul VI issued the motu proprio "Mysterii Paschalis". In it, he recognized that, while the written "Acts of Saint Christopher" are merely legendary, attestations to the veneration of the martyr date from ancient times. His change in the calendar of saints included "leaving the memorial of Saint Christopher to local calendars" because of the relatively late date of its insertion into the Roman calendar. Many sources give calendars that mention one or more saints for each day of the year, usually selected from those listed in the Roman Martyrology . One example is "Saints by Day". They mention the saints of the General Roman Calendar, but they also give names of saints not included in the General Roman Calendar, especially on a day to which the General Roman Calendar assigns no celebration whatever of a saint. The liturgical year. In the liturgical books, the document "General Roman Calendar" (which lists not only fixed celebrations but also some moveable ones) is printed immediately after the document "Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar", which states that "throughout the course of the year the Church unfolds the entire mystery of  Christ and observes the birthdays of the Saints". The birth of a saint to heaven is as a rule celebrated on a fixed day of the year (although sometimes they may be moved either to or from a Sunday), but the mysteries of Christ are often celebrated on dates that always vary from year to year. The Catholic Church's year combines two cycles of liturgical celebrations. One has been called the Proper of Time or Temporale, associated with the moveable date of Easter and the fixed date of Christmas. The other is associated with fixed calendar dates and has  been called the Proper of Saints or Sanctorale. The General Roman Calendar includes celebrations that belong to the Proper of Time or Temporale and is not limited to those that make up the Proper of Saints or Sanctorale. An instance where two observances occur on the same date is called an occurrence. The document on the liturgical year and the calendar includes among "liturgical days": Under the title "The Cycle of the Year" the same document arranges under seven headings the church's celebration of "the whole mystery of Christ, from the Incarnation to Pentecost Day and the days of  waiting for the Advent of the Lord": Transfer of celebrations. Some celebrations listed in the General Roman Calendar are transferred to another date: Solemnities that fall on certain Sundays or on days within Holy Week or the Octave of Easter are transferred to the next day that is free for them, and special rules govern the transfer of the Solemnities of Joseph and of the Annunciation of the Lord. Particular calendars. The General Calendar is printed, for instance, in the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours. These are up to date when printed, but additional feasts may be  added later. For that reason, if those celebrating the liturgy have not inserted into the books a note about the changes, they must consult the current annual publication, known as the "Ordo", for their country or religious congregation. These annual publications, like those that, disregarding the feasts that are obligatory in the actual church where the liturgy is celebrated, list only celebrations included in the General Calendar, are useful only for the current year, since they omit celebrations impeded because of falling on a Sunday or during periods such as Holy Week and the Octave of Easter. The feast days  of saints celebrated in one country are not necessarily celebrated everywhere. For example, a diocese or a country may celebrate the feast day of a saint of special importance there. These differences can give rise to complicated situations. Three examples follow: (1) Saint Patrick is a Solemnity in Ireland, Australia, and the Archdiocese of Boston, a Feast in England, New Zealand, Nigeria, and Scotland, an optional Memorial in the General Calendar, but not celebrated at all in Japan, where a different local celebration with the rank of Feast on 17 March has replaced Patrick without assigning his observance to any  other day. In many places, as shown in this article, additional saints are added as alternate optional memorials on 17 March, giving rise to the possibility of Patrick being celebrated in a particular parish in one year and the other optional memorial in a different parish or in another year. In Wales it has the General Calendar rank of Optional Memorial, except in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham where it is a Feast. (2) Our Lady of Guadalupe is an Optional Memorial in the General Calendar, but a Feast in Mexico, the United States of America, and  several other countries. (3) St. Elizabeth Ann Seton does not appear in the General Calendar at all, but is an Obligatory Memorial in the United States. Likewise, a particular religious institute may celebrate its founder or members of the institute, even if that saint is not listed on the universal calendar or is included in it only with a lower rank. Here St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is also an example, observed as a Memorial by the Vincentian Family even outside the United States. The "General Roman Calendar" contains only those celebrations that are intended to be observed in the Roman  Rite in every country of the world. This distinction is made in application of the decision of the Second Vatican Council: "Lest the feasts of the saints should take precedence over the feasts which commemorate the very mysteries of salvation, many of them should be left to be celebrated by a particular Church or nation or family of religious; only those should be extended to the universal Church which commemorate saints who are truly of universal importance." Diocesan and parish calendars. The calendar for a diocese is typically based on a national calendar, with a few additions. For instance, the  anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral is celebrated as a Solemnity in the cathedral church and as a Feast in all the other churches of the diocese. The feast day of the principal patron saint of the diocese is celebrated as a Feast throughout the diocese. The calendar of a parish extends the calendar of its diocese with further celebrations, including the anniversary of the dedication of the parish church and the feast day of the principal patron saint of the church, both of which are ranked as Solemnities.