Pope Francis encourages dioceses to remember their saints and blesseds every November 9

In order to stimulate the faithful with testimonies of local holiness, Pope Francis has ordered that starting with the Jubilee of 2025 each particular Church remembers and honors its saints, blesseds, venerables and servants of God on November 9.

The Pontiff has announced this wish in a letter published today November 16, in which he clarifies that it is not about adding a new memory to the liturgical year, “but rather promoting with appropriate initiatives outside the liturgy, or remembering in it, for example in the homily or at another time considered appropriate, to those figures who have characterized the Christian path and local spirituality.”

“To this end, episcopal conferences may eventually develop and propose pastoral indications and orientations,” he points out.

Pope Francis assures that this initiative will allow each diocesan community to “rediscover or perpetuate the memory of extraordinary disciples of Christ who have left a living mark of the presence of the risen Lord and are still today safe guides on the common itinerary towards God, protecting us and holding us.”

Let yourself be stimulated by these models of holiness

In his letter, Pope Francis explains that with the apostolic exhortation Rejoice and rejoice He had already wanted to propose to the faithful disciples of Christ the universal call to holiness, following the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. “In fact, holiness, more than being the fruit of human effort, means giving space to the action of God,” he recalls.

The Pontiff explains that throughout life each faithful can recognize many “witnesses of Christian virtues”, such as “husbands who have faithfully lived their love by opening themselves to life; men and women who in various occupations supported their families and cooperated in the expansion of the Kingdom of God; teenagers and young people who followed Jesus with enthusiasm; pastors who through ministry have poured out the gifts of grace on God’s holy people; men and women religious who, by living the evangelical counsels, were a living image of Christ the Bridegroom.”

Likewise, “we cannot forget the poor, the sick, those who suffer, who in their weakness found support in the divine Master. It is that ‘work’ and ‘next door’ holiness in which the Church throughout the world has always been rich.”

In this sense, he points out that “we are called to allow ourselves to be stimulated by these models of holiness, among which emerge first the martyrs who shed their blood for Christ and those who were beatified and canonized for being examples of Christian life and our intercessors.” .

In addition, there are those declared venerable and servants of God, “whose causes of beatification and canonization are underway,” he adds in the text.

Pope Francis assures that these processes “demonstrate how the testimony of holiness is also present in our time, in which the great witnesses of faith shine like stars, who have marked the experience of particular Churches and, at the same time, “They have fertilized history.”

“All of them are our friends, traveling companions, who help us to fully realize the baptismal vocation and show us the most beautiful face of the Church, which is holy and mother of saints,” expresses the Holy Father in his letter, signed on November 9, Feast of the dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.