24 NOVEMBER

This is the 27th and Last Sunday after Pentecost in the traditional rite using the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII. In the Pauline rite, this is the last Sunday of the year and the Feast of Christ the King. I posted some information on the feast of Christ the King here when it was celebrated in the traditional rite.

It was requested by the Holy Father when this feast was instituted that there be a consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus every year on this feast.

28. Therefore by Our Apostolic Authority We institute the Feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be observed yearly throughout the whole world on the last Sunday of the month of October - the Sunday, that is, which immediately precedes the Feast of All Saints. We further ordain that the dedication of mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which Our predecessor of saintly memory, Pope Pius X, commanded to be renewed yearly, be made annually on that day. –from the Encyclical Quas Primas establishing the feast of Christ the King.

I wonder, is that done any more anywhere? I don’t recall ever having seen it.


In the traditional calendar, this is the feast of St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church.
From Engelbert: Son of a poor weaver, John Yepes was born near Avila in 1542. Twice in his childhood the Blessed Virgin miraculously
saved him from drowning. Helped by Alvarez of Toledo, his benefactor, he received an excellent education with the Jesuits. He entered the Carmelites in 1563 and took his vows at Salamanca. He was thinking of becoming a Carthusian when he met St. Teresa and determined to work with her for the reform of Carmel. He was the saint’s confessor and her friend. In 1577, the Carmelites, opposed to the reform, had him imprisoned at Toledo. It was in prison that he outlined “The Ascent of Mount Carmel”, “The Spiritual Canticle”, and “The Dark Night”, which have placed the great ecstatic in the front rank of Western mystical writers and of his country’s poets. In 1580 the work of the reformer received the support of the Roman Curia, and John died in peace ab Ubeda in 1591.

The Carmelites keep his feast in December as does the Pauline calendar. More on St. John in December.



November 24 is also an ancient feast commemorating two 9th century young girls martyred by the Mohammedans, Ss. Flora and Maria of Cordova.
St. Flora was born of a Moslem father and a Christian mother. When she converted to the faith, she was denounced to the cadi by her brother, arrested and tortured. She escaped and fled to Ossaria. Hunted and pursued and not knowing which was to turn she went into a church to pray. There she met another young girl also wanted for being a Christian. Seeing no way out, they presented themselves to the Cadi declaring they would never deny their faith. As they had hoped they were not separated, but were imprisoned together and martyred together on November 24, 851. Their story is related by St.Eulogius who was imprisoned with them. He attributes his release to their intercession. A few years later, he too was killed by the Moslems.