{{Short description|Main cycle of the General Roman Calendar}} The '''sanctorale''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|s||æ|ŋ|k|t|ə|ˈ|r|eɪ|l|i|,_|-|ˈ|r|ɑː|l|eɪ}} {{respell|SANK|tə|RAY|lee|,_-|RAH|lay}}) is one of the two main cycles which, running concurrently, comprise the liturgical year in Roman Catholicism, as defined by the General Roman Calendar. It is also used by a number of other Christian denominations.{{cn|date=April 2026}}
==Terminology== The term comes into English from medieval Latin ''sanctorāle'' (from ''sanctus'' 'saint'), modelled on the name of the other main cycle, the ''temporale''.<ref>OED Online, "sanctorale, n.", Oxford University Press, December 2015, Web. 9 January 2016</ref> The ''sanctorale'' is also known as the '''proper of the saints''', with ''proper'' a noun in the sense 'that part of the Eucharist or liturgical offices which is varied according to the calendar or the particular occasion; an office or part of an office, as a psalm, lesson, etc., or portion of the Eucharist, appointed for a particular occasion or season'.<ref>OED Online, "proper, adj., n., and adv.", Oxford University Press, December 2015. Web. 9 January 2016, Sense 2</ref> The Merriam-Webster Dictionary refers to '''sanctoral''' as an adjective relating to the sanctorale.<ref>Merrian-Webster Dictionary, [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sanctoral sanctoral: adjective], accessed on 6 April 2026</ref>
==Usage== <blockquote>The ''temporale'' consists of the movable feasts, most of them keyed to Easter (which falls on a different Sunday every year), including Ascension, Pentecost (Whitsun), and so on. The ''sanctorale'' consists of the fixed feasts, celebrated on the very same date each year (no matter what the day of the week), including Christmas and all the saints' days.<ref name=lap>Michael Lapidge, 'The Saintly Life in Anglo-Saxon England', in ''The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature'', ed. by Malcolm Godden and Michael Lapidge, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 251-72 (p. 264).</ref></blockquote>
Because the events of ''sanctorale'' and the ''temporale'' do not occur in the same order every year, the two cycles are often written separately in liturgical books, specifically that section of the Missal known as the Breviary.<ref name=lap /> Accordingly, a collection of saints' lives arranged in liturgical order may also be called a ''sanctorale''. One prominent example of these is the hagiographies by Ælfric of Eynsham.<ref>Michael Lapidge, "Ælfric's ''sanctorale''", in ''Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints' Lives and their Contexts'', ed. P. E. Szarmach (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1996).</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Catholic liturgy Category:Christian terminology Category:Catholic liturgical books