Does anyone have a calendar / list of holy days for specific Catholic saints? Especially non-anachronistic ones that would be appropriate in 1220? Obviously this would vary somewhat by region (e.g. English vs French Saints) but I think that can safely be ignored. I'd like to include some benefit for characters praying to Saints on days dedicated to them, but I find that actually collating this information is difficult in the extreme. But if someone has already done this work, I would love to borrow it for my Saga.
The old historical rpg Darklands by Microprose has saints in it, and lists their holy days. Generally, their research are pretty sound, and it is set in germany in the 1400s. I use it quite a bit for inspiration and getting the medieval feel.
There's no easy way of getting the saint feastday info out of the game, though, apart from playing and taking notes.
Some examples:
St. Agnes, january 21. (purity)
St. Barbara, dec. 4. (in later days became patron saint of gunners - interestingly, today this saint is deemed to be only a legend, and removed from feast day calendars. According to catholic-forum.com.)
St. Damian, sept. 27/sept. 26/nov. 1 (sources vary, barbers and physicians)
St. Lutgardis would be a contemporary in mythic europe 1220. So not appropriate.
But most of the saints in the game should be appropriate. (warning, flash)
darklands.net/tools/dksaints.html
Then you can look up the saints on other websites to find their feast days and more info.
catholic-forum.com/saints/patron02.htm
The Magae Magnae Magicae swimsuit calendar in Hermes' Portal had the most important saint's days listed on it (researched by Neil Taylor and Sheila Thomas), and I'd imagine you can probably get a copy from the editor by subscribing to the magazine or buying the download as a back issue.
Here's a list of important Holidays from http://www.medieval.net/medievalholidays.htm
Medieval Holidays
Circumcision of Christ
Twelfth Day
Candlemas
St Valentine's Day
Shrove Tuesday
Ash Wednesday
St. David's Day
St. Patrick's Day
Feast of St. Edward the Confessor
Feast of St. Benedict
The Annunciation
Palm Sunday
Good Friday
Easter Sunday
Hocktide
All Fool's Day, April Fool's Day
St. George's Day
May Day
Holy Rood Day
Rogation Sunday
Ascension Day or Holy Thursday
Whitsun or White Sunday, Pentecost
St. John the Baptist
Trinity Sunday
Corpus Christi
Translation of St. Thomas the Martyr
St. James the Apostle and St. Christopher
Feast of St. Peter in Chains
St. Dominic
Assumption of Our Lady
St. Augustine of Hipo
Nativity of Our Lady
Exaltation of the Cross
Michaelmas, or Feast of St. Michael the Archangel
St. Denys' Day
St. Crispin's Day
All Hallows' Eve
All Hallows' Day
All Souls' Day
St. Edmund the King and Martyr
St. Catherine's Day
St. Nicholas' Day
The Conception of Our Lady
St. Andrew's Day
Christmas
Feast of the Holy Innocence
Feast of St. Thomas the Archbishop and Martry
Other Days
WOW, I had no idea there was so many saints! There were 10 or 15 for each day of the year!
A lot of this comes down to local varation and interest as well. While there may be a lot of saints on the official calendar for any given day, in a given region only one of these (or two in some cases) will actually be celebrated.
I have copied into an unformatted text document the content from each of these links. You can download it here:
As I said, there is no formatting I've applied as of yet, but it's easy to paste into a Word doc and format to your hearts content. Be aware this material is under copyright, so it's only for personal use. I will take down the file if anyone complains.