On the First and Second Precepts of the Church

"The whole Church throughout the world knows that it belongs to the supreme solicitude of the Roman Pontiff to direct the Lord's flock to eternal salvation, and so to explain apostolic precepts that the faithful may run in the way of the commandments and be able happily to arrive at beatitude.

1. Indeed, by the report of very many of Our Venerable Brothers, Archbishops and Bishops constituted through various regions, it has come to Us that the multitude of Feasts through their several Dioceses and Provinces has grown so much, with devotion and new custom introducing them day by day, that many now seem to doubt which are to be observed by precept, and which by the free will of each person, while the fervor of piety grows lukewarm because of their excessive number. Indeed, the frequent cry of the poor has ascended to Us, complaining that this same multitude, because of the necessity of procuring daily food by their labors, is very harmful to them. And, what is most greatly to be lamented, with great grief of Our mind We have learned that the enemy has very often contrived so much against the Saints, that by the very multitude the people do not use them for edification and for praising God in the churches, but do not fear frequently to abuse them for idleness, vanities, and vices; so that those things which were first instituted for glorifying the Divine Majesty, the hostile man in the course of time has corrupted and converted into a great offense of Him and grave loss of souls. Wherefore the said Venerable Brothers, Archbishops and Bishops, have caused Us humbly to be supplicated, that in the aforesaid matters, from the fullness of apostolic power, We should enter upon some suitable plan.

2. Therefore We, wishing to provide from the duty of the Pastoral office and henceforth to establish a certain precept of the sanctification of Feasts, following in this the ancient custom of the Church, after frequent consultations first had through learned and pious men whom We specially deputed for this, as the gravity of the matter seems to demand, by Our own motion and from Our certain knowledge and mere deliberation, and also from the fullness of the aforesaid apostolic power, by this Constitution to be valid forever, also from the vote of Our Venerable Brothers, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over Sacred Rites, by apostolic authority decree and declare that only the days written below are to be observed as Feasts by precept, namely those which venerable antiquity has either consecrated from the beginning, or the custom of the universal Church has approved, or the unanimous piety of all nations venerates: namely, the Sundays of the whole year, the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Circumcision, Epiphany, Resurrection with the two following ferias likewise, the Most Holy Trinity, the Solemnity of the Body of Christ, and the Finding of the Holy Cross; and also the Purification, Annunciation, Assumption, and Nativity of the Virgin Mother of God, the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, St. Andrew, St. James, St. John, St. Thomas, Saints Philip and James, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, Saints Simon and Jude, and St. Matthias, Apostles of Christ the Lord; likewise St. Stephen Protomartyr, the Holy Innocents, St. Lawrence Martyr, St. Sylvester Pope and Confessor, St. Joseph Confessor and St. Anne, respectively Spouse and Mother of the Mother of God, the Solemnity of All Saints, and one of the principal Patrons in any Kingdom or Province whatever, and likewise another more principal Patron in any city, town, or village, where these Patrons happen to be had and venerated.

3. But as regards the observance of the remaining days, which until now, whether in the universal Church, or in any Nation or Kingdom, Province, Diocese, or place in whatever way, whether from devotion, the Christian faithful have celebrated as festive, by the said authority and by the tenor of the presents We decree and declare, also perpetually, that they are by no means bound by precept to observe them. And lest feast days be multiplied again hereafter by local Ordinaries because of too great facility of some persons or importunity of peoples, We admonish the same Ordinaries in the Lord that, for preserving ecclesiastical equality everywhere, for the rest, for perpetual future times, they should strive to abstain from the proclamation under precept of new Feasts. But in order that those things which have been expressed above may be observed with the more fervent veneration and devotion which is fitting, We recall to memory for the same Ordinaries the observance of the ancient Canons in granting licenses to work on feast days; which licenses indeed, to be granted in no other way than according to the form of the aforesaid Canons, as is premised, are to be granted only gratuitously, freely, and without any price or pact at all, directly or indirectly, under even graver penalties to be inflicted at the judgment of Us and Our successors. Nevertheless, by this Our Constitution We do not intend to change in anything the holidays concerning judicial matters; for this effect We leave them in the same state and terms in which they were before its promulgation..." Urban VIII, 15 Sept. 1641.

"The reason of the Most Holy Apostolate divinely committed to Us demands that, striving to enlarge on earth, according to the custom of many Roman Pontiffs Our predecessors, the veneration and cult of the most glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God, whose conception announced joy to the whole world, We continually endeavor, as far as is granted to Us from on high, to merit the most powerful help, in so many and so great necessities of the Christian Commonwealth and the Catholic Church by which We are pressed, of her who, exalted above the Choirs of Angels, as a diligent intercessor for the Christian people, continually intercedes in Heaven with Him whom she bore. Therefore, moved by Our sincere devotion toward the same most august Queen of Heaven, Our Patroness, Our Advocate, by apostolic authority, by the tenor of the presents, We decree, command, and order that the Feast of the Conception of the same Blessed Immaculate Virgin Mary hereafter everywhere on earth be comprehended by all and singular Christian faithful of either sex, just as other Feasts, under the precept of observing Feasts. Notwithstanding, etc." Clement XI, 6 Dec. 1708.

"Rome, 31 Dec. 1885. Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord. By Your Excellency, in the name of the Fathers of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, the following supplication was presented to the Supreme Pontiff, that feast days of precept to be observed in all the Dioceses of the United States of North America be reduced to certain determinate days.

Most Blessed Father, within the boundaries of the United States of North America there obtains a great diversity in observing feast days of precept. For in some places five are observed, in others nine, and in others even more, so that not only non-Catholics, but also the faithful, are now disturbed concerning this matter, wondering not a little by what reason it happens that on certain days the obligation of hearing Mass and abstaining from servile works presses in one diocese or province, but not in another. Moreover, in these regions the faithful also are pressed by very grave difficulties concerning the observance of feast days. For since, in preparing the necessities of life, they depend in great part on non-Catholics, who do not allow labors to be interrupted on feast days unless they fall on Sundays, the greatest part of the faithful can only with very grave inconveniences abstain from works and attend the Sacrifice of the Most Holy Mass on those same days. Hence the Fathers gathered in the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, very greatly desiring that uniformity be introduced in observing Feasts, and maturely weighing the difficulties with which the faithful labor within these Federated Provinces, judged that Your Beatitude should be supplicated:

1. That, the peculiar circumstances of Catholics dwelling in these regions being considered, by Apostolic Authority he deign to declare that throughout all dioceses of Federated North America, as regards the precept of hearing Mass and abstaining from servile works, all and only the following feast days are to be observed: the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Feast of All Saints. For, according to the reasons of things and times, a more successful observance of these six feast days is hoped for. 2. As regards the other feast days, which besides the six above-mentioned are still of precept in certain places, that by Apostolic kindness the faithful of the same places indeed be freed from the obligation of hearing Mass and abstaining from works; yet without those same feast days being suppressed as regards devotion and external solemnity. 3. As regards the feast of the Most Holy Body of Christ, that he benevolently be willing to grant that the solemnity of the same Feast be transferred to the Sunday next following, according to the norm of the indult granted to the dioceses of the United States of North America concerning the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, as is contained in the letters of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide to the Archbishop of Baltimore dated 19 December 1840.

The S. I. C. responded on 25 Nov. 1885: That the Most Holy Lord should be supplicated for the grace according to the prayers... But His Holiness... according to the opinion of the Sacred Congregation, deigned kindly to accede to the prayers of the Fathers of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore."