The Ordinary Form and 1962 calendars compared

The Ordinary Form follows the General Roman Calendar of 1969; the 1962 Missal follows the calendar as it stood after the Code of Rubrics of 1960. They share the same frame, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost, and most of the great feasts fall on the same day in both. But the 1969 reform reshaped some seasons and moved, merged or removed many saints’ days, so on an ordinary day the two columns of this calendar can name quite different celebrations.

Two calendars, one year

Pope Paul VI approved the revised General Roman Calendar in February 1969, with the motu proprio Mysterii paschalis, and it came into use on 1 January 1970, together with the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar that explain it. Each country then has a national calendar that adds its own saints and adjusts some dates; this site offers the General Roman Calendar and eight national ones, and the Ordinary Form column follows the one you choose.

The 1962 column follows the general calendar printed in the 1962 Missal, which embodies the rubrics of 1960. It is the same whichever country you choose: the local feasts that countries and dioceses added to the older calendar are not shown.

Both calendars reckon Easter in the same way, so Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost always coincide. The Epiphany, the Ascension and Corpus Christi coincide too, except where a national calendar moves them to a Sunday, as the Universal Norms allow (no. 7); the 1962 calendar always keeps them on 6 January and on Thursdays.

The seasons side by side

The biggest differences are the pre-Lent season (see Septuagesima), the octave of Pentecost, and the Ember and Rogation days, which the 1969 calendar left to each bishops’ conference. The Ordinary Form’s numbered weeks correspond to the older Sundays after Epiphany and after Pentecost, but the numbers do not line up: Sundays in Ordinary Time are counted from January, Sundays after Pentecost from Pentecost. On Sunday 11 October 2026, your calendar keeps “Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time” and the 1962 Missal “XX Sunday after Pentecost”.

Why the same saint can fall on different days

The reform of 1969 revised the calendar of saints along a few clear lines. Where a saint’s day of death was known, the feast was generally moved to it, since that is the day the Church traditionally keeps as the saint’s birthday into heaven. Feasts were moved out of Lent where possible, so that its weekdays could keep their own character. The number of saints in the universal calendar was reduced, leaving many to national and local calendars, and room was made for saints from more parts of the world. A few whose history could not be established were removed from the general calendar.

The three Lenten saints show the rule at work. In the 1962 calendar St Thomas Aquinas, St Gregory and St Benedict usually fall in Lent, where they are often reduced to a commemoration; in the Ordinary Form they have days of their own outside it. Christ the King shows the other kind of move: the next is on 25 October 2026 in the 1962 Missal and on 22 November 2026 in the Ordinary Form.

Feasts each calendar keeps

Some days carry the same date and a different name. On 1 January the Ordinary Form keeps the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, while the 1962 calendar keeps the Octave Day of Christmas. On 2 February the Ordinary Form keeps the Presentation of the Lord and the 1962 calendar the Purification of Our Lady; on 25 March the Annunciation is “of the Lord” in the first and “of the Blessed Virgin Mary” in the second. These are the same events seen from a different side.

Some days belong to one general calendar only:

• Only in 1962: the Precious Blood on 1 July, St Joseph the Workman as a first-class feast, the octave of Pentecost, the Ember and Rogation days, and lesser saints kept as commemorations, such as St Christopher on 25 July, who is no longer in the General Roman Calendar, though he remains in the Roman Martyrology.
• Only in the Ordinary Form: saints canonised since 1962, such as St Pio of Pietrelcina and St John Paul II; the memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church on the Monday after Pentecost, added in 2018; and the title of Divine Mercy Sunday for the Second Sunday of Easter, given in 2000.

Reading both on one page

Every day’s page sets the two Missals side by side. Under the date comes the Ordinary Form’s celebration with its rank and season, then, after a small cross, the 1962 celebration with its class and any commemoration. Below are two columns, which stack on a narrow screen.

• Ordinary Form: the celebration, its rank and season, the Sunday cycle or weekday year, any optional memorials, and the readings appointed by the Lectionary, with the scripture text from a public-domain translation and a link to the official readings.
• 1962 Missal: the celebration, its class and colour, any commemorations, and the complete proper of the Mass in Latin and English.

Each column is edged in the colour of its Mass, so a difference of season shows at a glance. The switch above the columns lets you see both, or only one; the choice of national calendar changes the Ordinary Form column and leaves the 1962 column as it is. To start, open today’s page. For the terms used in each column, see Solemnity, feast, memorial, the classes of feast in the 1962 Missal and the liturgical colours.