Parishes celebrate summer feast days with processions and festivals
With the summer months come warm weather, festivals, and outdoor fun. For local churches, all of those things combine when they celebrate their feast days, congregating on parish lawns or processing through the streets in numbers.
From the suburbs to the cities, there’s music playing, grills sizzling, and people rejoicing all across the Archdiocese of Newark. Scroll below to see how some parishes celebrated the holy feast days (ordered chronologically from May to July).
Feast of Our Lady of Fatima – May 13
On May 13, 1917, Mary appeared to three shepherd children near Fatima, Portugal and imparted three prophetic secrets to them. Since that miracle occurred, the faithful have celebrated this day in honor of the Blessed Mother, looking to her for peace and comfort in times of uncertainty.
Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul – June 29
The two apostles, founders of the See of Rome, have been celebrated together for almost 2,000 years. As Saint Augustine said in 359: “Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one…so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.”
Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel – July 16
On July 16, 1251, Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock, Father General of the Carmelite Order, and presented him with a brown scapular, promising that “it shall be a sign of salvation, a protection in danger, and a pledge of peace.” Since 1726, this day has been recognized by the universal Church as the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim – July 26
For centuries, the Church has recognized the parents of Mary on July 26. The couple’s faith and perseverance brought them through the sorrow of childlessness, to the joy of conceiving and raising the immaculate and sinless woman who would give birth to Christ. As the angel said to Anne, “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”
Pictures of feast days are courtesy of the parishes of the Archdiocese of Newark. Any professional photography displayed is the property of the attributed parish.
