CAN anyone explain why in England St Georges Day is celebrated not as a Solemnity but only as a Feast. Ireland, Scotland and Wales celebrate their respective principal patron saint as a Solemnity.
Because of the lower rank of England's principal patron's day, next year there will be no general liturgical celebration of our Saint, because April 23rd falls within the Easter Octave.
If we kept the celebration as a Solemnity, it would merit transferrence to the first free day after the Easter Octave, as happens in Ireland in the case of St Patrick, when March 17 falls during Holy Week or Easter week.
Before the reform of the Calender St George was kept as a highest rank feast, namely double of the first class with Octave and was always kept after Low Sunday when the day fell within the Easter Octave. Why the demotion?
Jack Goodway Banbury, Oxon