Feast of the Forty Martyrs in the modern calendar

Approval of the feastday

In England, these martyrs are commemorated in the traditional calendar within the Catholic Church by a feast day on 25 October, which is also the feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, but after the Second Vatican Council they are also now celebrated together with all the 284 canonized or beatified martyrs of the English Reformation on 4 May. In Wales, the Catholic Church keeps 25 October as the feast of the 'Six Welsh Martyrs and their companions'. The Welsh Martyrs are the priests Philip Evans and John Lloyd, John Jones, David Lewis, John Roberts, and the teacher Richard Gwyn, Wales continues to keep 4 May as a separate feast for the beatified martyrs of England and Wales.

Traditionally in England, May 4 has been kept as the Feast of the Crown of Thorns, Festum susceptionis coronae Domini