🙏 Catholic Readings API

Free, open-source REST API for Catholic liturgical data

✨ No Rate Limits 🔓 Open Source 📱 CORS Enabled ⚡ GitHub Pages
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🎯 Mission

To provide the Catholic developer community with reliable, free access to liturgical data for building apps, websites, and tools that serve the faithful worldwide.

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Daily Mass Readings

First Reading, Psalm, Second Reading, Gospel

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Liturgical Calendar

Complete calendar with saints, feasts, and solemnities

🗓️

Liturgical Seasons

Ordinary Time, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter

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USCCB Alignment

Verified against US Catholic liturgical norms

🛡️ Liturgical Note: Technical & Historical Context

This API prioritizes technical correctness aligned with the General Roman Calendar for the United States (USCCB norms). To serve the faithful and developers who value traditional context, we have added new fields to the 2026 dataset:

  • subSeason: Provides specific context (e.g., "Time after Epiphany") for transitional periods.
  • liturgicalNote: Clarifies modern observances, such as transferred celebrations (e.g., Epiphany, Ascension, Corpus Christi).
  • historicalNote: Documents traditional dates (e.g., January 6th for Epiphany) and historical markers (e.g., Septuagesima Sunday).

The Christmas Season continues through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Jan 11, 2026), with Ordinary Time beginning on the following Monday.

🚀 Quick Start

Try the API Live!

Click the buttons below to fetch real data:

📖 Get Daily Readings

GET /readings/2025/MM-DD.json 
fetch('https://cpbjr.github.io/catholic-readings-api/readings/2025/09-07.json')
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(data => console.log(data));

👑 Liturgical Calendar

GET /liturgical-calendar/2025/MM-DD.json 
fetch('https://cpbjr.github.io/catholic-readings-api/liturgical-calendar/2025/09-08.json')
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(data => console.log(data));

📊 Data Coverage

📈 Statistics

  • 1000+ Total Entries - Complete liturgical data for 2025-2026
  • 365 Readings (2026) - Full year dataset extracted from USCCB
  • 365 Celebrations (2026) - Complete liturgical calendar skeleton
  • Verified Accuracy - Cross-referenced with official sources

🎖️ Liturgical Rankings

  • Solemnities - Christmas, Epiphany, Assumption
  • Feasts - Apostles, Evangelists, major saints
  • Memorials - Obligatory commemorations
  • Optional Memorials - Saints that may be celebrated

💡 Use Cases

⛪ Parish Websites

Display daily readings on your parish homepage. Perfect for bulletin integration and member engagement.

📱 Mobile Apps

Build Catholic prayer apps with daily readings, liturgical calendar, and saint information.

🎓 Educational Tools

Create learning platforms for Catholic schools, RCIA programs, and faith formation resources.

📰 Automated Content

Generate bulletins, newsletters, and social media posts with current liturgical data.

🛠️ Response Examples

📖 Readings Response

{
  "date": "2025-09-07",
  "monthDay": "9/7",
  "season": "Ordinary Time",
  "readings": {
    "firstReading": "Wisdom 9:13-18b",
    "psalm": "Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17",
    "secondReading": "Philemon 9-10, 12-17",
    "gospel": "Luke 14:25-33"
  },
  "usccbLink": "https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090725.cfm",
  "apiEndpoint": "https://cpbjr.github.io/catholic-readings-api/readings/2025/09-07.json"
}

👑 Celebration Response (Memorial with Saint Image)

{
  "date": "2026-01-31",
  "monthDay": "1/31",
  "season": "Ordinary Time",
  "celebration": {
    "name": "Saint John Bosco, Priest",
    "type": "MEMORIAL",
    "quote": "Run, jump, shout, but do not sin.",
    "description": "The 'Father and Teacher of Youth,' he founded the Salesians...",
    "image": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/..."
  },
  "apiEndpoint": "https://cpbjr.github.io/catholic-readings-api/liturgical-calendar/2026/01-31.json"
}

Note: MEMORIAL celebrations include saint images from Wikipedia when available.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions from the Catholic developer community! Help us improve and expand this resource:

Contribute on GitHub