My Confirmation Saint

← Every saint

St. Martha

The sister of Mary and Lazarus who fed Jesus at Bethany and told him plainly what she thought; since 2021 the three are remembered together.

Feast July 29Bethany

Canonized

St. Martha (Catholic Encyclopedia)

  • Catholic Encyclopedia (1907-1913), 'St. Martha'. She appears in only two places in the Bible — Luke 10:38-42 and John 11-12 — living at Bethany with Mary and Lazarus. The article was written before the calendar was reformed in 1969, so it is not the source for her feast day. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09721b.htm
  • Universal Calendar, 29 July — 'St Martha, Mary and Lazarus' (memorial), from the Liturgy Office of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Universal/JulUC.shtml
  • Martha gets one sentence here rather than a full life, and that is a decision rather than an oversight. Only two documents are held for her when this was checked, in August 2026: the encyclopedia article, which runs to two paragraphs and spends most of them on questions about her sister rather than about Martha, and the 2021 decree, which is about a celebration rather than a life. The best-known moment of her story, when Jesus tells her she is anxious about many things, is quoted in neither, and no Bible text is held anywhere here. A full life built on what is held would be mostly padding, so it was not written.
  • Mary and Lazarus both have records here, so a reader told that the three are remembered together can look the other two up. Mary Magdalene is a fourth person rather than one of these three: her feast is the separate one on 22 July.
  • The celebration has been amended, and the calendar now shows it. The Congregation for Divine Worship's decree of 26 January 2021 made 29 July the memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus; before that the day was Martha's alone. This record describes Martha by herself, which is what its sources support. The date has not changed — the day is simply no longer hers alone. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2021/02/02/210202c.html