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In the Catholic liturgy of the Catholic Church, a feria is a day of the week other than Sunday."The term 'feria' means the different days of the week apart from Sunday" ( English translation of the Code of Rubrics, 21); Nomine feriae intelleguntur singuli dies hebdomadis, praeter dominicam ( original text ).
In more recent official liturgical texts in English, the term weekday is used instead of feria.An example is the English translation of the Roman Missal.
If the feast day of a saint falls on such a day, the liturgy celebrated may be that of the saint, not that of the feria (the weekday liturgy). Accordingly, in actual liturgical practice a feria or ferial day is "a weekday on which no special ecclesiastical feast is to be celebrated". Will apiel Harvard Dictionary of Music (Harvard University Press 1969), p. 310
Since in ecclesiastical Latin the names of Sunday and Saturday do not contain the word feria and are called respectively dominica and sabbatum, some use the term feria "to denote the days of the week with the exception of Sunday and Saturday",Francis Mershman did so in his article " Feria" in the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia, in which he also interpreted the Gospel phrases una sabbati and prima sabbati (in Greek μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων and πρώτῃ σαββάτου – Mark 16:2, 9) as meaning "the first day from the Sabbath", instead of the usual interpretation as "the first day of the week", with σάββατον meaning "week", as indicated in Strong's Concordance. in spite of the official definition given above and the actual usage in official liturgical books.
The Galician and Portuguese languages uses the same terminology as ecclesiastical Latin for the days of the week, calling the days from Monday to Friday segunda-feira, terça-feira (literally, "second weekday", "third weekday"), etc., but calling Saturday sábado and Sunday domingo (see Numbered days of the week).
The Code of Rubrics of 1960 introduced a newly invented division of ferias into four classes:
Before 1960, the Roman Rite knew a simpler distinction between major and minor ferias. The major ferias were those of Advent and Lent, the Ember days, and the Monday of Rogation days. These had to be commemorated even on the highest feasts. All the others were minor ferias (liturgical weekdays). In addition, the major ferias of Ash Wednesday and Holy Week were privileged: these liturgies were to be celebrated no matter what feast happened to occur on those days. Catholic Encyclopedia (1909): Feria
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