Catholic Calendar vs Philothea
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Catholic Calendar
Access daily Mass readings, saints' biographies, and the Order of Mass. Offers the Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary with scripture, and offline access. Customizable display options and helpful support are included.
- Daily liturgical calendar
- About Today page with reflections
- Order of Mass
- Rosary with scripture audio
- Offline access
- Customizable display
- Home Screen widgets
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Universalis is a missal and a breviary, and more besides. It gives you the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) and the Mass for every day; plus valuable additional material. The Catholic Calendar app lets you join in with the tens of thousands of people who use Universalis daily, through a free app plus a small monthly subscription of roughly $0.99 / £0.79 / €0.99 (the App Store will tell you the exact figure). If you prefer a single purchase instead of a monthly subscription, get the Universalis app instead of the Catholic Calendar app. WHAT YOU GET FOR FREE • A complete liturgical calendar listing every saint and feast for your region. • The “About Today” page tells you what saints are being celebrated today, not only in your region but worldwide. It includes reflections and biographies. • The Order of Mass with all the possible alternative texts. • The Rosary with a verse of Scripture for every Hail Mary of every Mystery. Spoken audio is included if you want to listen to it. • No Internet needed: everything you need is already built in. • No cleverness needed: each day, Catholic Calendar works out exactly what you need to see. • View any date: past, present and future. • Use your own local calendar: USA, Canada, Singapore, Ireland, and every diocese in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. • Easy to read and use: a choice of fonts; big or small type; dark or light theme; page-turning or scrolling. • Help and support: tips and instructions are included; or press “Contact Us” to send us a message, and we will reply. And more – Home Screen widgets; liturgical events for your iOS calendar; copy and paste into other apps; reminders and alarms. THE MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION ADDS: (Your first month is free.) LITURGY OF THE HOURS: The complete official Liturgy of the Hours of the Catholic Church, as used worldwide. Morning (Lauds), daytime (Terce, Sext and None), evening (Vespers), night (Compline) and the deeply reflective Office of Readings. Do as many or as few of them as you like. • The psalms and canticles match the official English and American books. Scripture readings are from the Jerusalem Bible or the RSV. • Latin if you want it: by itself or alongside the English. MASS: The exact prayers and readings at Mass for each day. • England, Wales, Scotland: the official ESV version. • United States: the official NAB version. • Elsewhere: Jerusalem Bible readings and Grail psalms. • Latin if you want it: alongside the English. AND ALSO… • Illustrations in the About Today page. • “Mass Today” gives you the Order of Mass and today’s readings and prayers, all in one page. Bishops have been known to use it to say Mass from their iPads! • “Spiritual Reading” gathers the patristic and hagiographic readings for all the saints and feasts of the day. • Daily Books takes selected spiritual classics and presents them in daily instalments to focus and enrich your prayer life. • Commentaries on the day’s Mass readings from a leading biblical scholar. And more – daily email service; Mass readings on your Apple Watch. OPTIONAL ADD-ON AUDIO (in-app purchase required) Just press the button and listen! If you want to see what you are hearing, the text is highlighted to follow the sound. After an initial download, no Internet is required. Works with CarPlay too. • Spoken English Liturgy of the Hours: every Hour of every day of every year. Monthly or annual subscription. • Spoken English Mass Readings: First and Second Reading and the Gospel. Jerusalem Bible translation only. Monthly or annual subscription. (You can listen to a sample before subscribing. Following App Store rules, subscriptions renew automatically but you can cancel auto-renewal at any time.) • Sung Latin Compline (Night Prayer): by the boys of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School. Single purchase. -- Privacy policy & terms of service: universalis.com/n-ios-privacy.htm.
Philothea
This app offers a guided 30-day devotional walk based on a classic Catholic handbook for living a devout life in ordinary circumstances. It provides daily readings, prayers, and a structured meditation flow, with optional premium features for journaling and progress tracking.
- 30-day guided devotional walk
- Daily prayer and meditation flow
- Bilingual (French/English) content
- Journaling and progress tracking (premium)
- Prayer library with traditional prayers
- Daily readings and spiritual guidance
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Philothea is a quiet companion for the devout life — a thirty-day walk through Saint Francis de Sales's Introduction à la vie dévote (1609), the classic Catholic handbook for keeping a devout life in the middle of an ordinary one. The saint addressed his book to a young laywoman named Philothée — "soul who loves God" — and he meant you. He wrote, "It is an error, or rather a heresy, to wish to banish the devout life from the regiment of soldiers, the mechanic's shop, the court of princes, or the home of married people." Wherever you live, whatever you do, devotion is for you. EVERY PRAYER, ALWAYS FREE The whole devotional life of the app costs nothing: • The thirty-day retreat — walked day by day, with a 40-day Lent and 28-day Advent variant • The six-step daily flow — preparation, composition of place, petition for grace, meditation, colloquy with the Lord, and a closing Pater Noster • The Prayer Library — Salesian short prayers and the central prayers of the Tradition (Pater, Ave, Gloria, Anima Christi) in French and English • Daily reading — Citation of the Day, Companion, a passage of the Treatise on the Love of God, the Letter of the Week • Direction of Intention — the Visitation's small practice, a word at the start of every task placing it under His care • Bilingual always — French and English side by side throughout WITH STUDIO SUPPORT A $0.99/month or $6.99/year subscription (with a 7-day free trial) adds the personal-practice tools that follow your walk day by day: • Journal — kept day by day, with categories for gratitude, reflection, prayer, and intention • Day-by-day retreat progress — your walk, kept on parchment • Spiritual Bouquet — long-press any citation, treatise passage, or companion line to keep it • Bookmarks with private notes • Letter of the Week sharing • An annual renewal feast — pick Saint Francis de Sales (24 January), Ash Wednesday, the First Sunday of Advent, or All Saints, and the retreat returns to you each year SOURCES YOU CAN TRUST Every long-form text is drawn from a public-domain printed source. French letters from the Annecy Œuvres complètes (vols XI–XXI, 1892–1923). English from Mackey, Letters to Persons in the World (London: Burns & Oates, 1894). The Pater Noster is the pre-Vatican-II formal vous form. The voice is Catholic-to-Catholic, no hedging. A SALESIAN PRACTICE The retreat ends; the devout life begins. On the final day, Saint Francis blesses Philothée and sends her back into her ordinary hours — and Philothea keeps walking with her. The Today screen rotates fresh every day so the practice doesn't end with the retreat. From Sanctified Souls — a small Catholic studio. Vive Jésus. Privacy Policy: https://www.sanctifiedsouls.net/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.sanctifiedsouls.net/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Catholic Calendar at 984 against Philothea's 1. Catholic Calendar also leads on device support (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). Philothea's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Catholic Calendar sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Philothea sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Philothea holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Catholic Calendar has 984 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | Catholic Calendar | Philothea |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (984 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 81.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 984 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 77 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Universalis Publishing | QUINTILIAN LLC |
Customer experience
Catholic Calendar
Philothea
Bugs and requests
Catholic Calendar
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes when you try to open
- Crashes on iPhone 6 with IOS 12
- App refuses to open
- Update with widget for iOS14 opens and immediately closes
Requested features
8 requests- Look up option
- Memorial Dates
- Add Eastern Catholic Saints' Feasts, & other Feasts only celebrated by Eastern Catholics, to the Eastern General calendar
- Add Holy Rosary & Divine Mercy Chaplet
- Add 1961 General & local liturgical calendars, 1961 Roman Breviary, 1962 Roman Missal
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- Alerts
- Spanish daily readings
- Add dates to calendar
Philothea
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Catholic Calendar
- Daily texts7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Daily Mass Readings1 Month trial$1.991 Month
- Daytime Hours1 Month trial$2.991 Month
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- All Hours1 Month trial$2.991 Month
- Daily Mass Readings1 Month trial$19.991 Year
- All Hours1 Month trial$29.991 Year
- July 2011$0.99
- September 2011$0.99
- October 2011$0.99
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- Sung Latin Compline$3.99
Philothea
- Philothea Monthly7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Philothea Yearly7 Days trial$6.991 Year
Questions
Is Catholic Calendar free?
Is Philothea free?
Which has better reviews, Catholic Calendar or Philothea?
Do Catholic Calendar or Philothea have ads?
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