The positivist calendar, published in 1849, is the most complete attempt anyone has made to replace a liturgical year without leaving a gap. Thirteen months of twenty-eight days each, plus a complementary day, with every month named for a figure held to mark a stage in human development — Moses for theocracy, Homer for ancient poetry, Aristotle for philosophy, Archimedes for science, Caesar for military civilisation, Saint Paul for Catholicism, Charlemagne for feudalism, Dante, Gutenberg, Shakespeare, Descartes, Frederick and Bichat for modern science. Every individual day carries a further commemoration, so the year is a densely populated calendar of secular saints. It was genuinely used by positivist societies, and it is the clearest evidence that Comte understood what he was building: not a philosophy with ceremonies attached, but a church with the god removed and everything else kept.