Synaxarium

Definitions

The exact meaning of the name has changed at various times. Its first use was for the index to the Biblical and other lessons to be read in church. In this sense it corresponds to the Latin Capitulare and Comes. Then the Synaxarion was filled up with the whole text of the pericopes to be read. As far as the Holy Liturgy was concerned this meant that it was essentially transformed into the "Gospel" and "Apostle" books. Synaxarion remained the title for the index to the other lessons. Without changing its name it was filled up with complete texts of these lessons. The mere index of such lessons is generally called menologion heortastikon, a book now hardly needed or used, since the Typikon supplies the same, as well as other, information.

Certain calendars extant in the Middle Ages were also called Synaxaria. Krumbacher describes those composed by Christopher of Mytilene and Theodore Prodromus (twelfth century).

Examples

The oldest historical synaxaria apparently go back to the tenth century. There are a great number of medieval synaxaria extant in manuscript. They are important for Byzantine heortology and church history. The short lives that form the lessons were composed or collected by various writers. Of these Symeon Metaphrastes is the most important. The accounts are of very varying historical value. Emperor Basil II (976-1025) ordered a revision of the synaxarion, which forms an important element of the present official edition. The synaxarion is not now used as a separate book; it is incorporated in the Menaia. The account of the saint or feast is read in the Orthros after the sixth ode of the Canon. It is printed in its place here, and bears each time the name synaxarion as title. Synaxarion then in modern use means, not the whole collection, but each separate lesson in the Menaia and other books. An example of such a synaxarion (for St. Martin I, 13 April) will be found in Nilles, op. cit., infra, I, xlix. Some surviving examples of regional Synaxaria are:

• The Coptic Synaxarium- Also known as the Synaxarium Alexandrinum, which is employed by the Coptic Orthodox Church. Publication was started by J. Forget in the Corp. script. orient.. It was written using the Coptic language () before the adoption of Arabic as an official language of Egypt.
• The Ethiopian Synaxarium- which belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was first published by I. Guidi in the Patrologia orientalis, as well as by E.A. Wallis Budge.
• The Armenian Synaxarium of Ter Israel- which is used by the Armenian Apostolic Church was published at Constantinople in 1834, and again in Patrologia Orientalis.
• The Georgian Synaxarium- There are also various Georgian synaxaria, surviving in various complete states.
• The Roman Martyrology- which is utilized by the Roman Catholic Church for its calendar of saints.
• The Arab-Jacobite Synaxarium- which is composed in Arabic () and used by the Syriac Orthodox Church.

Notes

References

;Attribution

References

1. Team, Almaany. "ترجمة و معنى السنكسار بالإنجليزي في قاموس المعاني. قاموس عربي انجليزي الكل مصطلحات صفحة 1".
2. Team, Almaany. "تعريف و شرح و معنى سنكسار بالعربي في معاجم اللغة العربية معجم المعاني الجامع، المعجم الوسيط ،اللغة العربية المعاصر ،الرائد ،لسان العرب ،القاموس المحيط - معجم عربي عربي صفحة 1".
3. "السنكسار بحسب الكنيسة المارونية".
4. Συναξαριστής των Δώδεκα μηνών του ενιαυτού», 1805-1807, στην Ι.Μ.Παντοκράτορος, εκδ.Βενετία, 1819
5. {{harvnb. Fortescue. 1912 cites Krumbacher "Gesch. der byzantin. Lit.", 2nd ed., Munich, 1897, pp. 738, 755
6. {{harvnb. Fortescue. 1912 cites Analecta Bollandiana, XIV, 1895, p. 404.
7. Michael Ghlay - Alexandria - Egypt. "السنكسار | كتاب سنكسار القديسين الخاص بالكنيسة القبطية الأرثوذكسية - السنكسارات". St-Takla.org.
8. "السنكسار : Lives of Saints : Synaxarium - CopticChurch.net".
9. "The Ethiopian Synaxarium".
10. "The Haysumavurk (Synaxarion) and Lives of the Martyrs – VEMKAR".
11. [[Nicholas Marr
12. (1 Aug 2022). "The Georgian Synaxarium". Dalcassian Publishing Company.
13. "Roman Martyrology, Complete, in English for Daily Reflection".