Surf Wiki
Save to docs
society/religion

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Synaxis

Liturgical assembly in Eastern Christianity

Synaxis
Summary

Liturgical assembly in Eastern Christianity

[[Icon]] of the Synaxis of the [[Theotokos]] ([[Pskov]], 17th century)

A synaxis ( "gathering"; Slavonic: собор, sobor) is a liturgical assembly in Eastern Christianity (the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite).

Synaxes of feast days

In Constantinople, the clergy and faithful would often gather together on specific feast days at a church dedicated to the saint of that day for liturgical celebrations. These gatherings were referred to as synaxes. These synaxes came to have services written specifically for them. A Synaxis often occurs on the day following a Major Feast Day and is in honor of saints who participated in the event. For example, services on the Feast of Theophany (the revelation of the Trinity at the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan) would be held at Hagia Sophia; then, the next day, a Synaxis was observed in honor of St. John the Forerunner at the church dedicated to him. Over time, the synaxes came into general use and are now celebrated in every church.

Synaxis can also refer to a common commemoration of a number of saints in a single service, such as the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles. Each individual saint may have his or her own separate feast day, but they are all commemorated together on their synaxis.

Most synaxes are observed as fixed feasts, being celebrated on the same calendar date year after year, though some occur on the nearest Sunday to a particular date. Other synaxes are celebrated on the Paschal cycle, moving backward or forward in the calendar according to the date of Pascha (Easter) that year.

Rite of Constantinople

The following are Synaxes which are universally observed in the Rite of Constantinople:

Local observance

There are also synaxes which have been composed for local observance:

References

References

  1. [http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=103648 Synaxis of the Theotokos]
  2. "Arsenius of Konevits – Ortodoksi.net".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

eastern-orthodox-liturgical-days byzantine-rite christian-terminology
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Synaxis — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report