SYNAXARIUM (Gr. ovvaE&pcov, from ovv&

See also:

• YEW (Taxus baccata)

yew, to bring together)  , the name given in the Greek Church to a compilation corresponding very closely to the martyrology (q.v.) of the Roman Church . There are two kinds of synaxaria—simple synaxaria, which are merely lists of the saints arranged in the order of their anniversaries, e.g. the calendar of Morcelli; and historical synaxaria, which give biographical notices besides, e.g. the menology of Basil and the synaxarium of Sirmond . The notices given in the historical synaxaria are summaries of those in the great menologies, or collections of lives of saints, for the twelve months of the year . The oldest historical synaxaria apparently go back to the tenth century . The heterodox Eastern churches also have their synaxaria . The publication of the Arabic text of the synaxarium or the Church of Alexandria was started simultaneously by J . Forget in the Corp. script. orient. and by R . Basset in the Patrologia orient., and that of the Ethiopian synaxarium was begun by I . Guidi in the Patrologia orient . The Armenian synaxarium, called thesynaxarium of Ter Israel was published at Constantinople in 1834 . S . A .

Morcelli, Kalendarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (

Rome, 1788) ; H . Delehaye, " Le Synaxaire de Sirmond," in Analecta bollandiana, xiv . 396-434, where the terminology is explained; idem, Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae e codice Sirmondiano (Brussels, 1902), forming the volume Propylaeum ad acta sanctorum novembris . (H .