Divine Liturgy
What is the Synaxarium?
The Saints Remembered By Date
The Synaxarium is the Church's daily reading of saints' lives, feasts, and commemorations. During the Liturgy, it is read after the apostolic readings and before the Psalm and Gospel.
The Synaxarium does not replace Scripture. It shows how Scripture has been lived in the Church through martyrs, bishops, monastics, confessors, and faithful servants.
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight.
Why It Belongs In Worship
The Liturgy is not only a gathering of people currently in the room. The Church worships with the whole Body of Christ. Remembering the saints teaches that holiness is possible, costly, and real.
How To Listen
Listen for the virtue being displayed: repentance, courage, mercy, endurance, ascetic struggle, confession of faith, or love for Christ. The details may be unfamiliar at first, but the point is clear: Christ forms holy people.
- Coptic Rites (3): Liturgy of the Word, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Teaching slides on the Pauline, Catholic Epistle, Praxis, Synaxarium, Gospel litany, Creed, and related rites.
- Why are there multiple readings during the Liturgy?, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States Q&A. Pastoral answer naming the Pauline Epistle, Catholic Epistle, Praxis, Synaxarium, and Holy Gospel as the five readings.
- Saints and Intercession in the Liturgy, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States Q&A. Pastoral answer on commemorating saints and asking their intercessions.
- Martyrdom, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Diocesan overview of martyrdom in the history and spirituality of the Church.
Synaxarium: The liturgical book of saints' lives and commemorations read in church so the faithful remember the witnesses who lived the Gospel before them.
Confession: The sacrament of repentance in which a person confesses sins before God in the presence of the priest and receives absolution and guidance.