THIRD PROJECT

With the original text as written by the sacred author in the edition of 1819. The work is not in archaic form, but has been retyped.

[...] The work is published unchanged in terms of content from that of the first edition. We have of course changed the typeface and page layout to make it easier to read. [...] We would like to remind you that the collection bearing the designation "Synaxarist" was compiled in the 13th century for liturgical use, and it was prescribed that the Synaxarion of each celebrated Saint be read in the Service of Standing after the sth ode. Today this reading has been abandoned, and only the memory of each Saint is recited, together with the two or three verses that refer to him. At the same time, a confusion has been created so that the Synaxarion of a Saint is identified with his Life, and by extension the "Synaxarist" collection with the "Lives of Saints" collection, while there is an essential difference. The Synaxaria are more interested in highlighting the liturgical and eschatological dimension of the state and the martyrdom or sacrificial end of a Saint and less the historical data of his course, and indeed in short texts, while the Lives are extensive biographies. That is why in the Synaxaria the speech is condensed and extremely poetic, harmonizing most of the time with the content of the hymns and tropes of the church services. This poetic greatness, aided by the linguistic form and style of the texts, we also observe in the present Synaxarist whom we inscribe to Agios Nikodimos the Saint, although he himself wants to appear as a translator of the Synaxarist of Deacon Maurice. (excerpt from editor's note)