Gr. Ch. Pl. -ia. Also in anglicized form synaxary. [eccl. L., f. eccl. Gr. συναξάριον, f. σύναξις SYNAXIS. Cf. F. synaxaire.] An account of the life of a saint, read as a lesson in public worship; also, a collection of such accounts. So Synaxarist [Gr. συναξαρίστης], the compiler of a synaxarion.
1850. Neale, Eastern Ch., Gen. Introd., IV. iii. 838, note. Now follows the Synaxarion, or extracts from the Menology. Ibid., 890. The Synaxaria … are the abbreviated lections from the Menologion, extracted from the Menæa.
1853. Scrivener, Collation Grk. MSS. Gospels, p. xxx. There are scattered fragments of a Synaxarion at the end of the book.
1883. Schaff, Hist. Chr. Ch., Apost. Chr., II. xii. § 81. 645. In all the existing Greek and Syriac lectionaries or evangeliaries and synaxaries … which contain the Scripture reading lessons for the churches.
1908. J. R. Harris, Side-Lights N. T. Research, iv. (1909), 126. The Synaxarist explains this to mean that St. Thomas himself visited China.
1911. Encycl. Brit., XXVI. 292/1. The Armenian synaxarium, called the synaxarium of Ter Israël was published at Constantinople in 1834.
