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Menaion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Menaion (Greek: Μηναίον; Slavonic Минея/Minéya; "of the month") refers to the annual fixed cycle of services in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches. Commemorations in the Menaion are tied to the day of the calendar year.
Since 1921, there have been two calendars in use within the Orthodox Church: the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar. At the current time there is a thirteen day difference between the two caldendars. This means that those churches which use the New Calendar (Gregorian) will celebrate the feasts on the fixed cycle thirteen days before those who follow the Old Calendar. The other major annual cycle, the moveable cycle is the same for both Old and New Calendar Churches, so all will celebrate Pascha (Easter) on the same day.
The liturgical texts for celebrations on the Menaion are contained in twelve volumes called menaia. Each menaion will contain the services for an entire month. The liturgical year for Eastern Orthodox Christians begins in September, so the Menaion for September is the first volume of the set.
The menaion contains the largest collection of liturgical texts that are used in the Eastern Church, and is a very imporatant component of the liturgical book owned by a parish. Outside of Great Lent texts in the menaion are used in every one of the Divine Services—with the exception of the Midnight Office—and in the Divine Liturgy (Troparion, Kontakion, Stichera at the Beatitudes, etc.).
There is another volume called the General Menaion which contains services for each type of celebration (Apostles, Martyrs, etc.) with blank spaces for the name of the saint being celebrated. When a parish is not able to afford a complet set of menaia (as often happens in mision situations), or if they do not have the texts for a particular saint they wish to commemorate, it is normal to use the General Menaion to fill in for those services which are missing.
There is also what is called the Festal Menaion which contains the texts for those Great Feasts of the Lord or the Theotokos which fall on the fixed cycle.
- Menaion Translations by Archimandrite Ephrem
- General Menaion English translation by St. Sergius of Radonezh Parish
- Festal Menaion Theology Today
- Catholic Encyclopedia article, s.v., Menaion