The Orthodox Church honors its Saints and considers them the “friends of God.” These people served God in this world, were sanctified in body and soul, and were accepted into God’s bosom upon passing into eternal life. As a result, they are able to pray for those still living in this world. This makes them the ultimate role models for Orthodox Christians.
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Synaxarion
The Synaxarion is a book of the lives of the Orthodox saints. The name comes from Greek and means “compilation” or “index.” Over the centuries, this word has taken on many meanings, including a compilation of the “Lives of the Saints.” Ultimately, the Synaxarion serves to memorialize and honor the saints’ lives.
The Synaxarion includes brief accounts of many saints, their lives and feasts. It is traditionally read after the Acts of the Divine Liturgy. The website also offers an online search box to locate the details of a particular saint.
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers are the writers and theologians who laid the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. They lived during the Patristic Era, which spanned the fourth and fifth centuries. During this period, Christianity flourished. The Church Fathers lived and wrote in both Greek and Latin languages.
Each saint has his or her own unique calling and characteristic. But all of them share a common trait: they all fought the good fight for the faith and applied scriptural virtues to their lives.
Saints
Orthodox saints are Christians who have achieved perfection in life, soul, and spirit. They have been accepted into the heavens and are considered friends of God. They have done good in the world and have been sanctified in body and soul. They have also been entrusted with the ability to intercede for others. This makes them the perfect role models for Orthodox Christians.
The lives of these saints are preserved in moving descriptions, known as synaxaria, which is from the Greek word synaxis, meaning to meet in a church for liturgical purposes. These descriptions were written by various authors, including St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain and Fr. George Poulos, in the eighteenth century. In recent years, many of these lives have been written in English.
Biographies
The tradition of preserving the lives of holy persons began in the early Church. The early Christians wrote their hagiographies and kept them safe. Among the earliest of these were the lives of Cyril and Methodius, Clement of Ohrid, and Naum of Preslav. These writings and the legends surrounding them gradually spread through the world and eventually reached the Orthodox Church. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Orthodox Church began to recognize and honor its saints.
Biographies of orthodox saints are a special genre of mediaeval literature, describing the lives of a saint or saints of the Orthodox Church. The text often presents the saint’s life in terms of eternal life with God. This style encourages readers to identify with the saints and use their stories as role models.
Love for all beings in the world
Saints are people who have achieved a higher state of consciousness than normal humans. They have been sanctified in body and soul and accepted into God’s bosom after death. Many of them have been granted special gifts, such as the ability to pray and intercede for others. They are also known as the “friends of God.”
The emphasis on love is central to the Gospel of Christ. It is so fundamental to the Gospel, that its fundamental teaching is “God is love.” This means that the God of Christians is, first and foremost, love. Love is also a basic characteristic of the Holy Trinity, the three divine Persons who share the same essence and are united in perfect love.
Canonization process
In orthodox Christianity, the process of canonization begins with the decision of the Church to add a person’s name to the canon. Saints are chosen for a variety of reasons, but the most common reason is that they have preserved the image of God. God created man in His own image (the Greek word for “image”), and he intended him to be a faithful copy of that original.
Traditionally, the canonization process has been a lengthy one, but the process has become more efficient over the past few decades. Now, a bishop will accept a petition for a saint and send it to a commission to examine the candidate’s life. Eventually, this committee will make a recommendation to the Holy Synod of the local Church.
