THE COPTIC SYNAXARIUM

The Synaxarium (or Synaxarion) in the Coptic Church is a liturgical book containing short narratives of the lives of saints, or exposition of feasts and fasts, arranged on the days of the year, and read in the religious services of the Church throughout the year, except during Pentecost.[1] The book was developed sometime in the Middle Ages – prior to that the lives of saints were kept separately and read eulogistically at the saints’ passion days. These independent encomiums were written in Greek and Coptic, but when they were assembled together they were translated into Arabic, and the resultant work was called Seneksar (سِِنكسار) from the Greek Συναξάριον, itself derived from συναγειν, synagein, meaning ‘to bring together’. The primary compilation of the Coptic Synaxarium is attributed to the 13^th century cleric, Michael (or Mikha’il), who was bishop of Atrib and Malij, two towns in the Nile Delta. Other writers such as Peter (or Butrus) al-Jamil, bishop of Malij, in the last quarter of the 12^th century and the first half of the 13^th century, and John (Yuhanna), bishop of Burullus (Parallos), contributed to its production. Two recensions and several manuscripts are available in Egypt.[2] The Coptic Synaxarium has been translated into German, Latin and French:

German translation: made in 1879 by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (1808 – 1899) under the title Synaxarium, das ist Heiligen-Kalender der coptischen Christen (Synaxarium, that is the Holy Calendar of Coptic Christians). It covers only the first-half of the Coptic year as he was not able to publish the rest. This edition is based on a single Arabic manuscript in Gotha, which dates from 1826, but he did not include the Arabic text.

For the German edition by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld , review our article The Coptic Synaxarium German Translation by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld.

Latin translation: made in 1905 by Jacques Forget (1852 – 1933) under the title Synaxarium alexandrinum. It was published in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. It depended on seven manuscripts but, including those used by the French, Basset, which it took as its base, “relegating to notes” the rest.

For the Latin edition by Jacques Forget, review our article The Coptic Synaxarium Latin Translation by Jacques Forget.

French translation: this is the most famous, and was made René Basset (1855 – 1924) under the title Synaxaire arabe-jacobite (rédaction copte), and was published in the Patrologia Orientalis (PO) between 1907 and 1923. It is based on two Copto-Arabic manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, one from the 14^th century while the other is dated the 17^th century. Basse’s Synaxarium is published in Arabic text at the top of the page and equivalent French text at its bottom. In 2000, the Coptic bishop, Anba Samuel published the Arabic text of Basse’s edition in four volumes under the title: السنكسار القبطى اليعقوبى. Five volumes of the P.O., tomes 1, 3, 11, 16, and 17, include the 13 Coptic months.

P.O. Tome 1 (1907): Mois de Tout et de Babeh

P.O. Tome 3 (1909): Mois de Hatour et de Kihak

P.O. Tome 11 (1915): Mois de Toubeh et d’Amchir

P.O. Tome 16 (1922): Les mois de Baramhat, Barmoudah et Bacans

P.O. Tome 17 (1923): Les mois de Baounah, Abib, Mésoré et jours complémentaires

Ethiopia has its own Synaxarium (Senkesar), which is a translation from a Copto-Arabic recension, and appeared towards the end of the 14th century. In its oldest form, as Budge says, “it was simply a translation from Arabic into Ethiopic of the Synaxarium of the Jacobite Church of Egypt, and it only commemorated the saints venerated by the Egyptian Church.”[3] However, it has grown to incorporate local saints and feasts.[4] The Ethiopian Synaxarium was translated into French,[12] and published in the PO, beginning in the same year the Coptic Synaxarium was published. The translation was made by Ignazio Guidi under the title Le synaxaire éthiopien. Unlike the Coptic Synaxarium, it has also been translated into English by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge under the title The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church, which he made in 1928.[5]

______________________

[1] See, T. Y. Malati: Dictionary of Church Terminology (in Arabic) (Cairo, 1991).

[2] For more on the Coptic Synaxarium, the reader is advised to read:

• H. E. Burmester, On the Date and Authorship of the Arabic Synaxarium of the Coptic Church. J Theol Studies (1938) os-XXXIX(155): 249-254.
• Copto-Arabic Synaxarion by René-Georges Coquin and Aziz S. Atiya in The Coptic Encyclopedia (New York, Macmillan, 1991).
• Mikha’il, bishop of Atrib and Malij by René-Georges Coquin in The Coptic Encyclopedia (New York, Macmillan, 1991).

[3] Introduction in The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church: A Translation of the Ethiopic Synaxarium (Mashafa Senkesar): Made from the Mss. Oriental 660 and 661 in the British Museum, by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge (Cambridge, 1928).

[4] As David Buxton says in his The Abyssinians, “Although this was at first simply the synaxarium of the Copts, the book underwent gradual ‘acclimatization’ in the Abyssinian scriptoria: they enriched it with more and more lives and acts of local saints while introducing copious references to the festivals peculiar to the Abyssinian Church.”  See David Buxton, The Abyssinians (New York, Thames and Hudson, 1970), pp. 123-124.

[5] Full title: The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church: A Translation of the Ethiopic Synaxarium (Mashafa Senkesar): Made from the Mss. Oriental 660 and 661 in the British Museum, in four volumes, by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge (Cambridge, 1928).