For what we read in the Synaxarion, imperfect though it be, makes the saint present to us no less than the figure in the holy icon and is equally grace-bearing.

But the daily reading of these short accounts will not profit us unless we come to it in the spirit of venerating an icon. Christians who live in the world may not be able to go to church every day to chant the praises of the saints but, whether alone or in the family, everyone can chant the troparion of the saint of the day, everyone can venerate the icon, everyone can devote a few minutes to reading or reading again the life of the saint in the Synaxarion. We have three ways of bringing the saints daily into our spiritual lives: by chanting the hymns and church services dedicated to them, by venerating their icons and by reading their lives in the Synaxarion. They are henceforth alive to God, for Christ has made his abode with them. By partaking in Christ's Passion through martyrdom, ascesis, tears and practice of all the evangelic virtues, the saints have overcome death with Him. To the extent that they have taken up their cross with Christ, so as to crucify in themselves the old man, full of passions, sins and all uncleanness, they have been able to share also in the glory of Christ's Resurrection. The saints who shine with the divine light have become gods by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to the extent that baptized into Christ they have put on Christ.

The world is sanctified, saved and redeemed through the presence of the saints that are in it like the leaven in the loaf, preparing mankind for the final revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the Synaxarium is a work which continues to be written, no so much with ink, but with the blood of the martyrs, the tears of the ascetics, and the wondrous deeds of those who love God, in every place where the word of the Gospel has resounded forth. As the Church continues its journey toward its fulfillment in the Kingdom of heaven, it does not cease to grow through the addition of new saints in every generation. In Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Synaxarium is the classic, abridged, collection of the “Lives of the Saints,” intended for reading in the context of public worship, and to nourish the personal prayer life of the faithful. The lives are arranged according to the Ethiopian calendar with the corresponding western Gregorian dates given in the titles. This app presents the lives of the saints of the Ethiopian church.

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