Synaxis Synaxis of the Saints of Aetolia and Acarnania

The Synaxis of the Saints of the Aetolian and Acarnanian Land is a modern ecclesiastical tradition of the Metropolis of Aetolia and Acarnania in Greece, gathering together the veneration of local ascetics of various eras. The feast is kept on a movable date — the Sunday of the Blind Man (the 6th Sunday after Pascha) — and is accompanied by the bringing of relic fragments of the venerated saints to the cathedral of Missolonghi. The central figure of the synaxis is the Equal-to-the-Apostles Hieromartyr Kosmas of Aetolia (born Konstas, 1714-†1779) — an Athonite hieromonk who, from 1759 to 1775, preached throughout mainland Greece, Epirus, Albania, and the islands, reportedly founding over a hundred schools to combat illiteracy and forced Islamization under Ottoman rule; he was hanged in 1779 on a false charge of Russian espionage and was canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1961. The synaxis also includes St. Kallinikos, Bishop of Edessa, "the Aetolian"; Hieromartyr Blasios of Acarnania; Venerable Andrew the Hermit; Martyr John, who suffered at Vrachorion (modern Agrinion); and other locally venerated ascetics of Aetolia and Acarnania.