Synaxis Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh

CLARIFICATION: the feast was established by the blessing of Patriarch Pimen (Izvekov) of Moscow and All Russia on July 10, 1981 (not Patriarch Alexy II, as sometimes mistakenly stated) — preceded by the consecration of a side-altar in honor of the Synaxis of Radonezh Saints in the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra on June 11, 1981, by the Lavra's superior, Archimandrite Jerome. Earlier devotional veneration traces to a "Canon of Supplication to the Venerable Fathers and God-bearing Abbot Sergius and his disciple," printed in the mid-17th century, and the first icons of this type from the same period — but the liturgical feast itself was instituted specifically in 1981. The date is July 6/19, the day following the feast of the uncovering of St. Sergius of Radonezh's relics (July 5/18, 1422).

The synaxis comprises over 75 saints in four traditional groupings: relatives of St. Sergius (his parents Cyril and Maria, and others); his disciples (about 40 saints, including Sts. Nikon of Radonezh, Andronik, Savva of Storozhevsky, Michael of Radonezh); those who conversed with and were contemporaries of St. Sergius (13 saints, including St. Stephen of Perm and Right-Believing Prince Dmitri Donskoi and Princess Evdokia); and holy monks of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra more broadly (including the icon painters Sts. Andrei Rublev and Daniel the Black). St. Sergius of Radonezh himself heads the synaxis.