On the 30th of October, 2025, a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was held in Moscow.
Per the reports of Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, and Bishop Pancratius of Troitsk, Chairman of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, the Synod resolved to establish the Feast of the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers, the Founders of Monasticism, and of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Land of Egypt (Journal No. 101).
All the saints commemorated in the Menologion of the Russian Orthodox Church who shone forth in Egypt were included in this synaxis.
The celebration of the Feast of the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers, the Founders of Monasticism, and of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Land of Egypt, is to occur on January 19/February 1, the feast day of St. Macarius the Great.
The Synod approved the following refrain for the festal supplicatory canon:
“Venerable Fathers and All Saints of Egypt, pray to God for us.”
The following saints have also been added to the Menologion of the Russian Orthodox Church and to the above-mentioned synaxis of saints:
• The Holy Hieromartyrs Patapius, Bishop of Qift, Andrew his kinsman, and the martyrs who suffered with them in Esna (July 13/26; c. 312 AD);
• The Holy Great Martyr Damiana of Egypt and the forty virgin-martyrs slain with her (January 8/21; early 4th century).
