Journal of the Holy Synod on the Establishment of the Feast of the Synaxis of All Saints who Shone Forth in the Land of Egypt

On the 30^th of October, 2025, a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was held in Moscow.

JOURNAL No. 101

HAVING JUDGED on the establishing of a feast celebrating the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers, the Founders of Monasticism, and of all Saints who shone forth in the land of Egypt.

WE CAME TO THE DECISION:

1. 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, 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, and to include in this Synaxis all the saints commemorated in the Menologion of the Russian Orthodox Church who shone forth in Egypt, as seen in the appendix to this Journal.
2. To set the date of 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, to be January 19 / February 1, the feast day of Macarius the Great.
3. To approve the following refrain for the supplicatory canon of this feast:
   “Venerable Fathers and all Saints of Egypt, pray to God for us.”
4. To include in the Menologion of the Russian Orthodox Church, and in the above-mentioned Synaxis of Saints, the following righteous servants of God:
   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).