Our Notes & References

A lovely example of a tiny manuscript Menologium, a liturgical calendar with hymns celebrating the saints for each month of the year. In attractive, fresh condition, with the ornaments in bright colours.

The hymns are arranged chronologically by date starting from the beginning of the Orthodox calendar on 1 September, through August. This small volume would have been made for an Old Believer parish, which did not allow sacred texts to be printed, nor did the faithful accept the alterations in Orthodox worship imposed in the 17th century by Patriarch Nikon.

The cycle of hymns follows the Typicon of Saint Sabas, a liturgy originally celebrated in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, with some specifically monastic usages added, which were local traditions at the Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, in the Bethlehem Governorate. From there it spread to Constantinople, and thence throughout the Byzantine world. In Russia the first printed edition of the Typicon appeared in 1610.

The volume also served other purposed: the last blank leaves contain 7 pages covered with manuscript notes, in Russian, probably by a local clergyman, registering marriages, births, christenings and deaths between 1837 and 1859.