Festal Menaion Volumes I and II

This Festal Menaion, was translated by Abbot German Ciuba, from the Church Slavonic version originally printed  in 7158 (1650), during the Patriarchate of Patriarch Joseph and the reign of Tsar Alexis, and reprinted  at the Transfiguration Poorhouse of Moscow, in the year 7425 (1917 AD). The Festal Menaion is printed in red and black on 8 1/2  by 11" pages. Volume I consists of 905 pages and Volume II of 957 pages. Below is part of the Forward to the Menaion written by Fr. German, the blessing of Metropolitan Niicholas for usage of the Menaion in all churches of ROCOR , and the Table of Contents.                                                                                                                 The Menaion will be sold only as a set of both volumes for the price of $160. It will be available for  sale and distribution on August 1, 2023

While the Monthly Menaion contains all the daily services of the Church’s fixed calendar for each day of the year, the Festal Menaion offers us extracts from the larger work, comprising services for the great feasts of our Lord, the most holy Mother of God and for many of the most widely celebrated saints. Besides services from the Menaion, it also includes material from the Flowery Triodion, or Pentecostarion, the service book containing the services for the period that revolves around the great and holy Pascha of the Lord. It is truly an anthology or florilegium, being a collection of flowers from the spiritual gardens of the Church. We lovingly lay these fair flowers before the reader.

There have already been English translations of the entire Menaion and of the Festal Menaion. The present work is a new translation, drawing upon a very old source: the recension of the services in use before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in seventeenth-century Russia. This is the version still used by Old Ritualists in Church Slavonic and now in English. Whereas some of the Old Rite services, such as the Sacrament of Confession, show considerable divergences from those used in the wider Russian Orthodox Church, the services of the Festal Menaion, as contained in the present volume, are practically the same as those in the post-Nikonian books; therefore, the present translation is suitable for use by all Orthodox Christians.

 This holy book, the Festal Menaion, was published with the blessing of His Eminence, Metropolitan Nicholas, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia 

 To all members of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and to all pious and Orthodox Christians:                                                                                      We thank the Very Reverend Mitred Archpriest Pimen Simon of the Church of the Nativity of Christ (Old Rite) in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Abbot German Ciuba, the translator of this Festal Menaion along with their collaborators, clergy and parishioners, for the translation and publication of a new edition of the Festal Menaion in English.  

Though it was prepared from the pre-Nikonian texts and intended, in particular, for the use of Old Ritualists or Old Believers, it is suitable for use by all who celebrate the feasts of the Russian Orthodox Church. While there are a very few variations in the Old Rite texts, the differences from the contemporary texts in general use in the Russian Orthodox Church are quite minor and very rare. 

We therefore approve and bless the use of this edition of the Festal Menaion in all our churches and by all our faithful who wish to worship God in the English language. We thank the parishioners of the Church of the Nativity for their care and zeal for the divine services. They do not simply seek to preserve the ancient tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church as if it were a museum piece, but to make it accessible to generations of the faithful who may no longer know the Russian or Church Slavonic languages, and to draw the souls of those outside the Church to Orthodoxy by means of the sublime beauty and profound theology of its services. May the All-Merciful Saviour bless all who make use of this book to deepen their knowledge of the divine services and their piety in praying them!

FESTAL MENAION TABLE OFCONTENTS 

1. September1 - The Beginning of the Indiction, that is, of the New Year. 
2. September 8 - The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary.
3. September 14 - The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross.
4. September 26 - The Repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian.
5. October 1 - The Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God.
6. October 11 - Holy fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Conference
7. October 26 - The Holy and Glorious Great Martyr Demetrius and the Commemoration of the Great Earthquake.
8. November 8 - Synaxis of Saint Michael the Chief Commander and the Other Heavenly Powers.
9. November 13 - Our Father Among the Saints John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople.
10. November 21 - The Entry of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, Into the Temple.
11. November 27 - The Divinely-Given Sign of the Icon of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God, in Novgorod the Great.
12. December 6 - Our Father Among the Saints, Nicholas the Wonder-worker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia.
13. The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers.
14. December 17 - The Three Holy Youths: Ananias, Azarias and Misael; and the Holy Prophet Daniel.
15. The Sunday Before the Nativity of Christ - the Sunday of the Holy Fathers.
16. The Order of the Hours Chanted on the Eve of the Nativity of Christ.
17. December 25 - The Nativity of Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus
18. December 26 - The Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God and Saint Joseph the Betrothed.
19. The Sunday After the Nativity of Christ.
20. January 1 - The Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to the Flesh and the Commemoration of Our Father Among the Saints Basil the Great.
21. January 5 - The Order of the Hours Chanted on the Eve of the Illumination.
22. January 6- The Holy Theophany of Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
23. January 7 - The Synaxis of the Holy and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, John.
24. January 29 - Three Great Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologion, and John Chrysostom
25. February 2 - The Meeting of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
26. February 24 - Finding of the head of St. John the Forerunner
27. March 9 - Forty Great Martyrs of Sebaste
28. March 25 - The Annunciation of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary.
29. Lazarus Saturday
30. Palm Sunday.
31. Holy and Great Saturday.
32. The Service for the Sunday of the Holy Pascha and for All of Bright Week.

     33.A. On Tuesday of Bright Week we celebrate the Feast of Our Most Holy Lady,               the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Hodegitria, which means                     'Mighty Helper.^*

34. Services of Bright Week. 
35. April 23 - The Holy and Glorious Great Martyr George.
36. May 8 - The Holy, Glorious and All-praised Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian.
37. May 9 - The Translation of the Venerable Relics of Our Father among the Saints, Nicholas the Wonder-worker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia.
38. On Thursday of the Sixth Week after Pascha the Ascension of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ into Heaven.
39. Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Conference – The Sunday after the Ascension
40. Pentecost
41. On the Sunday of Pentecost in the evening.
42. Sunday of All Saints
43. May 24 - Saints Constantine and Helen
44. June 23 - We celebrate a feast in honour of the Meeting of the Wonder-working Icon of our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God, which is called the Icon of Vladimir.
45. June 23 - The Nativity of the Honourable and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John.
46. June 26 - Feast in honour of the Appearance of the Wonder-working Icon of our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God, which is called the Hodegitria of Tikhvin.
47. June 29 - The Holy and Glorious Chief Apostles Peter and Paul.
48. July 8 - Feast of the Apparition of the Icon of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God, in the City of Kazan.

49. July 10 - Feast of the Deposition of the Robe, which is the Chiton, of our Great Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
50. July 16 - Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils
51. July 20 - The Holy and Glorious Prophet Elijah.^*
52. July 28 - Feast of the Apparition of the Wonder-working Icon of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Honourable and Glorious Hodegitria of Smolensk.
53. August 1 - The Procession of the Precious and Life-giving Cross of the Lord; and the Holy Martyrs, the Seven Maccabees, Brothers According to the Flesh, and Their Teacher Eleazar and Their Mother Solomonia. 

On this day we celebrate the Feast of the All-Merciful Saviour.

54. The Procession of the Precious and Life-giving Cross of the Lord or the Feast of the All-Merciful Saviour if they are the feast of the temple
55. August 6 - The Holy Transfiguration of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
56. August 15 - The Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God.

56A. Appendix to the Service for the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God.

57. August 16 - Translation of the Holy Image of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Not Made by Hands, the Holy Napkin, from Edessa to Constantinople.
58. August 29 - The Beheading, or Severing of the  Honourable Head, of the Holy and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John.