SYNAXIS. A meeting for any religious function in the early Church, corresponding to synagogue, as a Jewish religious meeting. In the Eastern Church it still means any assembly for public worship and prayer, including the liturgical synaxis, or Mass. In the Western Church it had been used for non-Eucharistic services such as the reading of Psalms or the recitation of prayers, from which the Divine Office developed. Synaxis is also the title in the Byzantine Rite of certain feasts on which people assemble in a particular church, corresponding to Roman stations in the Latin Rite. Also, in a Byzantine monastery the council of elders who assist the abbot is called a synaxis.
More specifically, a gathering to celebrate the Divine Liturgy on the day following a major feast in honor of the saints involved in the primary celebration (e.g., today, the day following the Annunciation of the Theotokos is the Synaxis of Holy Gabriel Archangel).
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