Menologion

   A codex (q.v.) comprising a catalog (logos) of brief biographies of saints, arranged in the order that they appear in the church calendar of fixed feasts, the synaxarion (q.v.). The earliest menologia date from the ninth century. By the 11th century, the standard collection of lives was that of Symeon Metaphrastes (q.v.). Each saint's biography, or life (vita [q.v.]), is placed into one of 12 sections for each of the 12 months, in chronological order according to the annual festival day of the saint. Menologia were illustrated with scenes from the saintly vitae, and none more beautifully than the Menologion of Basil II (q.v.), which has 430 miniatures, among them some of the finest examples of miniature painting at its zenith.