Origins The Feast of All Saints of Russia

metropolitan macarius of moscow

in 1528–1529 nephew of st joseph of volokolamsk monk dositheus toporkov during work on fix of sinai patericon lamented in afterword although russian land , has many holy men , women, worthy of veneration , glorification as eastern saints of first centuries of christianity, because of our negligence, [they are] left without proper attention , not recorded in written works, [of them] ourselves know (11, 74, 12, 275). dositheus performed work blessing of archbishop macarius of novgorod (later metropolitan of moscow , rus).

the main merit of st. macarius long, painstaking , hard work on collection , systematization of hagiographic, hymnographic , homiletic heritage orthodox russia, known @ time. more 12 years, since 1529 1541, st. macarius , assistants worked on twelve-drawing collection, went down in history under name of great macarius menaion reader (Великие Макарьевские Четьи Минеи). collection includes lives of many russian saints, revered in different parts of rus, did not have general church glorification. publication of new compendium, compiled on calendar basis, , contains biographies of many russian ascetics, accelerated process of preparation of first praise widespread veneration of host of saints in history of russian orthodox church.