Daily Missals

The name derives from the Greek mineon, which was brought to Romanian through the Slavonic mineia or the Serbian minei, and which means, literally, month. The notion describes that particular category of religious books, in manuscript or printed form, specific to the Christian Orthodox religion, which contain the names of the saints that are to be celebrated throughout the year, as well as the religious services particular to each of them. A complete series of daily missals must always contain twelve volumes.

Usually, the complete daily missals contain two main parts: one which names the religious services for each day, and another in which the lives of the saints celebrated in the first part are briefly narrated.

Unlike the four gospels, the daily missals have a more somber calligraphic aspect, being written on filigreed paper, in black ink and with half-inched lettering. The titles of the days, as well as some ritualistic indications referring to the type of religious service, the type of religious song (that is of melodic tones), etc., are frequently written in red ink.


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