How the Prologue Was Written:
History & Structure

The Synaxarion Tradition Behind the Prologue from Ohrid

The Prologue did not appear from nothing. It belongs to a literary tradition as old as the Church's liturgical calendar.

In the Greek-speaking Church, abridged lives of the saints arranged by feast day were compiled into collections called synaxaria. The Synaxarion entry for each day is read at Matins, after the sixth ode of the Canon. The saints' lives proclaimed during the services are not decoration. They are instruction. The Church puts the lives of the saints before the faithful so that the faithful might imitate them.

St. Basil the Great grounds this practice in his second letter to St. Gregory the Theologian:

Among the Slavic peoples, the Greek Synaxarion was translated into Church Slavonic at the end of the eleventh century — likely at the Archbishopric of Ohrid itself. In Slavonic usage, these collections came to be called "Prologues." The name stuck. The Lives of the Saints form a preface — a prologue — to the deeper knowledge of Christ.

By the twentieth century, the ancient Slavonic Prologue had become unreadable to ordinary Serbs. The language was archaic. The saints listed were incomplete — hundreds of saints glorified in the intervening centuries were absent. St. Nikolai wrote his Prologue to solve both problems.

He states plainly: "This Prologue is called 'of Ohrid' solely to distinguish it from the ancient Slavonic Prologue which — regrettably, because of its language — has become inaccessible to the Slavic people of our time."

When and Where St. Nikolai Wrote It

St. Nikolai Velimirovic served as Bishop of Ohrid from 1920 to 1929. During those nine years at the Monastery of St. Naum, he composed two of his greatest works: Prayers by the Lake (1922) and the Prologue from Ohrid (composed through the 1920s, first published in Serbian in the late 1920s).

The Monastery of St. Naum sits at the edge of Lake Ohrid. The monastery was founded in 905 by St. Naum of Ohrid, a disciple of Sts. Cyril and Methodius who brought literacy and the Gospel to the Slavic peoples. St. Nikolai was born on St. Naum's feast day — a coincidence he never forgot.

Parish priests, monks, and laypeople had asked the bishop for a handbook of daily spiritual reading. Hieromonk Justin Popovic — later glorified as St. Justin of Celije — was among those who urged him to write it. The need was pastoral: centuries of Ottoman rule had devastated Orthodox education in the region. Priests lacked books. Laypeople lacked guidance. St. Nikolai gave them both in a single volume.

He did not merely translate the old Synaxarion. He rewrote the saints' lives in modern Serbian. He added saints who had been glorified in recent centuries. And he added four original sections to each day that no previous synaxarion had contained. The Prologue was one work among twenty-three volumes — but it became the one the Church remembers most.

The Five Sections: Prologue from Ohrid History and Design

Each daily entry in the Prologue contains five sections. This structure is consistent across all 365 days. The first section — the Lives of the Saints — follows the synaxarion tradition. The remaining four are St. Nikolai's own creation.

1. Lives of the Saints

Each day commemorates several saints. St. Nikolai provides a biographical account of each one: their birth, their struggles, their manner of death or repose. The entries are factual and direct. Dates, places, names, the actions of emperors and governors — all recorded.

From the January 1 entry on St. Basil the Great:

"While still unbaptized he spent fifteen years in Athens studying philosophy, rhetoric, astronomy and all the other worldly sciences of that time. His school companions were Gregory the Theologian and Julian, the later apostate emperor."

From the March 5 entry on Holy Martyr Conon the Gardener:

"With nails driven into his feet and bound to the prince's chariot, this good and guileless saint was dragged until he himself gave out and fell."

No commentary. No explanation of why it matters. The facts are the sermon.

2. Hymn of Praise

Each day carries an original poem written by St. Nikolai himself. These are liturgical in character — addressed to God or the saints, suitable for singing. They were composed in Serbian verse.

From the January 7 entry on St. John the Baptist:

"Thirty years of fasting and silence! Even the mountain beasts cannot endure this. The lion soothes his hunger with the music of his roaring, and the tree rustles when the wind blows upon it."

The hymns range from four lines to several stanzas. Some are tender. Some are fierce. All are rooted in the life or feast being commemorated that day.

3. Reflection

The Reflection draws from the Church Fathers, from Scripture, and from the lives of the saints. St. Nikolai selects a passage or a story and presents it for meditation. These are not his own opinions. He quotes and recounts.

From the January 1 Reflection, citing St. John Chrysostom:

"The Church is your hope, the Church is salvation. It is higher than the heavens, harder than stone, wider than the earth; it never grows old, it is always renewed."

From the March 5 Reflection, citing St. Mark the Ascetic:

"Ignorance drives a man to speak against what is beneficial, while insolence multiplies vices."

4. Contemplation

The Contemplation is the shortest section — two or three numbered points directing the reader's inner attention toward a mystery of Christ or a virtue of the saint. Each point begins with the word "How."

From January 1: "Contemplate the circumcision of the Lord Jesus, namely: 1. His glory in the Heavenly Kingdom where the cherubim serve Him with fear and trembling; 2. His humiliation and humility in the act of circumcision, intended for sinners."

From March 5: "Contemplate the Mystery of Holy Communion as the mystery of perfect love, namely: 1. Because on Christ's part it means the giving of His entire Self to His faithful; 2. Because the faithful on their part receive Christ into themselves with faith and trust."

The section is an exercise in prayer. Not reading about prayer — doing it. The reader stops. Turns inward. Considers.

5. Homily

Each day's final section is a short sermon. It opens with a Scripture verse, then unfolds into two to five paragraphs of pastoral teaching. St. Nikolai addresses the reader as "brethren." Each homily ends with a prayer.

From the January 1 Homily, on Psalm 34:14 — "Depart from evil, and do good":

"Hate evil, but do not hate the person who does evil, for he is sick. If you can, heal the sick person, but do not kill him with your hatred."

From the March 5 Homily, on Luke 5:4 — "Launch out into the deep":

"Launch out into the deep! But do not set out upon your vessel without Christ. Not for anything."

The homily is where St. Nikolai speaks most directly. The Lives record. The Hymns praise. The Reflection quotes. The Contemplation directs. The Homily teaches.

What Makes the Prologue Different from Other Synaxaria

The ancient Greek Synaxarion contains one thing: abridged lives of the saints. It is a liturgical reference. The Menologion of Basil II — the oldest illustrated Byzantine hagiographical manuscript, dated to the late tenth century — follows this pattern. One saint per page. One image. One life.

The Slavonic Prologue, translated from the Greek in the eleventh century, follows the same structure. Lives of the saints, arranged by feast day.

St. Nikolai kept the lives but added four original sections. No previous synaxarion had contained original hymns by the compiler. No previous synaxarion had included daily reflections drawn from the Fathers, daily contemplations, or daily homilies. The Prologue from Ohrid is not a reference book to be consulted. It is a companion to be read day by day — a complete framework for daily spiritual life.

St. Nikolai wrote in his preface:

An expanded and explained Calendar. That phrase captures what sets the work apart. The calendar names the saints. The Prologue tells their stories, praises them in verse, draws wisdom from the Fathers who taught beside them, and preaches the Gospel they died for.

Publication History of the Prologue from Ohrid

The Prologue was first published in Serbian in the late 1920s. It remained in Serbian for over fifty years.

Why the Church Reads Saints' Lives

The practice of reading the lives of the saints is not optional devotion. It is woven into the fabric of Orthodox worship. In monasteries, saints' lives are read aloud during meals. At Matins, the Synaxarion entry is read during the canon. Orthodox spiritual fathers prescribe daily reading from the lives of the saints as part of a layperson's prayer rule.

St. John Chrysostom, in his Homily on St. Ignatius, describes the saints' memory as "a kind of haven, and a secure consolation for the evils which are ever overtaking us."

The Prologue brings the monastic practice into the hands of any reader. A layperson who reads one entry per day receives the same nourishment that monastics receive at the refectory table.

St. Nikolai closes his preface with this:

The tree is Christ. The fruit are the saints. The Prologue from Ohrid is the harvest.