SYNAGOGUE and Church. The Jewish Church is, in the catacombs, represented as a woman of majes- tic presence in flowing robes; but in mediieval exam- ples, as on the doorway at Rochester Cathedral, with her eyes bandaged, the tables of the law falling from one hand, and a broken staff in the other (Jer. v, 16, 17). The Church is crowned and sceptred, and holds a church and a cross. — \Yalcott, Sacred Archaol. s. v.
Syiiallaxis, in Greek mythology, was one of the lonids, nymphs skilled in medicine, living on the Cythe- rus, a river of Elis.
Synapte {nvvairT)]) is a Greek term for the Greek Collect in the Liturgy of St. IM ark, resembling the ec- feiie in that of St. James and of St. Chrysostom, It is used, also, to designate the holy communion.
Synaxarium ((rvra^apiov) is a term for an abridge<i form of the Greek menology ( record of months), an account of the festival being celebrated.
Synaxis ((ryi/a^it,), an Eastern term signifying, respectively, 1. A collect or short prayer; 2. The holy eucharist, or the Christian sacrifice; 3. An assembly for worsliip; and, 4. The joint connnemoration of saints.
Syncellus (from (Tvyh-i-XXio, to Join) was an ancient officer attached to the patriarchs or prelates of the Ori- ental Church as witnesses to their conversation and conduct. Others acted as clerks and stewards. It eventually became a mere title of honor.
Syncellus, (iKou(iius, a Byzantine author and an ecclesiastical dignitary of (Constantinople, who lived at the close of the 8th and the begimiing of the 9th cen- tury after Christ. lie has left a Chronography, or chro- nological record of events, extending from the creation to the accession of the emperor Diocletian. He began with Adam, and intended to bring down his compila- tion to his own time, but death anticipated the comple- tion of his task.
I. Name. — He is called Georgius Ahhas and Georgius Alonuchus, and has sometimes been erroneously identi- fied with Georgius Hamartolns, whose works remain still, for the most part, unpublished. The designation of Syncellus, which has been given to the chronogra-
pher as a distinctive appellation, is no personal name, but a title of dignity. It is derived from his ecclesias- tical office in tiie hierarchy of the metropolitan Church of the Eastern Empire. The syncellus was originally the companion, room-mate, occupant of the same cell with the patriarch — cuhnbitatur, cellaneus, concellaneus. He was to be the constant witness of the purity of the patriarch's life and the jiropriety of his conduct and conversation, on the same principle as that which re- quires members of the Jesuit Order to be always accom- panied by one of the fraternity. Sometimes one syn- cellus was appointed, sometimes two, and sometimes more. Frc(iuently the designation was bestowed as an honorary and honorable title. At times the office was employed as a mode of placing spies around the patri- arch. The popes of Rome had their syncelli down to the time of Gregory the Great, at least, as has been proved by Ducange, who has discussed the subject with his usual exuberant learning (Gloss. Med. et Injim. Latin, s. v.). They were attached, also, to other prelates. The relation was naturallj' one of great intimacy and confi- dence, and consequently became one of influence and high distinction. Hence the syncellus seems frequent- ly to have acted as coadjutor to the patriarch, and to have been for a long time regarded as in the legitimate line of succession to the patriarchate. The jiractice, however, of elevating the syncellus to the patriarchal throne on the death of the metropolitan appears to have never been habitual, and to have been al>andoned be- fore the end of the 9th century (Zonaras, XYI, xiii, 25; Gretser et (loar, Comm. in Codin. p. 105). The em- peror Romanus Lecapenus made his youngest son, The- ophylact, syncellus, evidently with a view to the suc- cession to the highest place in the hierarchy (Zonaras, XYI, xviii). The special functions of the office seem to have been gradually abandoned, but the name and dignity were still retained when Codinus prepared his Court-roll of the Imperial Officials (see Goar, Prerf. ad Syncellum, ii, 56).
II. Life. — George the Chronographer was syncellus to the patriarch 'I'arasius, who died in 806. He may have been one of those imposed on that eminent fmic- tionary by the emperor Nicephorus as a sj)y. We know nothing of him except from his name and his title, and from his commemoration by his friend and continuator, Theophanes. The testimony of Theophanes amounts to very little. It is simply that George, the abbot and syncellus, was a distinguished and very learned man, who faithfully and laboriously chronicled the events of the world from Adam, and diligently recorded their chronological succession; that life failed him when he had brought his chronicle down only to the accession of Diocletian ; that, on the approach of death, he requested and urged his friend Theophanes to complete his de- sign, and that Theophanes reluctantly undertook and executed this commission. Of George the Chronogra- pher nothing more is reported. After this brief appa- rition on the stage of history he vanishes into thick darkness, leaving his unfinished work behind him.
III. Woi-ks. — The only work of George Syncellus which we possess, or know to have been written by him, is his Chronography, or Unirersal Chronicles, which comes down, as has been said, to the reign of Diocletian. H.ad life and health been spared, he would probably, like his continuator, Theophanes, and like the general tribe of mediajval chroniclers, have been fuller, more original, and more instructive in the treatment of con- temporaneous events. These events were, in all likeli- hood, well known to him, from his social and official po- sition, and from the diligent studies which obtained for him the reputation of extraordinary knowledge (iroXv- fia^iararoi;'). As he died when he had proceeded no further than the accession of Diocletian, nothing can be expected from him but fidelity of compilation and dis- cernment in the selection and use of authorities. Faith- fulness and industry may be readily conceded to him. Discretion and sagacity are scarcely among his charac-