MENEON. – Liturgical book of the Greek rite, composed of 6 or 12 volumes, containing the proper chants and biblical lessons of the Office of the feasts of the Madonna, the angels, and the saints—that is, of the feasts with fixed dates; it also contains the texts of the immovable feasts of the Lord in the ecclesiastical year (Christmas, Epiphany; the movable feasts of the Lord or of the ecclesiastical year are found in the Triodion for the period before Easter, beginning 8 days before Septuagesima, in the Pentecostarion for the Easter period, and in the Octoechos for the rest of the year).
Moreover, the M. contains longer or shorter readings from the lives of the saints and the rubrics of the Tipicon, and corresponds to the “proprium de sanctis” of the Roman Breviary. As an appendix there follow chants and lessons of saints who do not have proper ones, in accordance with the “common of the saints” in the Roman Breviary. The M. is arranged according to the days and months (hence its name) of the Byzantine civil year, beginning with September, the Byzantine New Year; it is the well-known sacred book among the Greeks, printed several times. The latest editions: Rome, 6 vols., 1888–1902; earlier ones: Venice 1527 ff., Constantinople 1843, Athens 1896.