The prayers, fasts, Scripture, and saints of the Oriental Orthodox Church, gathered into one place and made yours to keep, ordered by a living liturgical calendar and given in English, day by day.
Fully offline · No ads · No trackers · No account required
The name
Gedam is an Amharic word, carried down from the older Geʼez, the ancient church language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Church, and it means a monastery: a place set apart for prayer, fasting, and the reading of Scripture. This app is not such a place, and could never stand in for one. It only hopes to carry a little of that life into your day, a small corner that keeps the prayers, the fasts, and the saints close at hand, so that wherever you are, the rhythm of the Church is near. The monastery on the mountain remains. This is only a path toward it.
Our mission
To put the devotional life of the Oriental Orthodox Church within reach of everyone who longs to keep it: the diaspora, the convert and the seeker, the young believer praying in English, the faithful far from a parish.
For too long that inheritance has lain scattered: the calendar on a parish wall in a language you may not read, the prayers in books hard to find, the saints kept in the Synaxarium and the Senkessar but barely carried into English. Gedam gathers what was scattered and gives it in English, the common tongue of the diaspora: the prayers of the day, the Scriptures of the Church, the readings and saints appointed for each day, and the fasts and feasts that order the year, all held by a living calendar that always knows where you stand. It serves the whole Oriental Orthodox family, six churches held together by one confession of Christ. Never a replacement for the Church, only a companion that carries you toward her. Read how they are one family.
One tradition, or one thing: a prayer book here, a fasting calendar there, a list of saints somewhere else. Scattered across apps, books, and parish walls.
Gedam gathers the Oriental Orthodox devotional life in one place: the calendar, the prayers, the Scripture, the fasts, and the saints, in English, across all six churches. If you pray in English, live in the diaspora, are far from a parish, or are only beginning to seek, the life of the Church is no longer scattered across books, websites, and a calendar on a wall you cannot read. It is here, in your pocket, and it follows the real Church year, day by day.
What Gedam does
Everything the devotional life asks of a day, gathered into one quiet place that keeps the Church's own calendar: the prayers, the fasts, the Scriptures, and the saints. It all lives on your device and works without a signal, and you sign in only if you wish to carry it across your own devices.
Open the app and know at once what today is in the Church: whether it is a fast or a feast, the saint remembered, the readings appointed at the Liturgy. Gedam computes the whole Church year for any tradition and any year, so you are never left guessing where you stand.
A habit tracker for the life of prayer. Choose the devotions you want to keep, whether a morning prayer, the Wednesday and Friday fast, or the day’s reading, and check them off. The list follows the calendar, and a day you miss is never counted against you.
Keep a devotion and Gedam lights a candle for it, a quiet sign the day was offered. Your kept days carry you gently up the Ladder of Divine Ascent. It is encouragement to return tomorrow, never a streak to break or a score to lose.
The Orthodox Scriptures on your device: the Septuagint Old Testament with the Deuterocanon, the New Testament, and the Ethiopian book of Jubilees, the Psalms numbered as the Church prays them. Follow the day’s readings, highlight the verses that find you, and keep your notes. No signal required.
The Church’s prayers, always within reach: the Hours, the Wudase Mariam, and the Jesus Prayer told on the rope, with many more for the saints, the departed, and the seasons of a life. Each is shown in the form your own tradition keeps.
Each day, the saints the Church remembers: more than a thousand lives drawn from the Senkessar and the Coptic Synaxarium, told in English at last. Read who stands with you today, and let their lives shape your own.
How it works
For all its imagery, what Gedam asks of you is simple, and the same each day: choose a few devotions, keep them as the day allows, and let the candles you light mark your ascent. It is the oldest rhythm of the Christian life, set to the calendar of the Church and made easy to return to.
Choose the devotions you want to keep, the way you would set any daily habit: a morning prayer, the Wednesday and Friday fast, a chapter of Scripture, the Jesus Prayer on the rope, or your own. Because Gedam follows the Church’s calendar, the ones tied to it appear when they are due, so you always see what today asks.
Each time you pray, fast, or read, you mark it kept and a candle is lit on your home screen, a visible sign that the day was offered. No scoreboard, no broken streaks: when a day falls short, Gedam quietly invites you back tomorrow.
Day by day, the devotions you keep carry you up the Ladder of Divine Ascent, the soul’s long climb toward God. Never a measure of your failures, only a quiet sign of a life turning Godward.
What is the Ladder of Divine Ascent?
In the seventh century, Saint John Climacus, a monk of Mount Sinai, described the Christian life as a ladder of thirty rungs, each a virtue, by which the soul climbs toward God. His Ladder of Divine Ascent has been treasured across the Orthodox world ever since, read in the monasteries through every Great Lent. Gedam borrows the image gently. The candles you light and the days you keep are not a score to win, but a small and daily picture of that same ascent: the slow, ordinary work of turning toward God one faithful day at a time.
A guided tour
Real screens from the app, playing on their own. Hover to pause, or tap any screen to jump to it.
What sets it apart
Most apps store a handful of fixed holidays. Gedam computes the calendar from each church's own rules. The Coptic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean churches share the ancient reckoning of Alexandria (which the Ethiopian and Eritrean churches call the Bahere Hasab), and the Syriac Orthodox keep that same older Pascha; the Armenian and Malankara churches follow the modern Gregorian dating.
From the date of Pascha, the Church's Easter, the whole moving year unfolds, each tradition true to its own: Nineveh, Great Lent, Holy Week, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and Pentecost.
A day's detail
Through the whole year
The Ethiopian and Eritrean churches keep seven fasting seasons across the year, and Gedam knows each one: when it begins, how long it lasts, and how it is kept. The Coptic Church keeps its own, reckoned the same way, and the Armenian, Syriac, and Malankara churches each keep theirs.
And in the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition, every month carries its own feasts: Saint Michael on the 12th, Saint Gabriel on the 19th, the Mother of God on the 21st, and more, so few days pass without someone to remember.
The Septuagint, the New Testament, the Deuterocanon & Jubilees, offline
An offline Orthodox Bible
Most English Bibles leave out books the Orthodox Church has always kept. Gedam brings them back: the Septuagint Old Testament, the ancient Greek Scriptures the early Church read and the Orthodox Old Testament to this day, with the Deuterocanon, the New Testament, and the Ethiopian book of Jubilees, the Psalms numbered as the Church prays them. These are faithful, public-domain editions, chosen so the Scriptures can live on your phone, free and offline.
Six sister churches
The Oriental Orthodox churches share one faith, but keep it differently: how the fasts are held, which prayers are said, which saints are remembered. Gedam keeps each of those differences faithfully, and never shows one tradition's practice as another's. Choose a church to see how Gedam changes for each, or read what to expect from yours.
The Coptic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean churches carry the fullest daily depth: a reading and a saint for every day of the year. The Armenian, Syriac, and Malankara churches are kept in the Sunday-and-feast rhythm their own traditions follow. What to expect from each.
Free at heart
The living calendar, the offline Bible, the prayers, the saints, and the ascent, the very heart of Gedam, are free for everyone, forever. No ads, no trackers, no signal required. Gedam+ is an optional way to support the work and unlock a few extras.
Free, forever
A 7-day free trial, then $24.99 / year
Also $2.99 / month, or $59 once for life. Cancel anytime.
Gedam+ keeps the lights on so the devotional core can stay free for everyone, and it never gates a prayer, a reading, a fast, or a saint.
“We do not climb the ladder of ascent all at once, but step by step, in the small faithfulness of each day.”— after St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Questions
No. Gedam works fully offline on your device, so no account is needed to begin. An optional account, with Gedam+, syncs your devotional life across your own devices.
Yes. The whole devotional core is free for everyone, forever, with no ads: the calendar, the offline Bible, the prayers, the saints, the ascent, and up to seven devotions. Gedam+ is an optional subscription (a 7-day free trial, then $24.99/year, or $2.99/month, or $59 once) that adds a gentle AI companion, the full Dashboard to see your ascent, sync across your devices, and unlimited devotions. It never gates a prayer, a reading, a fast, or a saint.
Every fast, feast, prayer, and saint is drawn from validated, cited sources, never written from memory. The moving feasts are calculated from the Church’s own dating of Pascha (Easter), and each of the six traditions is kept by its own practice, never blended into one.
Yes. Gedam shows no ads, uses no third-party trackers, and never sells your data. Optional sync is protected per account, and you can request full deletion at any time.
Gedam is in final preparation for the App Store on iPhone. Leave your email and we will tell you the moment it launches. No spam, just the release.
Yes, and we would be glad of the help. Before launch we will invite a small circle to pray with Gedam on iPhone through TestFlight, Apple’s beta program, and tell us what to mend. Leave your email and tick the box to help test, and we will reach out when that phase opens.
Launching soon
Leave your email and we'll let you know the moment Gedam arrives on the App Store.
