Pearls from the Pedalion: The Great Fast of Lent and How Fasts are to Be Observed Regarding Food and Marital Relations

Read the two-part introduction to the "Pearls from the Pedalion" series here.

From the Orthodox Ethos: Canon 69 of the Holy Apostles, and the commentary and footnotes from St. Nikodemos, are very instructive regarding the fasts of Great Lent, the Wed and Friday fasts observed throughout the year, and the other fasting periods on the Church calendar. We strongly encourage reading these excerpts; you will notice afterwards that you have gained a much more complete understanding of the Church’s fasts. Of course, one should always be guided in their fasting by a discerning spiritual father who follows the canons of the Church and knows how to apply them with discernment for the salvation of their spiritual children.

The footnotes authored by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite are prefaced with “SNH” (numbered according to Ralph Masterjohn). The endnote citation from the Orthodox Ethos are prefaced with “OE”.

St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Canon 69 of the Holy Apostles^OE1

If any Bishop, or Priest, or Deacon, or Subdeacon, Readers, or Psalti fails to fast throughout the forty days of the Great Fast, or on Wednesday, or on Friday, let him be deposed, unless he has been prevented from doing so by reason of bodily illness. If, on the other hand, any layman fail to do so, let him be excommunicated.

Interpretation of St. Nikodemos

The present canon commands that all alike, including laymen and those in Holy Orders, must fast the same way and not only during the Great Forty Days Fast,^SNH96 but also on every Wednesday and Friday in the year, for this makes an explicit statement to this effect by saying verbatim: If any bishop or priest or deacon or sub-deacon or Readers or psalti fails to fast throughout the forty days of the Great Fast, or on every Wednesday, or on every Friday, let him be deposed: unless he has been prevented from doing so because of some bodily illness. If, on the other hand, any layman fails to fast on the aforesaid days, let him be excommunicated. For we do not fast during the Great Fast, according to divine Chrysostom on account of Pascha, not on account of the Cross, but on account of our sin, since Pascha is not a subject for fasting and mourning, but, on the contrary, an occasion for cheer and the fulness of joy. (Discourse on those who fast on the first Pascha).

Hence we ought not to say that we are mourning on account of the Cross. For that is not the reason for our mourning—may this not be so! But it is really on account of our own sins. We fast during the forty days of the Fast in imitation of the Lord, who fasted on the mountain for forty days. As for the two days in the week on which we also fast on Wednesday and Friday, we fast on Wednesday because it was on that day of the week that the Sanhedrin was held in connection with the betrayal of our Lord; and we fast on Friday because it was on that day of the week that He suffered His death in the flesh on behalf of our salvation, just as the holy martyr Peter says in his Canon XV, and just as divine Jerome says too.^SNH97 But inasmuch as Canon L of Laodicea commands us to eat dry food (xyrophagy) throughout the Great Forty Days or Great Fast, as divine Epiphanios says in Hairesei LXV, to the effect that during the Great Forty Days eating dry food and practicing continence are incumbent, while the present Apostolic Canon counts Wednesday and Friday along with the Great Fast as occasions for fasting, it is evident that fasting on every Wednesday and Friday ought to be done by eating dry food (xyrophagy) in a similar manner as in the case of the Great Fast. Xyrophagy is the eating of food once a day, at the ninth hour, without eating olive oil or drinking wine, as we have explained in the Interpretation of Apostolic Canon LXIV.

Hence it is that Balsamon says that even the eating of shellfish on Wednesday and Friday and during the Great Fast is prohibited. This truth is acknowledged also by divine Epiphanios, who says: “Fast on Wednesday and on the day preceding Saturday, i.e. on Friday, until the ninth hour.” In addition Philostorgios (in Book 10 of his Ecclesiastical History) says: “Fasting on Wednesday and Friday is most certainly not restricted to mere abstinence from meat, but on the contrary, is canonized to the point that one is not allowed to eat any food whatever until evening.” This explains why blissful Benedict in his Canon XLI orders monks subject to him to fast on Wednesday and Friday until the ninth hour.

God-bearing St. Ignatius also in his Epistle to the Philippians says: “Do not disregard the Great Fast. For it contains an imitation of the Lord’s way of life. After Passion Week, do not fail to fast on Wednesday and Friday, allotting the surplus to the indigent.” So let not certain men violate all reason by declaring that fasting on Wednesday and Friday is not Apostolic legislation. For here, behold, you have direct and unambiguous proof that the Apostles in their own canons include this fast along with the fast of the Great Fast, while in their Injunctions they place it as equal with the fast of Great Week [Passion Week] for it is written in those Injunctions: “It is obligatory to fast during Great Week and on Wednesday and Friday.”^SNH98

But why should I be saying that the Apostles made it a law? Why, Christ Himself made fasting on these two days a law. And to assure yourselves that this is true, listen to the Holy Apostles themselves and hear what they say in their Injunctions (Book 5, Chapter 14): “He Himself has ordered us to fast on Wednesday and Friday.”

But since, as has been shown, the fast of the Great Fast is equal with fasting on Wednesday and Friday, it follows that leaving off these two fastings in the case of sickness or illness is also on an equal footing. Hence, just as Timothy in his eighth and tenth canons permits a woman that gives birth to a child during the Great Fast to drink wine and to eat sufficient food to enable her to be sustained, and on the other hand, permits a greatly emaciated man, owing to illness of unusual severity to eat olive oil in the Great Fast, saying: “For to partake of olive oil when a man has once become emaciated is acceptable,” so and in like manner it may be said that anyone who has become withered and wasted by severe illness ought to be allowed to eat only olive oil and to drink wine on Wednesdays and Fridays.

That is why even divine Jerome says: “On Wednesdays and Fridays fasting must not be omitted unless there is great need of this.” The same thing is asserted also by holy Augustine.^SNH99 Yet, in view of the fact that flesh-lovers wishing to circumvent the Great Fast and Wednesday and Friday either pretend that they are ill when they are not, or though really ill, claim that the oil and wine are not enough to support their weak condition, because of such pretexts it is necessary that an experienced physician who is also man that fears God, be asked what food is suitable to support their weakened condition, and in accordance with the opinion of the physician the Bishop or Confessor in question may absolve the sick man from the obligation to fast and allow him to break off fasting to that extent, and especially whenever such sick men belong to the class of so-called noblemen.

Concord

It is furthermore a fact that Canon XLIX of Laodicea says that no complete liturgy should be celebrated during the Great Fast, and its Canon LI says that the birthdays of martyrs are not to be celebrated in the Great Fast and Canon LII of the same ordains that marriages are not to be celebrated or weddings held in the Great Fast. All these canons, I mean, have the same tenor, to the effect as the above-quoted canons. For they too lend confirmation to the necessity of fasting and to the mournful tone of the Great Fast. For all these reasons marriages are not permitted during the Fast or birthday celebrations because they imply a state of joyfulness and of laxity. Hence in conformity with this the Sixth Ecumenical Synod in its Canon LXXXIX ordains that we should pass the days of Holy Passion with fasting as well as prayer and contrition of heart, showing that fasting alone is insufficient to be of benefit, as Chrysostom says Hom. 3 to the Antiochians: “We abstain not only from foods, but also from sins.” And Isidore too says, in his Epistle 403: Fasting in respect of food is of no benefit to those who fail to fast with all their senses; for whoever is successfully fighting his battle must be temperate in all things.” St. Nicephoros also says in his Canon XVI that monks ought not to perform agricultural labor during the Great Fast in order to find a pretext or excuse to consume oil and wine. In his Canon XIX he says that “monks in the monastery ought to eat but once a day on Wednesday and Friday.” Note, moreover, that in speaking of the Great Fast the present Apostolic Canon intends to include the entire Great Week of the Passion, and therefore fasting must also be observed throughout this period too.

St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Footnote 96

Fasting, the Great Forty-Day Fast^OE2

For this is merely a tithe of the whole year, according to the exquisite calculation which Blastaris makes. A year is composed of 365 days, and the Great Fast contains seven weeks, from which Saturdays and the Lord’s Days are to be subtracted, on which days fasting with abstinence from wine and olive oil is not allowed, thus leaving a remainder of 35. If we add Great Saturday to these, the total number of fast days becomes 36, which is exactly a tithe of the whole year of 360 days. We may add also the night of Great Saturday and count it as a half day, reckoned as extending to Pascha morn, and thereby we can account also for the five days additional to the 360 required for a full solar year; and thus, behold, the days of the year are reduced to exactly a tenth of their total number.

Note that during all forty days of the Great Fast fish is allowed by the Church only once, and that is on the Feast of Annunciation, as is ordained in the Typikon kept on the Holy Mountain.

Hence it is evident that it has been a more modern hand that has written into the Typikon and into the Triodion that we may eat fish also on the feast day of the Lord's Day of Palms. Besides, even Nicholas the Patriarch in his verses allowed the eating of fish only on the Feast of Annunciation. Therefore, when we learn this fact, let us follow the example of the saints, and not the modernist heretics, who yield obedience to the dictates of their stomachs.

Footnote 97

Fasting and Feasting^OE3

Wednesdays and Fridays of Pascha or New Week are excepted, as are also the days in the week following immediately after Pentecost. We abolish fasting during New Week on account of the great joy attending the Resurrection of the Son and Logos; and we abolish fasting during the week after Pentecost because of the joy engendered by the descent of the Holy Spirit in order that even in this respect the Holy Spirit might prove to be co-essential with the Son, and not anything inferior to Him, as John of Kitros says in his Canon XXV. As for the abolishment of fasting on the Wednesdays and Fridays on which occur the feasts of Christmas and of Theophany, it appears that the situation is remedied by the fasting which is done on the eve preceding them, which is stated in print to be observed always in connection with these feasts; and I consider this to be the reason.

On the other hand, the abolishing of fasting on the Wednesdays and Fridays that come within the twelve-day period preceding Apocreos (leaving of meat eating), and those that come within Cheese-eating Week, cannot be justified or remedied for any reason.^OE4

The reason which some adduce for this—the allegation, that is to say, that during the twelve days in question the Armenians are disposed to fast on account of the dog they call Arjiburion, while in the case of the week preceding Apocreos, the Ninevites fast, and during Cheese-week the Tetradites—this altogether weak and cold reason is impossible and unimpressive, seeing that we Orthodox are in no significantly logical manner to be distinguished from the false teaching of heretics by what we eat or do not eat, but only by the dogmas of the faith. That is why St. Paul said the law of commandments have been abrogated in the teaching. It is for this reason that Balsamon as much as John of Kitros say that we should abolish fasting on these particular Wednesdays and Fridays, because the above-mentioned heretics fast on those days, did not say indefinitely and unrestrictedly that all Orthodox Christians must abolish fasting on those particular days, but only those Orthodox Christians who live in the same house and associate with those heretics.

For Balsamon, on the one hand, in his Reply 52 which he addressed to Marcus of Alexandria says the following: “Nevertheless this too shall be done whenever anyone is dwelling with Tetradites or Armenians.” John (of Kitros) in his Reply 27, addressed to Cabasilas of Dyrrachium (i.e., Durazzo) says likewise: “And especially if we happen to be dwelling with such persons: let us not, therefore, make this a pretext to pamper our bellies.” Again, in this connection Nicholas the Patriarch wrote to Anastasios the Sinaite the following in verse:

“I speak of the week before Apokreos,

Which week we would call that of Arjiburion:

Most people have taken to the abolishment,

And the worldly eat meat on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Even the monks have adopted eating cheese,

Rightly thinking in truth and doing likewise,

If they are descended from the Armenian race

And have been adherents of their heresy of Arjiburion;

For then doing right they are exempt from suspicion.

But the faithful Orthodox even from their ancestry:

In vain do they seek excuses to break off fasting.”

So let all those close their mouths who are neither living with Armenians (for the others, the Tetradites, I mean, and the Ninevites are no longer to be found in the present times), nor descended from the Armenian race, but who impudently abolish fasting on the said Wednesdays and Fridays; and let them learn that they are doing this not for the purpose of countering the Armenians, but rather with the objective of pampering their stomachs. At a time when even those who either are living with Armenians or are descended from the Armenian race, to avoid any suspicion of heresy, may, by abolishing a single permissible day in the Dodecaemeron, or twelve days period before Apocreos, of Tuesday, or of Thursday revert those who have been fasting all the week long. Besides fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, the typicon also prescribe fasting on all Mondays in the year by monks. Any seculars, however, that are willing to fast on this day will be praised by God for doing so and will receive a proper reward. For, “the more that fine things are enhanced the greater is the benefit bestowed.” We too know and have seen with our own eyes many men, and especially women in the world fasting on Monday precisely as on Wednesday and Friday.

Rightly correct and thoroughly reasonable is the logical conclusion concerning fasting on Monday which has been proposed by many authorities and which may be worded substantially as follows: The Lord commands us that unless our justice [δικαιοσύνη or righteousness] exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Because the Pharisees fasted on two days of the week, according to the Pharisee’s statement, “I fast twice a week” (Luke 18:12), therefore we Christians certainly ought to fast three days a week, or, more expressly speaking, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and not merely on the two days, Wednesday and Friday, in order that our justice [or righteousness] may exceed that of the Pharisees (that the Pharisees actually did fast on Wednesday and Friday is a fact which is clearly asserted by divine Chrysostom, in his sermon on the Publican and the Pharisee, page 465, Volume VII). St. Meletios the Confessor asserts that we ought to fast on Monday in order to begin the week with fasting (Step 35).

Note further that inasmuch as Canon XIX of Gangra anathematizes those who abolish the fasts which have been traditionally handed down to the community, on their own reckoning and pretexts without being compelled to do so by any bodily illness, it is incumbent upon all, whether they be in Holy Orders or laymen, in addition to fasting throughout the Great Fast, to keep also the following three following fasts:

That of the forty days observed in honor of the Christ about to be begotten and to wipe away of our sins; that which is called the fast of the Holy Apostles, and which is observed, not on account of the Holy Apostles, as some say, not on account of the descent of the Holy Spirit, but preeminently and principally on account of the preceding seven days rest, as the Injunctions of the Apostles say (Book 5, Chapter 20) — consequently and according to the concomitant reason, because the divine Apostles fasted and were thus sent out to preach; or it was then (say the Acts, in Chapter 13: 3) “when they had fasted and prayed, and had laid their bands on them, they sent them away,” as the Orthodox Confession says (on page 109): this fact is also mentioned by Athanasios the Great (in his discourse concerning those who disparage flight during persecution), who says, “having fasted in the week after Holy Pentecost, the laity went out round the cemetery to pray”; and by Canon XIX of St. Nicephoros — and third, that of August in honor of the Theotokos, who indeed fasted herself in the time of her Dormition, according to Symeon of Thessalonika (Reply m).

But we ought to observe these particular fasts, not with xerophagy, [eating dry foods] as in the case of the Great Fast, but with wine and olive oil and the eating of fish except on Wednesdays and Fridays that fall within these fasting periods, and except during the fast of August, on the occasion of which we partake of fish only once, on the Fast of Transfiguration.

For notwithstanding the fact that these particular feasts are not ordained by the Apostles, we are nevertheless duty bound to observe also the traditions handed down by the Fathers on account of longstanding custom which has the force of a law, according to the holy and civil laws. And because, according to St. Basil the Great (see his sermon on morals LXX), even in those matters wherein nothing is particularly stated in the Bible, we ought to exhort everyone towards what is best and of the greatest benefit to the soul. The fast of August is mentioned also by Canon III of Nicholas; moreover, the tome of Union mentions both the fast of August and that of the forty days of Christmas. Also see Canon III of Neocaesarea. Hence those who fast only seven days during all these three fasts are condemned as transgressors of the ancient prescription of the Church.

Footnote 98

Fasting: Abstain from Weddings and Intercourse^OE5

But if the fast of Wednesday and Friday is equal with that of the Great Fast, it is obvious that just as marriage cannot be celebrated during Great Fast, according to Canon LII of Laodicea, so too marriages ought not to be celebrated on either Wednesday or Friday. So then, it is equally obvious that neither ought a married couple to know each other carnally on any Wednesday or Friday, on account of the solemnity and modesty that these two days command in every week of the year; but neither ought they to know each other in time of the Great Fast. For it is absurd on the one hand for them to avoid abolishing these fasts by eating foods, when on the other hand they abolish them by indulging in carnal intercourse and the enjoyment of sensual pleasure of a carnal nature.

Hence we ought to fast at these times both by abstaining from foods prohibited therein and by abstaining from the temptations of carnal mingling.

Hence it was, too, that the prophet Joel, in hinting that during a fast it is proper for every married couple to practice moderation, saying: “Sanctify fasting, preach devotion to God . . . let the bridegroom come out from his marriage bed, and let the bride come out of her bridal chamber” (Joel 2:16). Divine St. Paul says plainly that couples ought to abstain “by mutual agreement from carnal intercourse in order to be at leisure while fasting and praying” II Corinthians 7:5); this means that they should abstain both when there is, as we have said, a fast, and when they are praying and preparing to commune in the Divine Mysteries both on Saturday and on the Lord’s Day, according to Canon XIII of Timothy, and in general during all feast days in which the spiritual sacrifice is being offered to God.

See also Balsamon in his Reply 50 to Mark, wherein he says that married couples that fail to remain continent throughout the Great Fast, not only ought not to commune during Pascha, but ought even to be chastened with penalties. See also St. Chrysostom (in his Discourse concerning Virginity, on page 260 of volume VI) where he adduces in evidence the above-quoted passage of Joel and goes on to say: “For if the newly married, who have a robust desire and vigorous youth, and unbridled desire, ought not to mingle in time of fasting and prayer, how much more is it not a fact that other married couples who are less violently swayed by the cravings of the flesh ought to refrain from carnal mingling.”

As to how the Christians of the olden days used to fast during the Great Fast by xerophagy and abstaining from all other food until evening, you may learn by listening to what divine St. Chrysostom says:

“There are some persons who are so inclined to court honor from one another and to engage in wonderful contests of endurance in competition with each other, that they spend two whole days without tasting any food at all, not only without wine, or olive oil, but actually removing every sort of edible from the table and denying themselves even a taste, and pass the entire period of the Fast by using only bread and water.” And again he says: “Behold, we have remained all day long today without tasting any food, and shall set the table in the evening” (Chrysostom, Discourse on statues, page 490 of Volume VI).

Footnote 99

Fasting Rules and Their Strictness^OE6

This shows how blameworthy and reprehensible those are who have filled the newly-printed Horologion with permissions of wine and oil, ascribed not only to saints of great renown, but also to saints of little fame, and, in general, unglorified in hymns, which are not to be found in any of the old manuscripts or printed editions of the Horologion that have been preserved.

Hence let those who have received this information correct themselves and follow the old rather than the new guides. But in order to complete our discussion of fasting, we add also this fact, that all three fasts, namely, that of the Nativity of Christ, of the Holy Apostles, and that of the Dormition in August, are approved also by Symeon of Thessalonika (Reply 54) and by original Injunctions, and by the common typika of the Jerusalemites and Studites, and by all in general of the private typika of the imperial monasteries of the Holy Mountain. But even this very fact that the Great Fast is called the Great Forty Days makes it clear that there are other fasts, though the latter surpasses them, as is elegantly inferred by Symeon of Thessalonika (Reply 56).

Accordingly, in the fasts of the Nativity of Christ and that of the Holy Apostles, there is permission of oil and wine, and not of fish on Tuesdays and Thursdays according to the Typikon; but on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we abstain from oil and wine, and on these days we are confined to monophagy and xerophagy [one meal, dry food] if it happens to be an Alleluia, that is an unglorified saint. But if it happens to be a glorified saint, we are allowed the privilege of diphagy eating of both [oil and wine]. That is why Balsamon in agreement with the typika says: “Those not ill in body and not in poverty, who merely on account of intemperance indulge in diphagy on the fast days of the Nativity of Christ, and on those of the Holy Apostles and of August, and therefore dishonoring the temperance due to the whole day, ought to be penalized” (Reply 54, page 388 of “Juris”).

ENDNOTES

1. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Monk Agapios, translated by Denver Cummings, edited by Ralph Masterjohn. The Rudder, (Chicago, IL: The Orthodox Christian Educational Society, 1957), p. 214-218.

2. Ibid., p. 371-372

3. Ibid., p. 372-376

4. OE: This practice of observing a “Fast Free” week after the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee and during “Cheese Fare” week is observed in many parishes today, though St. Nikodemos considers this an unacceptable innovation. Traditional Athonite practice follows St. Nikodemos, as is reflected in the fasting calendar published by St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery in Florence, Arizona.

5. Ibid., p. 376-378

6. Ibid., p. 378-379