“The beginning of the fast – it is time for repentance, the day of salvation, O Soul; watch, therefore, and close the doors to the passions and lift up your eyes to God.”
(Canon of the Monday Matins of the First Week of Lent).
The time of the Great Fast is for every Christian a time for spiritual combat in which the soul and body are engaged. The soul engages in this combat by praying and meditating more fervently, keeping watch over the senses, by practicing the virtues, and by doing good works. This interior disposition of the soul is manifested outwardly in our body through corporal acts of fasting and penance. There is no spiritual fasting without mortification of the body. “The more you subtract from the body,” says St. Basil the Great,
“the more brightness of spiritual health you will add to the soul. For it is not by increasing bodily strength, but by perseverance and patient endurance in trial that we gain strength against the invisible enemies.” (On the Fast I)
The traditional practice of the fast in the Church is carried out in two ways: either by total abstinence from all food and drink for a certain period of time, that is fasting in the strict sense of the word; or, by abstaining from certain foods only for a certain period of time, and this kind of fasting is called abstinence.
Having considered the development, duration and purpose of the Great Fast, we shall consider the manner of fasting.
The Original Fast Properly So-Called
Originally, there was no definite norm or Church rules governing the duration or the manner and practice of the Great Fast. Since this was left to the good will of the faithful, different ways of fasting developed. The historian Socrates (c. 379-440) gives the following testimony regarding contemporary fasting:
“One can see also a disagreement about the manner of abstinence from food, as well as about the number of days. Some wholly abstain from things that have life; others feed on fish only of all living creatures; many together with fish, eat fowl also, saying that according to Moses, these were likewise made out of the waters. Some abstain from eggs, and all kinds of fruits; others partake of dry bread only; still others eat not even this; while others having fasted till the ninth hour (that is, to three o’clock in the afternoon our time), afterwards take any sort of food without distinction.” (History of Church, 5,22)
The last words of Socrates in the above testimony indicate that in his time, the essence of fasting was not the kind of food to be eaten, but was rather the duration of the time of total abstinence from food. In other words, the essential thing in fasting was that during the day only one meal was eaten, usually after three o’clock in the afternoon or after sunset. St. Basil, in his treatise on Fasting says:
“You wait till evening to eat, while all day you sit in court.” (10) St. John Chrysostom says: “No one among us will think that abstaining once till evening will be sufficient for salvation.” (On Genesis, hom. 4).
Even in monasteries where food was eaten only once a day throughout the year, during the Great Fast the monks did not eat at all for several days.
The pilgrim Silvia Egeria (fourth century) speaking of the monks of Jerusalem says that some of them during the Great Fast “having taken food after the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, do not eat again until Saturday”. (28)
Abstinence from Certain Foods
Originally, after a whole day of fasting, the faithful ate every kind of food in the evening. In the fifth century restrictions were placed on certain types of food. This occurred under the influence of the desert monks who took food only once a day and also put restrictions on the type of foods. The common food of the desert monks was bread, water and fruit. The pilgrim Silvia Egeria reports in her Diary that the monks of Jerusalem during the Great Fast “take no leaven bread, no olive oil, nothing which comes from trees, but only water and a little flour soup.” (28) Slowly the dry food of the monks became also the common food of the laity during the Great Fast. The Council of Laodicea (c. 364) decreed that the faithful fast on dry food “throughout the entire Forty Days Fast”. (50)
Saturdays and Sundays of the Great Fast
In the Eastern Church the Saturdays and Sundays of lent are not regarded as fast days, in the sense that on those days there is no strict fast, i.e., total abstinence from food to a designated time, but even on those days there gradually came into existence the practice of eating only certain types of food, such as bread, fruits, fish and in some places even milk. This means that on Saturday and Sunday there was no strict fast, but only abstinence.
The Kievan Metropolitan George during the Great Fast permitted all the laity to eat only fish twice a day on Saturday and Sunday. The Synod of Lviv (1891), speaking of the Forty Days Fast declared: “that, according to the present custom among the people, also Saturdays and Sundays are to be observed as fast days.” (Title XI) However, considering the distinction between fasting, in the strict sense, and abstinence, the Synod says: “However, in this matter one must consider local customs and needs.” (Title XI)
The Great Fast in our Church
Among our people the holy Great Fast has always been held in great respect and strictly observed. The Kievan Metropolitan George (1072-1073) commanded such a fast during the Forty Days Fast, i.e., the Great Fast. During the first week of fasting: dry food, i.e., bread, water and fruit could be eaten once a day, without any other drink. During the remaining weeks of the fast on Monday, Wednesday and Friday dry food was permitted once a day; on Tuesday and Thursday – thin gruel with olive or poppy-seed oil was allowed once a day; on Saturday and Sunday fish could be eaten twice a day; on the feast of the Annunciation fish only was permitted.
St. Theodosius Pechersky (c. 1035-1074), following the rule of St. Theodore the Studite, introduced the following fast into the Kievan-Pechersky monastery (also called the “Monastery of the Caves” – “pechera” is the Ukrainian word for “cave”). Throughout the six weeks of the Great Fast food was permitted once a day. During the first week it consisted of dry food, that is bread and fruit. During the remaining five weeks, on Wednesday and Friday, as in the first week, and on other days – vegetables and porridge without oil was permitted. During the first week of the Great Fast, and afterward on Wednesday and Friday of the remaining weeks wine was forbidden; exceptions were made, however, for the sick and the aged. Instead of wine during that time, a special drink was prepared which consisted of pepper, caraway seeds and anise. On the other remaining days of subsequent weeks, one glass of wine was allowed. On Saturdays and Sundays food could be taken twice a day with wine. During Passion Week the fast was even stricter.
Our Synods, first the Synod of Zamost (1720), then afterward the Synod of Lviv (1891), relaxed this once very strict fast somewhat for the faithful of our Church. The Synod of Zamost permitted dairy products during the Forty Days Fast. With regard to this matter it issued the following prescription: “Beginning with Monday following the Sunday of Cheesefare to the feast of the Holy Pasch (Easter) and even before that fast one week only with dairy products.” (Title XVI) The Synod of Lviv, besides dairy products during the Great Fast permitted meat also on certain days, after the recitation of certain prescribed prayers.The greatest relaxation of all fasts in the whole Catholic Church came after the Second Vatican Council. Following the directives of this Council, our Ukrainian Catholic Bishops together with the Major Archbishop Cardinal Joseph approved the relaxation of all fasts for our Church, including the Forty Days Fast. A decree on fasting issued by Major Archbishop Joseph in 1966 prescribed that all the faithful are bound to abstain from meat on all the Fridays of the year. Besides this, they are also bound to abstain from meat and dairy products on the first day of Lent and on Great Friday.
This decree also reminds all the faithful of the continuing obligation of prayer, mortification and the cultivation of the spiritual life: “Let all these great relaxations,” the final words of the decree states, “be at the same time a strong incentive and encouragement to repent and to avoid sin and offences against God. Let all faithful Christians remember that the Christian spirit scarcely dwells, if at all, in the family where prayer has become silent, the practice of fasting has disappeared, and even the memory of it is forgotten. Therefore, let the relaxed fast increase our zeal in prayer, meditation and participation in divine services, almsgiving, labor, frequent Confessions and Holy Communions.” (Blahovisnyk, Year II, Bk. 2-4)
