THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT FAST

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE

THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT FAST

LENT, as it exists today in the Orthodox Church, is the result of a long historical development, of which no more than a brief summary can be offered here. The portion of the Church’s Year covered by the Lenten Triodion falls into three periods:

(1) THE PRE-LENTEN PERIOD: three preparatory Sundays (the Publican and the Pharisee; the Prodigal Son; the Last Judgment), followed by a preliminary week of partial fasting, ending with the Sunday of Forgiveness.

(2) THE FORTY DAYS OF THE GREAT FAST, beginning on Monday in the first week (or, more exactly, at Sunday Vespers on the evening before), and ending with the Ninth Hour on Friday in the sixth week.

(3) HOLY AND GREAT WEEK, preceded by the Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday.

The third of these three periods, the Paschal fast of Holy and Great Week, is the most ancient, for it was already in existence during the Second and Third Centuries. The FAST OF FORTY DAYS is mentioned in sources from the first half of the 4th Century onwards. The Pre-Lenten period developed latest of all: the earliest references to a preliminary week of partial fasting are in the 6th or 7th Century, but the observance of the other three preliminary Sundays did not become universal in the Greek East until the 10th or 11th Century.

(1) THE PASCHAL FAST in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries. In the 2nd Century it was the custom for Christians in both East and West to observe, immediately before Pascha (Easte) Sunday, a short fast of one or two days, either on Saturday only or on Friday and Saturday together. This was specifically a Paschal fast in preparation for the service of Pascha night. It was a fast of sorrow at the absence of the Bridegroom, in fulfillment of Christ’s own words: "But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days" (Mark 2:20). The fast, whether of one or two days, was in principle a total one, without any food or drink being taken at all.

By the middle of the 3rd Century, this Paschal fast had in many places been extended to embrace the entire week from Monday to Saturday. There was, however, no uniformity of practice, and some Christians fasted for less than the full six days. Only a few can have managed to keep a total fast throughout the whole period. IN some places it was the practice to eat bread and salt, with water, at the 9th hour (3 p.m.) on the four days from Monday until Thursday, and then to keep, if possible, a total fast on Friday and Saturday; but not all the faithful were ast strict as this. In the six-day Paschal fast may be seen the distant origins of Holy and Great Week; but the development ritual to which we are accustomed, with special commemorations on each day of the week, is not found until the late 4th Century. During the pre-Nicene period, there seems to have been a unitary celebration of Christ’s death and rising, considered as a single mystery, at the Paschal vigil lasting from Saturday evening until Pascha (Easter) Sunday morning. Friday was kept as a fast in preparation for this vigil, but it had not as yet become a distinct and specific commemoration of the Crucifixion; the Cross and the Resurrection were celebrated together during Pascha (Easter) night.

(2) THE FAST OF FORTY DAYS. There is no evidence of a forty-day fast in the pre-Nicene period. The first explicit reference to such a fast is in Canon 5 ofthe Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), where it is treated as something familiar and established, not as an innovation on the part of the Council. By the end of the 4th Century the observance of a FORTY-DAY FAST seems to have been the standard practice in most parts of Christendom, but in some places — possibly including Rome — a shorter fast may have been kept.

The FORTY-DAY FAST, found in evidence from the 4th Century onwards, differs somewhat in scope and character from the one-week fast of the pre-Nicene period, and the precise relationship between the two is not easy to determine. It has been suggested that the Forty-Day fast was originally connected with Epiphany rather than Pascha (Easter); but the evidence for this seems inconclusive. It is, however, clear that whereas the pre-Nicene fast was specifically a Paschal observance in preparation for Pascha, the Forty-Day fast was connected more particularly WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE CATECHUMENS FOR THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM OR ‘ILLUMINATION.’ In the weeks before their baptismal INITIATION, the candidates underwent a period of intensive training with daily instruction, special services and fasting. The existing members of the Church community were encouraged to share with the catechumens in this prayer and abstinence, thus renewing year by year THEIR BAPTISMAL DEDICATION TO CHRIST. So the FORTY-DAY FAST CAME TO INVOLVE THE WHOLE BODY OF THE FAITHFUL, AND NOT JUST THOSE PREPARING FOR BAPTISM. [Resources:  The Lenten Triodion]

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George