De sacris jejuniis

John the Presbyter of Damascus, On the Holy Fasts. To the blessed and genuine servant of Christ, Lord Cometas, spiritual brother, John the least. Many and infinite gifts have been given by God to men, but the gift of prudence stands out as preeminent and first. For it is discrimination between good and evil; and he who has distinguished best has also chosen what is advantageous best, having reason as the charioteer of those who obey him. The ripe offspring of this prudence is that saying of Solomon, "There is a time for everything;" this saying making clear that the good is everything; for evil does not exist among beings, but is rather a flight from the good and its destruction. When, then, each thing is judged good—I mean by right reason; for what is judged badly is rather lack of judgment than judgment—there is a time to be silent, when this is good; and a time to speak, when one is asked. For to speak before being asked, and to go before being sent, is folly for the speaker and the goer. But the circumstance of affairs, when there is necessity to speak, and not speaking is not without danger. There is also when the fitting is to be preferred to what seems good. For me, then, every time is a time to be silent; for I am deprived of speaking because of my own carelessness, and besides, how would one poor in virtue speak face to face with wise and lofty-minded men, to whom virtue has justly procured the right to rule? Having these things in mind, I would have been silent now as well, if the reverence of your, O most beloved, God-guarded glory had not compelled me to write.

For I saw the great urgency of our honored letters, and I judged that I should not otherwise and in vain urge you to speak, unless some necessity compelled me to this. I write, then, compelled by your virtue and friendship, and may everyone who knows the strength of those who have compelled me forgive me. I write, setting forth nothing before the truth, as far as possible, which must be preferred to everything, even to life, with which life is choiceworthy, and for which death is more choiceworthy than life. 2. Your all-honored virtue has written that some have spread the word that we have said there are eight weeks of fasts, and you urged me to write whether this is how things stand. To this we say that nothing is higher than ecclesiastical peace, for which there is law and prophets, for which God became man—this great and truly inscrutable mystery—which Christ came to proclaim, which Christ himself bestowed upon his own disciples before the Passion and after the Resurrection from the Passion, and which, ascending into heaven with his flesh, whence he had descended without flesh, he left as a heritage to the apostles, and through them to the Church. Peace is harmony in the good. For those who are in evil agreement will be said to be in strife rather than at peace. For me, the least, my aim was primarily to arbitrate matters of peace, and to say to those who ask, as far as I am able, whatever contributes to this. 3. Having seen, therefore, the strife concerning the holy fasts raised to the heavens, I lamented and grieved greatly, because even through the good, sin works death for me.

For what benefit is there from fasting for those who fast for the sake of strife and quarrels? Therefore, to those who speak of seven weeks of the holy fasts, I advised not to contend and cause division in the beautiful body of Christ, that is, the Church, but rather to obey those entrusted with the presidency and the stewardship of the word. For excelling in the good, and making progress, and ascending to greater and higher things, and adding to every praise of the Lord, belongs to those who are in a right state. And to those who legislate eight weeks, I suggested that not even the good is good, unless it is done well. For virginity is good, but if you marry, you have not sinned; fasting every day is good, but let the one who does not eat not judge the one who eats. In such matters, it is not fitting to legislate, to compel, or to lead the entrusted flock by force, but rather by persuasion, gentleness, and speech seasoned with salt, we set these things before them. And if it is necessary to make public what seems right to us, we say this: that since the initiate of truth, our holy father Basil, declared in his discourse Against the Drunkards that there are seven weeks of the holy fasts in all, and since Gregory, surnamed the Theologian, in his discourse On Baptism, granted these fasts as a type and imitation of the forty-day fast of the Lord, it is necessary to reconcile both with each other, so that the teachings of the divine men may not be found discordant. For this is what stirs up the faction: not distinguishing the force of what is said. For we are not, as some have supposed, legislated to fast a tenth of the year.

For there is a clearly defined canon which legislates that one must fast the Forty Days; but the decades of the year are not forty. How then shall we complete the number of forty by fasting the five days of the week, unless we fast the pentads of eight weeks? To this we say, having read the ordinances of the holy apostles, we found it prescribed: One must fast the holy Forty Days, beginning from Monday and ending on Friday, after which we begin the week of the Passion. If, then, the Forty Days are completed through eight weeks, and after these we begin the week of the Passion, it is necessary to fast nine weeks in all. The great Athanasius, however, in his festal letters, more clearly declared the weeks of the Forty Days to be six, after which he orders the week of the Passion to begin. From all this we have arrived at the understanding that fasting is not only complete abstinence from food from morning until evening, but also abstention from certain foods; for we are said to fast from wine and meat. Since, then, a canon of the holy apostles has been established, not to fast on Saturday and Sunday, and to fast the holy Forty Days, it has perhaps prescribed that on the five days of the week one fast with complete abstinence, and on the two days of Saturday and Sunday one practice abstention from certain foods. For it is to be known that, as when two labors are set before one, the stronger prevails and is preferred; for example, circumcision on the eighth day and the observance of the Sabbath have been legislated.

Therefore, that which is born on the Sabbath will be circumcised on the Sabbath, and the law of circumcision dissolves the law of the Sabbath. So also here, the Holy Spirit, through the ministers of the word, having legislated the fast until evening for the five days of the week, prescribed abstinence from certain foods on the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, because of the preeminence of the Resurrection, which we know as the Lord's Day, and the offering for all the saints who have fallen asleep, which we are commanded to perform every Sabbath, because of the Sabbath before Pascha, on which Christ bound the strong one and plundered his vessels, which is the only Sabbath that those awaiting the joy of the Resurrection must fast. 5. Thus, then, we also know the custom of the Church from unwritten tradition: one pre-fasting week, in which only abstinence from meat and the fast until evening were observed, with no celebration of the third, sixth, or ninth hours, or of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Six weeks, in which the services of the third, sixth, and ninth hours and the Presanctified Liturgy are celebrated, with abstinence from eggs, cheese, and such things along with meat. For the week of the Passion, dry fasting was prescribed, but not the celebration of the Presanctified Liturgy. Then, on Holy Thursday, the celebration of the Mysteries, at which it also began. Then, on Holy and Venerable Friday, complete abstinence from food until the evening of the Sabbath. And on the evening of the Sabbath, they partake of the other foods, but not of meat. On the Holy Sunday of the Resurrection, the first day of the week, those who wish also partake of meat. 6. This order we have received.

This common definition and law of the Church, which we know is also fulfilled on the holy Resurrection of Christ our God; but to abound in evil and to lavish virtue is not unacceptable nor rejectable, but pleasing to God and to men, at least to those who have understanding—not, however, by force or necessity, but rather by persuasion, and especially because of the difficulty of the time and the irregularity of affairs. For both are now more useful and necessary: adding to the good and refraining from force. Who would grant that the whole time of our life be spent in one single fast? But the manner of exhortation is one thing, and that of legislation another. Let what has been legislated by the Spirit suffice. Let the addition of the good be a matter of admonition. 7. These are our opinions, and we discuss these matters thus with everyone; but the citations concerning these things we have omitted for the present, on account of the zeal of the letter-bearer, since they are readily available among us. May the God of peace, our peace, who made both one and dissolved the partition wall of the fence through his cross, having reconciled us to his own Father, award his peace, which surpasses all understanding, to his holy Church, and remove the stumbling blocks, and deem us worthy to fast an acceptable fast, which he has chosen, to untie the knots of violent compacts, and to break bread for the hungry—both the bread of the body and no less that of the soul, which I call the saving word—and cause us to fast, eat, and feast spiritually, doing, thinking, and saying everything to his glory.

so that his name may not be blasphemed among the nations because of us, but rather be glorified; for glory belongs to him for ever. Amen. From the holy hieromartyr Ignatius, from the Epistle to the Philippians. If anyone fasts or practices abstinence, let him not be puffed up, lest he lose his reward; do not dishonor the feasts. Do not despise the Forty Days; for it contains an imitation of the Lord's way of life. Do not overlook the week of the Passion; fasting on Wednesday and Friday, give the surplus to the poor. If anyone fasts on a Sunday or a Sabbath, except for one Sabbath, that one is a Christ-killer. Ordinance of the holy Apostles. With which we must observe the fast of the holy Forty Days, containing a remembrance of Christ's way of life and legislation. Let this fast be performed before the fast of Pascha, beginning on Monday and ending on Friday. After these, having broken the fast, begin the holy week of Pascha, all fasting with fear and trembling. Praying in it for those who are perishing, in which he began to plot against the Lord. For he himself commanded us to fast these six days because of the impiety of the Jews. From Saint Basil, from the discourse against those who are drunk.

For if, with all the exhortations which we did not cease to give you in the past time, and thereafter during these seven weeks of fasting, night and day, testifying to you the Gospel of the grace of God, we have not ceased, no benefit has come. On what hopes shall we speak, women who are licentious, having forgotten the fear of God, having despised eternal fire, on such a day, when they ought, because of the remembrance of the resurrection, to sit at home. From Chrysostom, from the discourse near the end of the fast. Forty days have now passed; if therefore the holy Pascha passes, I will pardon no one afterwards, nor will I offer exhortation. From the holy Anastasius, patriarch of Constantinople, from the Encyclical. The holy Pascha of the eleventh indiction we celebrate with God; according to the Egyptians, on the twenty-fifth of the month Pharmouthi; according to the Romans, on the twentieth of the month April, twelve days before the Kalends of May; beginning the fast of the seven weeks from the second day itself, according to the Egyptians, on the eighth of the month Phanemoth; according to the Romans, on the third of March. From the holy Epiphanius of Cyprus, from the address to Monks. Keep the Forty Days of the holy Church and the week of the holy Pascha with careful observance. From John, bishop of Athens. So that through the venerable seven of the fasts we may suspect a safe and unerring passage. For the seven, always turning and converging, and as it were winding and revolving around the same point from itself, completes for us the hebdomadal age.

Of Saint Anastasius, patriarch of Theoupolis, that is, Antioch of Syria. Come, then, let us consider why the forty-day fast is completed in seven weeks. It in no way departs from being the Forty Days, but also takes on another mystical refinement; for the number seven has appeared perfect and most sacred, and has more fully graced for us the days of the holy contests, being completed seven times through the seven weeks. Of Saint Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem. Having recalled the fast most opportunely, we might also say those things to you, that by the grace of God we begin the customary fast of seven weeks from the seventh of the month of February, celebrating the festival of the saving Passion and of the Resurrection of Christ on the twenty-seventh of the so-called month of March. Demonstration: that all the heretics speak of eight weeks of the holy fasts, thus babbling. Passages from Severus the Akephalos and heresiarch, and Greek, who became archbishop of Antioch of Syria, from his enthronistic discourses, on the Forty Days of the fasts; it was delivered on the Friday before it, in the Church of Cassian; whose beginning: "There is a law also in bodily contests"; and in the middle of the discourse: "For those who purify the five senses, through which sin gains entry—hearing, I mean, and sight, and touch, and taste, and smell—eight times, fast for forty days, so that they may attain that blessed eighth and first day.

For the number five, when multiplied eight times, completes the number of forty days. From the same author, from the book of various chapters noted in his own hand; this is the second note. That it is necessary to fast the forty days without omission; which are gathered from eight weeks, each week having two days, namely Saturday and Sunday, assigned to rest; so that it is evident from this that one ought not to fast on Saturday and Sunday, not even in the holy forty-day fast. From the accursed and God-abhorred Benjamin, who became a false bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, being of the most wicked pair of Dioscorus and Severus, from the fourth book of his festal letters, the false festal thirtieth, whose beginning is: "Bright and admirable." And toward the end. Beginning the forty days of the fast, that is, the eight weeks, and fasting temperately for the removal of the eight thoughts that rise up against the soul, from the twenty-seventh of the Egyptian month Mechir until the twentieth of the month Pharmouthi. From the same author, false festal thirty-first, whose beginning is thus: "And now I seem to hear." And toward the end. Beginning the eight weeks of the fast, that is, the holy Forty Days, because Saturday and Sunday are not counted among the holy fasts, from the nineteenth of the Egyptian month Mechir, according to the Romans the Ides of February, which is the thirteenth of February.

Of the holy week of the salvific Pascha, from the eighth of the month Pharmouthi according to the Egyptians, and according to the Romans the third day before the Nones of April, which is the third of April; and thereafter, having completed the holy days of Pascha, on the deep evening of the holy Sabbath we will cease the fast.