On the Holy Fasts

according to our ability, as it was the proposed subject, let us make an end of speaking. I have it as a certainty, however, that you too, being filled with the Spirit of God, will fulfill what is lacking, in the manner of friends, and will not cease to pray for us.

ADMONITION

There comes to light the epistle of John of Damascus to the monk Cometatus, *On Fasts*, some fragments of which had been produced by Turrianus in the books he published for the defense of the papal epistles, and in his annotations on the *Apostolic Constitutions*. David Blondel did not hesitate to assert that this epistle, along with many monuments of ecclesiastical writers which had been cited likewise by Turrianus and are preserved in the libraries of Europe, did not exist at hand, nor could they exist. I had received a large part of this epistle from the most learned and illustrious man, Mr. John Ernest Grabe, as it lies in the Barocci codex no. 196; but the entire text was finally procured for me by the most learned and very reverend Father D. Anselm Banduri, copied from the Medicean library. Furthermore, nothing prevents John of Damascus from being the author of this; indeed, the inscription which various manuscript codices present persuades us of it. The adage familiar to our author persuades us: *to kalon kalon, ei me kalos ginetai*—not even a good thing is good, unless it is done well. Other matters by which the presbyter of the Church of Jerusalem is recognized persuade us: "This is the rule and law of the Church, which we know to be observed in the holy Church of the Resurrection of Christ our God." Moreover, the beginning is entirely Damascene, to say nothing of the diction and style of the epistle. Our author had omitted the authorities of the Fathers due to the excessive haste of the courier, *dia ten epistolaphorou spouden*; but those which are subjoined refer to his own age, and I would consider them to have been sent rather by Cometatus, acting as testimony to a certain tradition which he was said to have opposed, and to the custom of another, received among heretics, especially the Jacobites.

The author narrates that he had been accused for having conceded in some place that the fast of the Quadragesima could be prolonged to eight weeks. Indeed, this number of weeks, to which the week of Pascha, or the holy Week of the Passion, would succeed, was received only among heretics in the East, as the author of the question among the Anastasian ^A *quaestiones* testifies, who seems to trace the origins of this rite to the Arians: *Isteon de hoti, ou dei nesteuein hebdomadas okto en te megale Tessarakoste, hos hoi Areanoi*. "It must be known that one ought not fast eight weeks in the great Quadragesima, as the Arians do, who exceed the number of forty days, etc." And a little later: "For if one must fast eight weeks, it should no longer be named Quadragesima, but the seventh Quadragesima; *hetis Tessarakoste pleroutai eis ten heorten ton Baion*, by which the Quadragesima is ended at the feast of Palms. For we fast the great week because of the Lord's passion, and Pascha, and not because of the Quadragesima. *Hairetikon oun esti touto to dogma, kai ouk orthodoxon*. This decree therefore is heretical, and not of the true faith." Our author does not deny that this was the custom of the heretics, and this was evinced by the testimonies of the pseudo-patriarchs Severus of Antioch and Benjamin of Alexandria, which are attached to the epistle; that which all who have written about the Jacobites acknowledge. Not long ago, Joseph Abudacnus, in chapter 19 of his *History of the Jacobites*, related to us that his Copts observe a fast from Septuagesima until Pascha, both laymen and religious. Therefore, I believe that for the Arians in Anastasius, one could restore the Severians. Alcuin, in his Epistle on Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima to Charlemagne, reports that he had heard, when he was in Rome, certain masters saying that the Oriental peoples were accustomed to fast for eight weeks (amending from the Epistle of Charlemagne to him, and also from Aeneas of Paris, book *Against the Greeks*, and from Rabanus, book II *Of the Instruction of the Clergy*, nine weeks), the Greeks for eight, and the Latins for seven, and that from thence the Roman Church had taken the custom of calling the days "Septuagesima," "Sexagesima," and "Quinquagesima." Where, by the name "Orientals," I do not think the Antiochians or Jerusalemites are meant, but the Jacobites, the Armenians, and even the Nestorians, whom Pietro della Valle testifies to be tenacious of the same rite. Those masters told him that the Greeks were accustomed to fast eight weeks because of the two weeks *apokreo* and *tyrophagos*, which are prefixed to the great fast of the Quadragesima, in the first of which they begin to fast in such a way that they abstain only from meat, and then in the second from fish, though by no means abstaining from dairy products.

That I further made the Severians, rather than the Arians, the authors of that longer eight-week fast before Palm Sunday, the cause was the silence of Sozomen, who in Book VII of his *Ecclesiastical History*, chapter 19, where he explains more accurately and fully than Socrates the different customs of different Churches, nowhere reports that Ari...

explains the customs of these peoples, but nowhere does he report that the Arians assigned this number of weeks to the Lenten fast; nor that it was peculiar to any one nation. He only hands down that the Illyrians and all the Westerners number six weeks of solemn fasts; and likewise Libya and Egypt along with the Palestinians: but others number seven, such as the Constantinopolitans and the surrounding nations as far as Phoenicia; that is, Asia and Syria. What Sozomenus narrates concerning the Westerners is confirmed by the testimonies of Latin writers, namely Cassian, Leo the Great, and likewise Gregory the Great, and others. It is equally certain that the custom we hold today, of beginning the solemn fast from the Wednesday of Quinquagesima, is older than the Photian schism; since Amalarius mentions it in *De Eccles. offic.*, lib. 1, cap. 7, which, along with three others, he dedicated to the Emperor Louis the Pious before the year 827. ^B That the Egyptians did not once disagree with the Romans in this regard becomes free of doubt from the Paschal epistles and homilies of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Theophilus and Cyril, in which only six weeks are assigned from the beginning of the fast until the feast of the Resurrection. For example, Theophilus, writing to Jerome, says at the end of the epistle: "Beginning the Quadragesima from the thirtieth day of the month Mechir, and finishing the fasts according to the evangelical traditions on the tenth day of Pharmuthi, in the week of the saving Pascha, on the fifth day of Pharmuthi, so that, immediately as Sunday dawns, we may celebrate the feast on the 11th day of the same month." Thus, indeed, in that year the beginning of the fast, or the Monday of the first week of Quadragesima, happened on the 26th of February, and the feast of the Resurrection on the 6th of April. I add nothing further from the thirty Homilies of Cyril, lest I become tedious. The Constantinopolitans and Asiatics, however, fasted for seven weeks in such a way that the last week did not pertain to the Quadragesima, but was observed on account of the Lord's Passion. ^C The Antiochenes followed this same custom: except that, whereas the Byzantines and Asiatics, according to the prescription of the 50th canon of Laodicea, spent the Quadragesima in *xerophagia*, eating dry foods, the Orientals only admitted *xerophagia* during the week of the Passion. For Epiphanius, in *Haeres.* 70 against the Audians, who dwelt in Syria, contends that by the tradition of the ancients, the week of *Xerophagia* and the holy Pascha could not begin on the sixteenth moon, nor yet the ninth. In *Haeres.* 75 he narrates that the Aerians, who became known in the East and in Armenia, mocked the faithful who indulged in *xerophagia* during the days of Pascha. At the end of the *Panarion*, he asserts rather boldly that this is the custom of the Catholic Church. "Otherwise," he says, "the Church is accustomed to observe the Quadragesima before the seven days of Pascha; and to persevere in fasts: but on no Sundays, nor even in the Quadragesima itself; *for the six days of Pascha, all the peoples continue in xerophagia*." Furthermore, all peoples spend the six days of Pascha with *xerophagia*, or dry foods. But Sozomenus wrote that the Jerusalemites and Palestinians of that age agreed with the Egyptians and Romans. For Cyril of Jerusalem, in his 18th Catechesis, which he delivered last on Holy Saturday, after the more austere fast of Preparation and a longer vigil had been spent, when the holy day of Pascha was nearly at hand, in which the catechumens were to be regenerated through baptism—in this Catechesis, I say, he expressly declares that Holy Saturday was the last day of the Quadragesima. ^D Yet in the succeeding age, it is deduced that the Palestinians emulated the custom of the Antiochenes, Phoenicians, and their Cypriot neighbors, not only from this epistle of Damascene which we here present, but also from the testimony which is appended at the end of this epistle, that of Peter of Jerusalem, who flourished in the mid-sixth century under Justinian I; to which can be added the *Life of Saint Mary of Egypt*, in which the monks are said to have been accustomed to spend the Quadragesima in the desert across the Jordan, up to Palm Sunday, or the holy week of the Passion. These, furthermore, the Alexandrian Melkites, or Orthodox, imitated; but the Copts [imitated] the Jacobites and Severians.

OF JOHN THE PRESBYTER DAMASCENE ON THE HOLY FASTS.

To the blessed and sincere servant of Christ, to the lord Kometas, our spiritual brother, John the least.

From the many and infinite gifts which God has bestowed upon men, the gift of wisdom stands out as the first and preeminent one.

^A For it is the discernment of good and evil; and he who distinguishes them most excellently, also chooses most excellently that which is profitable, having reason as the charioteer of the things that follow it. The mature fruit of this wisdom is that saying of Solomon: “There is a time for everything,” ^B by which the Word signifies that everything that exists is good. For evil is not among the things that be, but rather it is a flight from and the destruction of the good. When, therefore, each thing is judged to be good—I mean, by right reason, for faulty judgment is confusion rather than judgment—there is a time to keep silent, for that is good, and a time to speak, when one is asked. For to speak before being asked, and to set out before being sent, is folly for the one who speaks and goes. But the circumstances of affairs occur when there is a necessity to speak, and to not speak is not without danger. There is a time when even that which is more fitting must be preferred to that which is thought to be good. For my part, every time is a time to be silent; for I have been relieved of speaking by my own lack of attention, ^C and otherwise, before men who are wise and lofty in understanding, by whom virtue has justly been acquired, how should a poor man speak of virtue? Having these things in mind, even now I would have kept silent, had not the venerable nature of your—O most beloved one—God-guarded renown compelled me to write. For seeing the great urgency of your precious letters, I decided that I should not otherwise and in vain be urged to speak, unless some necessity pressed me to do so. I write, therefore, compelled by your virtue and friendship, and may everyone who understands how powerful and strong are those who compel me forgive me; and I write, setting before myself, as much as possible, nothing but the truth, which must be preferred to all things, and to life itself, with which life is worth choosing, and for the sake of which death is more desirable than life. ^D

2. Your most honorable virtue has written, as some have rumored that we said, that the weeks of fasting amount to eight; and you urged me to write back, if such is the case. To this we say that there is nothing more sublime than ecclesiastical peace, on account of which are the Law and the prophets, on account of which God became man—this is indeed the great and truly inscrutable mystery—which Christ came to announce; which Christ himself bestowed upon his own disciples before the passion, and after the resurrection from the passion, ^D and which, ascending into the heavens with his own flesh, from whence he had descended without flesh, he left as an inheritance to the apostles, and through them to the Church. Peace is that concord which is in the good. For that which conforms badly…

to evil is to be called conspiracy and sedition rather than peace. For me, therefore, the least of all, the purpose set forth is primarily to care for things that concern peace, and to express to those who ask, as much as I am able, whatever contributes to this.

3. Consequently, seeing the contention regarding the ^A holy fasts raised up even to the air, I was grievously lamenting and grieving that sin was working death in me through the good. For what is the benefit of the fast to those who fast for the sake of quarrels and fights? Therefore, to those who said that seven weeks were to be devoted to the holy fasts, I was giving counsel not to contend nor to cleave the beautiful body of Christ—I mean the Church—with dissensions; but rather to obey those to whom the presidency and the dispensation of the word have been entrusted. For to abound in the good, and to progress, and to ascend to greater and higher things, and to add to all the praise of ^B the Lord, belongs to those who are in a good state. But to those who legislate eight weeks, I was suggesting that not even the good is good if it is not done well. For virginity indeed is good; but if you marry, you have not sinned. To fast the whole day is good; but he who does not eat, let him not judge him who eats. In such matters, it is by no means fitting to ordain, or to compel, or to urge the flock entrusted to one by necessity, but rather by persuasion, and meekness, and speech seasoned with salt. And these are the things which we suggest to these.

But if it is necessary to make known what our opinion is, we say this: that since our holy Father Basil, the doctor of truth, in his sermon ^C *On Drunkards*, said that there are seven weeks in the holy fasts, and elsewhere Gregory, surnamed the Theologian, in his sermon *On Baptism*, defined these fasts as representing and imitating the forty days of fasting which the Lord passed through, it is absolutely necessary to reconcile both these things to one another, so that the teachings of the divine men may not be found to be discordant. For this is what excites the crowds—not weighing the force of what is said. For it was not, as some have supposed, ordained for us by law that we should pay the tithes of the whole year by fasting. For the canon is clearly drawn up, legislating for the forty-day fast; but the tithes of the year are fifty, not forty. How then, those of us who fast five days of the week, do we pay the number of the

forty by fasting only five days of the eight weeks? To this we reply that, having read the Constitutions of the holy Apostles, we have found it ordained: One must fast the holy Quadragesima, beginning from Monday and ending on Friday, after which we begin the week of the Passion. If, therefore, the Quadragesima is completed in eight weeks, and after these we begin that of the Passion, it is necessary to fast nine weeks in total. However, the great Athanasius, preeminent in divine knowledge and virtue, declared more clearly in his Festal Letters that there are six weeks of the Quadragesima, upon the completion of which he commands the week of the Passion to begin. From all of which we have arrived at this understanding: that fasting is not only complete abstinence from food from morning until evening, but also abstinence from certain foods; for we are said to fast from wine and meat. Since, therefore, a canon of the holy Apostles has been established—not to fast on Saturday and Sunday, and yet to fast the holy Quadragesima—it has ordained that during the five days ^B of the week we observe complete abstinence from food, but on the two days of Saturday and Sunday we abstain from certain foods. For one ought to know that when two laborious tasks are set before us, the stronger one prevails and is preferred; for example, legislation was made for circumcision on the eighth day, and the observance of the Sabbath. A child born on the Sabbath, therefore, was to be circumcised on the Sabbath, and the ordinance of circumcision dissolves the law of the Sabbath. In the same way, the Holy Spirit, through those who were ministers of the Word, while having ordained the fast for the five days of the week until evening, on Saturday and Sunday enjoined abstinence from only certain foods, because of the authority of the Resurrection, which we know to be the Lord’s Day, and because of the oblation which we are ordered to perform every Saturday for all the holy ones who have fallen asleep, and because of the Saturday before Pascha, on which Christ bound the strong man and plundered his vessels; which is the only Saturday that those who await the joy of the Resurrection must spend in fasting. ^C

5. Thus, then, we also know the custom of the Church from unwritten tradition: to observe one pre-fast week, in which there was only abstinence from meat and fasting until evening, without any performance of the Third, Sixth, or Ninth hours, or the service of the holy Presanctified. Then there are the six [weeks], during which the Third, Sixth, and Ninth hours and the services of the Presanctified are carried out, and then there is also abstinence from eggs and cheese and all such things, along with meat. In the week of the Passion, ^D however, xerophagy—that is, a diet consisting of dry foods—was ordained by law, though not the service of the Presanctified. Then on Holy Thursday, the service of the mysteries, at which [the fast] also began. Then on Holy and Dread Friday, complete abstinence until Saturday evening.

But on the evening of Saturday, while eating other things, they do not partake of meats; yet on the holy Sunday of the Resurrection, the first day of the week, those who so desire partake of meats as well.

6. Now, we have reached this sequence; this is the common bound and law of the Church, which we know to be observed even at the holy Resurrection of Christ our God. Yet to abound in good, and to show forth exuberant virtue, is not to be reckoned a crime, nor is it to be rejected, but rather it is pleasing to God and to men—at least to those who have understanding. It is not, however, ^B to be done by violence or necessity, but rather by persuasion, and especially because of the difficulty of the times and the disorder of affairs. For both now are useful and necessary: both to add to what is good, and to refrain from violence. Who might grant that our whole life could be passed in a single fast? Yet the way of exhortation is one, and the way of legislation is another. Let what has been decreed by the Spirit suffice. Let the addition of the good be a matter of counsel.

7. These things seem agreeable to us, and we speak of them in this way to everyone; but for the present, on account of the haste of the letter-carrier, we have omitted the authorities by which these things are supported, although they could be obtained without difficulty. May the God of peace, who is our peace, who made both one, and who broke down the middle wall of the partition—that is, the enmity—in His cross; who reconciled us to His own Father, grant to His holy Church His peace, which surpasses all understanding, ^C and let Him remove scandals and grant that we may fulfill an acceptable fast, such as He has chosen: loosening the bonds of violent contracts, and breaking bread to the hungry—not only the bread of the body, but no less that of the soul, which is to say, the word of salvation. May He cause us to fast, and eat, and celebrate feasts in a spiritual manner, doing, thinking, and saying all things to His glory, so that His name may not be blasphemed among the nations because of us, but rather be glorified; for to Him is the glory forever. Amen.

Of the holy hieromartyr Ignatius, from the Epistle to the Philippians

Whoever is chaste or continent, let him not be puffed up, lest he lose his reward; do not dishonor the feast days. Do not hold in low regard the Quadragesima, for it contains an imitation ^D of the Lord's conduct. Do not look down upon the week of the Passion. Keep the fast on the fourth and sixth days of the week, and distribute your surplus to the poor. Whoever fasts on Sunday or Saturday, except for one Saturday, he is a murderer of Christ.

Constitution of the Holy Apostles

Of Saint Basil, from the discourse Against Drunkards

Of Saint John Chrysostom, from the sermon On the End of the Fast

Of Saint Anastasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, from his Encyclical

Of Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus, from the letter to monks

^A

Of John, Bishop of Athens

Of Saint Anastasius, Patriarch of Theopolis, or Antioch of Syria

Of Saint Peter, Patriarch of Jerusalem

Proof that all heretics assert that the holy fasts consist of eight weeks, raving in this manner.

Testimonies of Severus the Acephalous, and prince of heresy, and Pagan, who was made archbishop of Antioch of Syria, from his enthronement sermons on the holy Quadragesima. It was delivered on the Friday preceding it, in the Church of Cassianus, and this is the beginning of his oration: "There is a law which has a place also in bodily contests;" and in the middle of the sermon: "For those who are endowed with five senses, through which sin finds entrance—I mean hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell—abstaining eight times, they fast for forty days, so that they may become possessors of that blessed day, the eighth and the first. For the number five, revolved eight times, completes the number of forty days." ^C

Of the same, from the book of various chapters signed by his own hand. This is the second subscription.

ADMONITION REGARDING EIGHT SPIRITS OF WICKEDNESS

^A Of the accursed and God-hated Benjamin, who became the false bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, and who was of the most wicked pair, Dioscorus and Severus; from the fourth book of his festal homilies, in the thirty-first false festal homily, of which the beginning is: "Jucunda et admiratione digna" (Joyful and worthy of admiration). And towards the end: "Beginning the forty days of the fast, that is, the eight weeks, and fasting temperately for the destruction of the eight thoughts that rise up against the soul, from the twenty-seventh of the month of Mechir according to the Egyptians, until the twentieth of the month of Pharmuthi."

Of the same, in the thirty-first false festal homily, of which the beginning is thus: "Et nunc audire mihi videor" (And now I seem to hear). And towards the end: "Beginning the eight weeks of the fast, that is, of the holy Quadragesima—because neither the Sabbath nor the Lord’s Day are counted in the holy fasts—from the nineteenth of the month of Mechir according to the Egyptians, or on the Ides of February according to the Romans, which is the thirteenth of February. But of the holy week of the life-giving Pascha, from the eighth of the month of Pharmuthi according to the Egyptians, or according to the Romans three days before the Nones of April, which is the third of April; and thenceforth, having completed the holy days of Pascha, in the deep evening of the holy Sabbath we shall end the fast."

^B

VARIOUS READINGS

^C

NOTE

ADMONITION