In the seven weeks
approaching Pascha, the Orthodox fast and pray during a season that we call,
“Lent.” Lent is a practice that has been part of the Orthodox tradition for
thousands of years. Let’s discover what Lent is, and learn a little more about
its long historical development.
Great Lent
We can divide
Eastern Orthodox Lent into three basic periods:
The Pre-Lenten
Period, the three preparatory Sundays (the Publican and the
Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, and the Last Judgment), followed by a preliminary
week of partial fasting, and ending with the Sunday of Forgiveness;
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 (3pm) on Friday in the sixth week; and
Holy and Great
Week, preceded by the Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday.
The third of these
three periods, the Paschal fast of Holy 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 fourth century onwards.
The pre-Lenten period developed latest of all: the earliest references to a
preliminary week of partial fasting are in the sixth or seventh century, but
the observance of the other three preparatory Sundays did not become universal
in the East until the tenth or eleventh century.
The Development of the Lenten Fast
The Paschal Fast in the second and third centuries
In the second
century it was the custom for Christians in both East and West to observe,
immediately before Easter 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 Easter night. It was a fast of
sorrow at the absence of the Bridegroom, in fulfilment 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. (Today Fasting during Lent indicates abstinence from animal and dairy
products, a total fast is sometimes undertaken on Great Friday if health
permits)
By the middle of
the third 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 ninth 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 as strict as this. In this six-day Paschal fast may be seen the
distant origins of Holy Week; but the developed ritual to which we are
accustomed, with special commemorations on each day of the week, is not found
until the late fourth 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 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 Easter night.
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 of the Council of Nicaea (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 fourth 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.
This forty-day
fast, found in evidence from the fourth 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 is, however,
clear that whereas the pre-Nicene fast was specifically a Paschal observance in
preparation for Easter, the forty-day fast was connected more particularly with
the final 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.
Lent, as we know
it, is thus the result of a convergence between these two elements—between the
six-day pre-Nicene fast, which was directly in preparation for Easter, and the
forty-day post-Nicene fast, which originally formed part of the training of
candidates for Baptism. It was natural that these two elements should become
fused into a single observance, for they both have the same endpoint—the night
of Holy Saturday. The Paschal vigil on this night, in celebration of the death,
burial and rising of Christ, was for obvious reasons chosen as the occasion for
administering Baptism; for this sacrament is precisely an initiation into the
Lord's Cross and His Resurrection (see Romans 6:3-4).
The choice of the
number forty for the days of Lent has obvious Biblical precedents. The people
of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness (Exod. 16: 35); Moses remained
fasting for forty days on Mount Sinai (Exod. 34: 28); Elijah abstained from all
food for forty days as he journeyed to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8). Most
important of all, Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights in the
wilderness, tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1).
The Completion of the Pattern
During the sixth
to eleventh centuries, the season of pre-Lenten preparation was gradually
expanded to include three other preliminary Sundays: the “Sunday of the
Publican and the Pharisee”, ten weeks before Easter; following it, the “Sunday
of the Prodigal Son”; and then the “Sunday of the Last Judgment” immediately
before the beginning of “Cheese Week” (a week of partial fasting when meat is
no longer eaten but dairy products are still eaten). Together with the “Sunday
of Forgiveness” (also known as “Cheesefare”; this enables us to enter Lent
having forgiven others their offences towards us) at the end of “Cheese Week”,
this makes four preliminary Sundays in all. In this way the full pattern of the
Lenten season was completed.
Lent Today
Today in most
parts of the Church there is no organised catechumenate, and it is customary to
administer Baptism on many other occasions besides the night of Holy Saturday;
yet the baptismal significance of Lent has still a living importance. For every
member of the Christian community, Lent is a time of spiritual training and
renewed illumination. It is a time to realise afresh that, by virtue of our
baptismal initiation, we are crucified, buried and risen with Christ; it is a
time to reapply to ourselves the words of St. Paul, “I live, yet not I, but
Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2: 20). It is a time for the Orthodox to listen more
closely to the voice of the Spirit in whom we were sealed at our Chrismation
(Confirmation), immediately after our “burial” in the baptismal waters.
Differences between the West and the East in their
observation of Lent
At Rome Holy Week
was included as part of the forty days. However, in calculating the number
forty all Sundays were excluded from the reckoning, Sundays being considered
feast days. This produced a six-week fast of six days in each week,
constituting a total of thirty-six days. To make up the full measure of forty
days, four further days of fasting were then added at the beginning, with the
result that Lent in the West commences on a Wednesday (Ash Wednesday). Shrove
Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, was a day when Christians made a special
point of self-examination consulting with their spiritual Father on matters
requiring repentance and amendment. The word “shrove” means to hear a person’s
acknowledgement of sin and assure of forgiveness. The term survives in ordinary
usage in the expression “short shrift” by which we mean: paying little
attention to a person’s excuses or problems. The day was also for thrifty
housewives to use up fat and dairy produce by making pancakes so preparing for
the Lenten fast.
At Constantinople,
on the other hand, Holy Week - together with the Saturday of Lazarus and Palm
Sunday - was not regarded as part of the forty-day fast in the strict sense. At
Vespers on Friday evening in the sixth week, immediately preceding the Saturday
of Lazarus, the distinction between the forty days and Holy Week is very
clearly marked in the existing text of the Triodion: Fasting did of course
continue during Holy Week!
“Having completed
the forty days that bring profit to our soul, we beseech Thee in Thy love for
man: grant us also to behold the Holy Week of Thy Passion...”
(Sticheron from
Great Lent season)
Thus the forty
days began on the first Monday in Lent and ended on Friday in the sixth week;
then came Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday and Holy Week, which, while distinct
from the forty days, were treated as part of the Lenten Fast in the broader
sense. In this way the forty days and Holy Week together constituted a fast of
seven weeks. So it is that Lent begins on Ash Wednesday in Western Christendom,
while commencing in the East two days earlier on Monday.
“Fasting, neither
above nor below your ability, will help you in your vigil. One should not
ponder divine matters on a full stomach, say the ascetics. For the well-fed,
even the most superficial secrets of the Trinity lie hidden. Christ Himself set
the example with His long fast; when He drove out the devil He had fasted for
forty days. Are we better than He? Behold angels came and ministered to Him
(Matthew 4:11) they are waiting to minister to you too.”
(Tito Colliander,
Way of the Ascetics)
Source: https://www.thegoodshepherd.org.au/history-of-lent
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