Lenten Triodion - school of piety

Reading offered at a public meeting of the Kyiv Religious and Educational Society on February 2, 1904. Alexey Afanasyevich Dmitrievsky (1856–1929), doctor of church history, professor and head of the department of liturgics and church archeology of the Kazan Theological Academy, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, in 1906–1917. was secretary of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. This outstanding scientist authored such works as “Divine services in the Russian Church in the 16th century. Part 1, “Service of the annual and weekly circle.” Kazan, 1884; "Modern worship in the Orthodox East." Vol. 1. Kazan, 1891; “Divine services of Holy and Easter weeks in St. Jerusalem according to the Charter of the 9th–10th centuries.” Kazan, 1894; "The Ancient Patriarchal Typicons of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem and the Great Church of Constantinople." Kyiv, 1907; "Description of liturgical manuscripts stored in the libraries of the Orthodox East." T. 1. Typiki. Kyiv, 1895 and St. Petersburg. 1917; T. 2. Euchologies. Kyiv, 1901. These studies were based on the results of a painstaking study of ancient manuscripts in the monastic libraries of Athos, Sinai, Patmos and Jerusalem. A. A. Dmitrievsky also published many articles in the magazine “Guide for Rural Shepherds,” in which he examined complex issues of modern liturgical practice. He also wrote essays on the liturgical books of the Russian Orthodox Church: Breviary, Service Book, Lenten Triodion and Tsvetnaya. The essay by A. A. Dmitrievsky, published in abbreviation, was first published in the “Proceedings of the Kyiv Theological Academy” in 1904. The work of the outstanding liturgist on fasting appears to be very relevant and of interest to the modern Orthodox reader. I would like to hope that the time will come for the publication of the complete works of this devotee of church science, about whom N. N. Glubokovsky wrote: “This is the best and most competent liturgist in Russia, who has deservedly earned the name of the “Russian Gohar” with colossal, beautifully annotated editions and is known for many other major works” (N. N. Glubokovsky. Russian theological science in its historical development and the latest state. M., 2002. P. 108). Literature about A. A. Dmitrievsky: Sove B. I. Russian Gohar and his school. //Theological works. Sat. 4. M., 1970; Makhno L., priest. List of works by A. A. Dmitrievsky in the order of their publication. //Ibid; see also Lisova N.N. Review of the main directions of Russian theological academic science in the 19th – early 20th centuries. //Theological works. Sat. 37. M., 2002. The Holy Orthodox Church, like a tender, child-loving mother, in her vigilant care for the education and moral advancement of her faithful children, having established the fast of the Great Pentecost, at the same time introduced the custom of teaching and edifying them with the poetically sublime and deeply touching hymns of a special liturgical book called the Lenten Triode. This book covers the period of time in the church year from the week of the tax collector and the Pharisee, colloquially called the omnivorous week, up to and including Friday of the sixth week of Great Lent, when we, “having celebrated the spiritually beneficial Pentecost,” end the Lenten Triodion. The hymns of our Lenten Triodion in the rite of worship on the Sundays of the entire Pentecostal period occupy a place along with the hymns of the Octoechos, and on ordinary weekdays of the week they even take precedence and supplant them. The Lenten Triodion received its name mainly because its most important texts - the morning and evening canons, on weekdays throughout Lent, consist, contrary to the established custom in church practice, not of nine or rather eight cantos, but only three in total (hence the name - Triodion), and the last two cantos - the eighth and ninth always invariably retain their places in the canon, and the first canto changes every day in this order: on Monday the first, on Tuesday the second, on Wednesday the third, on Thursday the fourth, on Friday the fifth and on Saturday the sixth and seventh. Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos says that the beginning of the indicated order of singing canons in church practice was laid by the famous church hymn writer Cosmas of Maium († about 776), a school companion of the great St. John of Damascus, but it is difficult to agree with his opinion. The fact is that at Compline for the first three days of Holy Week the Trisongs of St. are now sung. Andrew of Crete († 713), who lived before the Monk Cosmas of Maium. But there is no longer any doubt about another testimony of the same Nicephorus Callistus that “more than others (writers-poets), Theodore and Joseph the Studites... and having completed the other weeks of the Holy and Great Pentecost, they gave first to those monasteries of the Studites. Most of all the songs that he made and set, and the other below, from where and when, from the father he collected and received.” Indeed, from these hymns, unshakable warriors and sufferers for the veneration of icons, strict ascetics, we have most of the hymns and canons included in our Lenten Triodion, which in some ancient manuscripts is directly called the creation of Theodore and Joseph the Studites. Works of Saints John of Damascus, Andrew of Crete, Theophan the Inscribed, Metropolitan of Nicaea (canons on the Sunday of Orthodoxy at Matins and Compline and on Wednesday of the fourth week), George of Pisidia (akathist to the Mother of God on Saturday of the fifth week), John, Metropolitan of Euchaitis (two canons to the holy martyr Theodore Tyrone), Philotheus, Patriarch of Constantinople (service to St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, during the second week of Lent), George, Archbishop of Nicomedia (canon on the week of the Publican and the Pharisee), and some other hymnals, although they are part of our modern Lenten Triodion, constitute a relatively insignificant part of its content. In addition, most of these works appeared on the pages of this book already at a relatively later time, in the 14th–15th centuries, after the Lenten Triodion was finally formed into a special church liturgical book and was already widely used in the liturgical practice of the Byzantine Church. The appearance of the works of these songwriters on the pages of our Lenten Triodion undoubtedly influenced the disappearance of the names of the main authors, Sts., from the inscription. the Studite brothers Theodore and Joseph, but the later editors of this book, however, preserved names unforgettable for posterity in the inscriptions of their very creations contained in the Triodion. And it is enough to look carefully at this book to become clearly convinced, firstly, of the enormous numerical superiority of the hymns of Sts. the Studite brothers before the works of other songwriters, and, secondly, that the ancient manuscripts, therefore, not without good reason, inscribed the entire book with their names. Three main main motives make up the content of all the hymns included in our Lenten Triodion, namely: repentance, prayer and fasting. All these motives were developed to perfection by the holy Studite brothers, the greatest Christian ascetics and ascetics, who experienced the invaluable benefits of the above-mentioned virtues in the moral life of a Christian. The high poetic creativity with which the famous brothers were endowed by nature gave rise to a whole series of works, deep in thought, sublime in the feelings that they awaken in listeners, and beautiful in form and presentation, and therefore it is not at all surprising that these creations are likened to angelic songs. At the very beginning of this book we read the following “verses on the Triodion”: “To the Creator of those above and below, the Trisagion hymn from the angels: Receive the Trisong also from men.” All three motives: repentance, prayer and fasting are revealed by St. hymns with equal completeness and thoroughness and deserve deep attention equally from both a believer and an inquisitive researcher, but we, in order not to tire the readers, propose to focus on those hymns and practical remarks of our Lenten Triodion that relate to Christian fasting. The immediate motivation for us to do this is, firstly, the noticeable discrepancy in our Lenten Triodion between the theoretical and practical sides of its teaching about Christian fasting, and, secondly, mainly, the insufficiently clear and correct understanding now by very many members of the Orthodox Church of the essence and direct meaning of those practical instructions about fasting, which are scattered in our Triodion and grouped in the 32nd chapter of our Church Charter - Typicon. To present historical information available to us at this time regarding the observance of fasting by monks and laity in the ancient churches of the Byzantine, South Slavic and our Slavic-Russian, to indicate the sources and justifications for the instructions that are valid in our current practice, and to give a proper assessment and coverage of these latter - these are the main tasks that we outline for ourselves in this message. The teaching about Christian fasting and its salvation for members of the Orthodox Church in our Lenten Triodion begins with a striking example for a believer - a special service on Raw Saturday “in memory of all the saints and God-bearing fathers who shone forth in the ascetic labor (fasting). “It is for the sake of guilt that the holy fathers instituted the present memory of all the saints here,” says the synaxarion of this service, “even by fasting and other good deeds, having brought God, encouraging us in the image of these virtues, and valiantly arming ourselves against passions and demons, and a certain image suggesting: if we also offer equal diligence to them, There will be nothing to stumbling upon, except that they have done the same, and will be rewarded with the same honors: for the same is true for us, having shared the same nature.” With the same good goal of rousing believers to the saving feat of abstinence in food, our Lenten Triodion in the service of the week of raw food offers believers the memory of the “expulsion of Adam” in order to show them “how much Lenten healing is beneficial to human nature, and how much disgusting it is from delicacy and disobedience.” For also educational purposes, with the good intention of ordinary everyday life, when the table is full of food and drink of the most varied quality, to make the transition to abstinence and limiting oneself in food the most necessary for preserving physical strength, the Church established cheese week with its special services and chants reminiscent of repentance and fasting. “The fathers intended to be holy,” in the words of Nicephorus Callistus, “for the sake of a certain purification, as if from meats and overeating, we do not lead to extreme insufficiency, and otherwise we are harmed by our bodily custom; but quietly and little by little oiling and sweetening at a distance, like horses that are not tightly bridled with food that has been taken away, and we will accept the rut of fasting. Just as you created parables about souls, so you also crafted tricks about the body, even as you gradually cut off stumbling blocks to fasting.” Wanting to show believers what, according to the Word of God, is the essence and true meaning of Christian fasting, the Holy Church in the Apostolic Readings during the Meat and Cheese Weeks teaches them: “It is evil that does not place us before God; “He who believes in everything eats, but the one who is exhausted eats potions and food. Let not the poisonous one reproach the one who eats; nor let the one who is poisonous condemn the one who eats; for God accepts him” (Rom. 14:2-3). “He who eats the Lord eats: he gives thanks to God; and he who is not poisonous does not eat of the Lord, but gives thanks to God” (Rom. 14:6). We now turn directly to our Lenten Triodion, to its hymns related to this subject, and we see that the teaching about the essence of fasting and its fruits for the religious and moral education of believers is in complete harmonious accordance and agreement with the apostolic teaching. “At any time, fasting is useful for those who are willing and creative, and,” the Lenten Triodion sings about the necessity and importance of fasting, “for the demonic temptation dares to attack the fasting person; but the guardians of our life, the angels, are most lovingly with us, purified by fasting” (stichera on the verse of Matins on Monday of Cheese Week). “Kindly, people, let us embrace Lent: let us begin the beginning of spiritual exploits: let us leave bodily voluptuousness, increase our spiritual gifts, suffer as servants of Christ, and let us be glorified as children of God and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, enlightening our souls” (troparion of the 8th ode of the canon for Tuesday of Cheese Week). “The bright day of abstinence has come, come with a bright face, with a bright face, my soul, the Master, grant us grace from above asking, and find correction for many sins” (troparion to the 9th canon of the Matins canon, the heel of Cheese Week). “Lent has come, the mother of chastity, the accuser of sins, the preacher of repentance, the habitation of angels and the salvation of men” (stichera on the Matins verse on Monday of the first week). “Let us begin, people, the immaculate fast, which is the salvation of souls, let us serve the Lord with fear, let us anoint our heads with the oil of goodness and wash our faces with clean water, we do not say much in our prayers, but as we have learned, let us cry out: Our Father, who is in heaven, forgive us our sins, as a lover of mankind” (stichera on the verse of Tuesday Matins first week). The essence and true meaning of Christian fasting, according to the teachings of our Lenten Triodion, is depicted in such attractive features: “Let us not fast (abstinence) only, but rather alienate all material passions” (stichera on the verse of Matins on Tuesday of the first week). “Let us fast with a pleasant fast, pleasing to the Lord: true fasting is alienation of evil, abstinence of the tongue, putting aside rage, excommunication from lusts, speaking, lying and perjury. This impoverishment is a true and favorable fast” (stichera on the verse on Monday of the first week). “Pure fasting, removal of sin, alienation of passions, love of God, diligent prayer, tears of tenderness and care for the poor, Christ’s commandment in the scriptures” (troparion of the 1st song of the canon of Matins on Monday of the second week of Lent). “Spiritual, brethren, having fasted, do not use flattering words with your tongue, nor do you place stumbling blocks on your brother as a temptation” (stichera on “I cried to the Lord” on Wednesday of the second week). “It is fitting for us to fast: not in enmity and abuse, not in envy and zeal, not in vanity and secret flattery, but, like Christ, in humility” (troparion of the 8th song of the canon of Matins on Cheese Tuesday). “We fast with spiritual fasting, let us dissolve all corruption, let us also remain the temptations of sin, let us forgive our brothers’ debts, and our sins will be forgiven us” (stichera on the verse on Monday evening of the second week). “Now the time of holy fasting has come, let us begin this in good abiding: in courts of law and sedition, do not fast” (troparion of the 9th song of the canon of Matins on Monday of the first week). “Let us cleanse ourselves, brothers, from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, let us enlighten the candles of our souls with love of poverty, not devouring each other with slander” (stichera on the cheesy Saturday stichera). “The time of repentance and eternal life is our intercessor through the Lenten feat, if we stretch out our hands to do good: nothing saves the soul like giving alms to those in need. Almsgiving, dissolved by fasting, delivers a person from death: we kiss this, it is nothing, for it is enough to save our souls” (stichera on the Matins verse on the fourth of the second week). “The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and self-control with holiness. In the same way, they do not enter into riches, but put their treasures into the hands of the poor” (stichera “on praise” on the fifth week of Lent). Our Triodion describes the fruits of true fasting as follows: “Good fasting nourishes the hearts, anoints godly thoughts, and dries up the abyss of passions, cleanses with clouds of tenderness, by faith bringing praise to the Almighty” (troparion of the 1st song of the canon of Matins on Monday of the fifth week). “The all-destructive passions of the soul, the deadly sweets, fasting mortifies and truly in constant creation creates hearts of aspiration and movement: this we will accept kindly” (troparion of the 8th song of the canon of Matins on Wednesday). “Fasting from fasting, my soul, and not being cleansed of passions, you rejoice in vain in not eating: if it were not your fault, it would lead to correction, for you will be hated by God for the false, and you will become like an evil demon who eats nothing else” (stichera on the stichera on the cheesy Wednesday verse). If now from these sublime and imbued with a deep sense of forgiveness, brotherly love, humility and heartfelt contrition for the sins of the hymns of our Lenten Triodion, we move on to those practical rules and regulations that have a regulatory significance in the life of Christians to this day, which are scattered throughout many of its pages in this book, then we will see that these regulations and rules are in some inconsistency and, as it were, disharmony with the stated theoretical the teachings of this book are not distinguished by sufficient certainty, stability and consistency, and in some cases they even stand in contradiction with the current Church Charter, and precisely with its 32nd chapter, inscribed as follows: “From the rules of the saints, the apostle and the saints, the father about the holy Great Pentecost, which every Christian must dangerously preserve.” What are these rules and regulations? The Lenten Triodion speaks of fasting for all the brethren “according to tradition” until the fifth of the first week of Great Lent. At the same time, a reference is made to the Charter of the Holy Mountain not to eat anything on the first day. Chapter 32 of the Typikon adds “the same in the second.” It was under the influence of these establishments of the Triodion and the Charter that the modern Athonite custom developed of spending the first days of fasting in complete abstinence, not even eating bread and water. The Typikon, however, provides for relief at this time for the infirm and the elderly, who are allowed bread and kvass after Vespers on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the first week, the Lenten Triodion includes bread and water at the meal, perhaps with the addition of salt. The Typikon adds on Wednesday, after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, “warm vegetable foods” and “dill with honey.” On the heel of the first week, the Lenten Triodion first appoints wine and oil according to the custom of the Lavra of St. Savva the Sanctified, but then it is stipulated that this custom has been abandoned and “for the honesty of the day” they eat only hot dishes with plums and without butter. The Typikon prescribes the same harsh regime for the Wednesday of the fifth week and Great Thursday. On Saturday of the first week, the Lenten Triodion does not deviate from the Rule of St. Savva, prescribing boiled beans with olives, boiled butter, kolivo and wine in krasovula (that is, in a glass). During the week of Orthodoxy, hot food with oil is provided, as well as two glasses of wine during the day and evening. The same food regulations are provided for by Chapter 32 of the Typikon for all Saturdays and weeks of the Holy Pentecost, as well as for the feasts of the Finding of the Head of John the Baptist, the Forty Martyrs and some others. The practice of the Orthodox East allows the eating of caviar and skullcaps on all Saturdays and weeks. Our Lenten Triodion allows caviar only on Lazarus Saturday. We have no reason to recognize this permission for caviar as belonging only to the Saturday of the sixth week, the memory of the resurrection of righteous Lazarus, since this Saturday, in terms of the solemnity of the festival and the memories associated with it, stands on a par with the Saturday of the first week of Theodore, the week of Orthodoxy, the week of the Worship of the Cross. On Wednesday of the fifth week, on the eve of the Great Canon, the Lenten Triodion allows for oil and wine, but makes a severe reservation: “those who pay attention to be saved, adhere to abstinence,” thereby contradicting the Charter. On the very fourth of this week, the Triodion allows for oil and wine, referring to the Athonite custom of eating twice hot with butter and drinking two cups of wine. However, he immediately mentions the custom of the Studite Rule about dry eating at this time, inviting those who are being saved to independently choose “what is most pleasing before God.” Regarding the consumption of fish, the Lenten Triodion and the Typikon are united in defining two days: the Annunciation and the Flower Week, i.e., the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. The Typikon even prohibits violators of this rule from receiving communion on Holy Easter, requiring two weeks of repentance and 300 bows both day and night. A more severe rule of the Helmsman (Pidalion) of Nicodemus the Holy Mountain is also known, which allows fish only once during Lent - on the Annunciation, if it falls before the week of Vai, or on Palm Sunday, if the Annunciation falls on Holy Week. Consequently, this categorical prescription of the Lenten Triodion and the Charter about eating fish twice during fasting is not valid. The question naturally arises: how and how to explain the uncertainty and sometimes contradictory instructions of the Lenten Triodion and the Typikon regarding the life of believers throughout Great Lent? The answer must be sought in ancient liturgical monuments. For greater clarity and clarity, summarizing all the various comments of the ancient clergy Typicons of the Byzantine, South Slavic and our Slavic-Russian churches regarding the food regime throughout Lent, we will present here, on the basis of these data, so to speak, a Lenten menu for the entire Lent period up to Holy Week inclusive. On Monday of the first week of Lent, they ate dry food once a day after Vespers (testaments of St. Theodore the Studite, 9th century, and St. Athanasius of Athos). Monuments of studio practice sometimes prescribed complete abstinence on the first and second days of this week (Orbel Triodion, 12th–12th centuries), and the Svyatogorsk Charter indicates not even drinking water on these days. From Tuesday and throughout the week until Friday they ate bread, boiled peas or beans, salted cabbage without butter, pears, five figs each, plums and chestnuts. Sometimes (Orbel Triodion) bread was replaced with prosphora. The drink was either pure water or, most often, warm water mixed with pepper, cumin and honey. Sometimes (Charter of Patriarch Alexy, 1025–1043) they used pea infusion and plum juice as a drink. Wine this week was supposed to be only for the “weak” and “those lost in days.” We find an exception to the general rule only in the Typica of the Pantocrator Monastery (given by Emperor John Komnenos in 1136), the monastery of St. Mamanta (1146) and Elijah Vomon (1162), in which it is prescribed to give healthy monks wine on these days, but only half a krasovuli. On Friday of the first week they had porridge (Typic of St. Savva of Serbia) or kutia (with almonds, raisins, nuts and other fruits), and they poured oil into the cabbage and drank wine (Typik of Patrarch Alexy and Pantokratorsky). In 1118, Empress Irina allowed the nuns of the Constantinople Monastery of the Holy Virgin to eat two boiled dishes with butter on this day. In most other monasteries, although they ate two boiled dishes, they did not eat oil. They drank wine in all monasteries in memory of the Great Martyr Fyodor Tiron. On Saturday they ate two dishes boiled with oil and drank wine. Empress Irene and the Statutes of St. Mamanta and Elijah Vomon are allowed on skull-skinned animals or octapods [octopuses], as in the Typica of St. Savva of Serbia, given to the Mount Athos monastery of Hilandar in 1192. In the Pantocrator Typikon, oysters, mussels and viziga are among the skull-skinned ones. The laity were allowed fish (Charter of 1553), which the monks ate only if it was brought as a consolation by a lover of Christ. The fasting regime on the first Sunday of fasting or the week of Orthodoxy, as well as on all Saturdays and Sundays of fasting, was no different from the Saturday regime of the first week. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of the other weeks of fasting, the food was the same as indicated in the Typics for the first week. According to the Charter of Patriarch Alexy, St. Mamanta and Elijah Vomon, Monday was excluded from fasting days. In the Pantocratorian Typica, these days there are two boiled dishes, one of which with butter, and a small amount of wine. On Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout Lent it was allowed to eat olives, two boiled dishes, one with butter and the other without butter, and drink wine at a small krasovula. According to some Charters (St. Mamanth, Elijah Vomon and Pantocrator), both dishes were cooked with butter. According to the Charter of Patriarch Alexy - two dishes with crushed nuts, instead of butter, and instead of wine, they drank warm water - “krop”. On Tuesday of the third week, according to the Charter of Patriarch Alexy, the monks were entitled to permission to fish. Throughout the week of the Worship of the Cross and the fourth week of Lent, according to the Charter of the Pantocrator Monastery, the regime in the monastery was the same as during the first week. Most Typicons on Wednesday of the Worship of the Cross, as well as on Thursday of the Great Canon in the fifth week, indicate the regime of Tuesdays and Thursdays of Great Lent. In the Typicon of Pantocrator, St. Mamanta and Elijah Vomon, the food of the monks was the same as on Saturdays and Sundays of Great Lent. According to the Rule of Hieromonk Nile, given to the Mother of God Monastery of Mahera on the island of Cyprus (1210), there was no dinner on Thursday of the Great Canon, nor on Wednesday, but the singers received consolation on Friday in view of the work ahead of them on Saturday of the Akathist. On the Saturday of Righteous Lazarus they ate fish (Orbel Triodion and Typik of Hieromonk Nile), and the monks washed in the bathhouse, which they were forbidden to do during Lent (Typik of Hieromonk Nile). The holidays of the Presentation of the Lord and the Annunciation and the memory of great saints, which fell on the days of Great Lent, such as the second discovery of the head of John the Baptist, smch. Blasius, the Forty Martyrs and Alexis the man of God changed the above-mentioned fasting regime. On these commemorations, if they fell on days other than Wednesday and Friday, the monks were allowed to eat with butter (Orbel Triodion). In memory of Alexei the man of God, on March 17, the name day of the ktitor was celebrated in his monastery, and the Charter of Patriarch Alexy allowed the monks even to eat fish. Fish was also allowed on the feast of the finding of the head of John the Baptist. Charters of Empress Irene, Pantocrator, St. Mamanta and Elijah Vomon. St. Savva the Serbian allowed monks to wear skulls on this day, and Typiki Elijah Vomon and St. Mamanta even allowed this for the memory of the Forty Martyrs. At the same time, according to the Statutes of the Evergetid Monastery (1143–1152) and the Mother of God Monastery of Kosmosotir (1152), only two boiled dishes with butter and a large krasovula of wine were supposed to be served in the named memory. On the Feast of the Annunciation, according to all regulations, monks and laity were allowed to eat fish. But in the monastic regulations of ancient times we also find something more curious, namely: permission to fish on the eve of this holiday (Orbel Triodion) and on the next day of the holiday, if the after-feast did not fall on Wednesday and Friday, and if the remnants of yesterday’s fish remained in stock at the table (Typiki of Patriarch Alexy, St. Savva of Serbia, Evergetid, Kosmosotira and Orbel Triodion). In the life of the ancient Byzantine monasteries, in addition to the noted curious rule of eating the leftovers of the fish table on the next day after great holidays, in which we must assume that there was hardly ever a noticeable deficiency, we also encounter another highly interesting phenomenon, testifying to the breadth and humaneness of the views on Christian fasting of the ancient Byzantine Church and its society, or the ktitors of the monasteries. We mean the custom, widely practiced in ancient Byzantine monasteries, of bringing a fish meal to lovers of Christ in the monastery and establishing a fish meal for monks throughout Lent. This custom violated, of course, the accepted regime in the monasteries. This custom was reflected even in the Taktikon of Nikon the Montenegrin, a writer of the 11th century, who showed excessive severity in his views on the Lenten regime and, as we will see below, had a strong influence on the fasting instructions of our Lenten Triodion. “In these days of fasting, writes Nikon the Montenegrin, if a treat comes from a certain lover of Christ, there is also a master of what is brought, and if he brings it, eat it for the glory of God, for the hedgehog does not offend the one who brought it... If it is not brought, it is appropriate to keep it on Saturday and on a week and on a holiday, for it is weak to be ruined, as if it happened, and from Holy Fathers Devotional Fasting." In the Typicons of Irininsky, Evergetidsky, Kosmosotira, St. Mamanta, Elijah Vomon and the Rule of Hieromonk Nil, the fish brought by the lover of Christ was allowed to be eaten (with the exception of the first week and Wednesdays and Fridays of the entire Lent) on the very day on which it was brought, regardless of whether the donor himself was present or absent. The Evergetid Typikon, in explaining the custom, says that this was done so that the monks would not appear exhausted in front of people, and the Typikon of Maher of Hieromonk Nile adds so as not to offend the benefactor by refusal. In this form, the most ancient liturgical monuments of the Byzantine, South Slavic and our Slavic-Russian churches present to us the regime of the daily life of a Christian throughout the entire Lent, a regime that is undoubtedly distinguished by its breadth of views and true Christian love in relation to man and his body, as the dwelling of the soul. The extreme variety of these prescriptions regarding the fasting regime in the indicated Typics undoubtedly had a huge impact on some instability and inconsistency of those practical prescriptions regarding food during fasting, which we noted above in our Lenten Triodion. “The Nice Charter,” “The Studite Charter,” “The Holy Mountains Typik,” and the customs of the “Laurels of our venerable father Savva and our God-bearing father Euthymius” were undoubtedly well known to the compilers of those rules on fasting that filled our Lenten Triodion and which formed an independent chapter 32 in the Typikon. The variety of instructions made it very difficult for the compilers to choose one or another instruction regarding food and drink at meals. They came out of it in the simplest way, allowing our “love”, as well as “those who listen” or “desire to be saved,” to choose for themselves “what is most pleasing before God.” However, along with this we also find rather severe instructions of the Lenten Triodion regarding food and drink during Lent. For example, there is a remark not to eat “anything else” on the days of the first week, except water and bread with salt, despite the fact that the Typikon allows on these same days “from warm vegetable foods” and “dill with honey.” However, the Typikon itself also has very strict regulations regarding the consumption of fish: only on the Annunciation and on the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. “If a monk ruins the holy Pentecostal with his delicacy by eating fish,” we read in chapter 32, “then he will not partake of the Holy Mysteries even on Holy Pascha...” Canon 50 of the Council of Laodicea commands to fast “throughout Lent and be content with dry food,” but does not define exactly what this means. The church canons are certainly silent about eating fish during fasting, unless you keep in mind the very lenient 5th rule of Nicephorus of the Patriarch of Constantinople, which allows fish on the Feast of the Annunciation and even on Holy Week on Maundy Thursday (this did not stop the same holy father from allowing monks only wine and oil on Vai week). There is no doubt that the prescriptions of the Lenten Triodion and the Typicon were influenced not only by the canons and rules of the “holy apostles and holy fathers,” but also by some other sources. Let us turn to the Nomocanon under our Great Trebnik and precisely to its rule 225. It is this that resolves our bewilderment, pointing directly to the source for the above-mentioned strict instructions regarding the prohibition of fish during fasting. Rule 225 of the Nomocanon reads as follows: “Those who eat fish on the day of righteous Lazarus, or on the Sunday of the Cross, or St. Theodore, as we see many doing this, will receive judgment for themselves, and especially on Easter they do not partake of Divine Communion, in rebuke of their voluptuousness: as they dare on the days of calico, where below the Flower-Bearing Week the rule commands the worldly to allow fish, even if other statutes say this, according to the 24th rule of St. Nikephoros of Constantinople.” But rule 225 of the Nomocanon can be considered a source only for the conclusion of Chapter 32 of our Church Charter. As for the rest of the instructions of the named chapter and all those that we cited above, the source for them was the first word from the Taktikon of Nikon the Montenegrin, inscribed as follows: “A type from the divine scriptures was chosen about the construction of the image dedicated to us from the holy fathers for the salvation of souls and was given in writing to the brethren under us.” The extracts from here by the compilers of our Lenten Triodion and Church Rules were made almost verbatim, observing all the textual features of this work of ascetic writing, respected by our ancient scribes. Here is a passage from the Taktikon of Nikon the Montenegrin that relates here: “On the great day of the Great Pentecost, on the first day, it is by no means appropriate to eat, according to the Rule of the Holy Mountain. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it is appropriate to eat one piece (in our Triodion: liter) of bread and water: otherwise it’s nothing, unless you demand salt with bread... On the Friday evening of St. Theodore, the food that is appropriate is one boiling without oil and some other dry food and water to drink; otherwise nothing. On Saturday and during the week it is appropriate to eat butter, and if it happens to us to drink wine, which we must eat during the week for the glory of God. From Monday of the second week and so on, the entire period of Pentecost is to be eaten dry, except for Saturday and week, according to the divine rules of the will (!!!). It is not worthy to allow it on Wednesday, since it is a day of mourning, and not a holiday. Likewise, at the Great Canon, the commandment was found in the Studite Typica, to eat dry food all that week, especially in these days one should eat Alleluia.” It goes without saying that neither the Nomocanon under our Great Trebnik, which never had canonical significance in the Orthodox Church, as has now been clarified by learned criticism in the most positive way, and which, moreover, appeared on Mount Athos only in the 15th–16th centuries, nor even more so the Tactikon of Nikon the Montenegrin, whose works were completely undeservedly titled as follows: “The Book of our Venerable and God-Bearing Father Nikon, Abbot of the Black Mountain,” cannot lay claim to the highest authority of “the rules of the holy apostles and holy fathers,” “which every Christian must guard dangerously.” Nikon the Montenegrin, as we know, is not accepted among the “God-bearing fathers” by our Church, and the Typik compiled by him, distinguished by a particularly harsh view of monastic feats in general and, in particular, of monastic fasting, was an expression of his personal views, never claiming that honorable leadership significance outside the monastery entrusted to his care on the Black Mountain in Antioch, which was given to him partly out of jealousy, and partly out of misunderstanding at first Athonite, and behind them our ancient scribes of the 16th–17th centuries. Consequently, the publisher of our Nomocanon at the Great Trebnik, the famous Kiev scholar Zechariah Kopystensky, was absolutely right when he called these fathers only “the most skillful elders” or otherwise “God-inspired fathers in Holy Athos Mount,” whose share fell to a modest role in the 15th–16th centuries. “from the most numerous rules” to briefly collect the rules for the monks of the Holy Mountain and, above all, for the “most honorable spiritual fathers,” for whom these rules were not supposed to serve as a norm, but only as a guide in their practical activities. In the severity of the instructions of our Lenten Triodion regarding the fasting regime, finally, the harsh climatic conditions of life in our blessed country and the poverty of our native northern nature were of no small importance. All “favas”, “cambostas”, “zelias”, black and white olives, and especially dates, figs, plums, grapes, almonds and even apples and pears, which are often discussed in our liturgical books in the instructions for fasting, do not constitute food products available to two-thirds of the inhabitants of our vast Fatherland. The so-called “turtle skins” (octopuses, sea urchins, mussels, lobsters and other seafood) can hardly be discussed at all. Many Russian people have never heard of their existence. In addition, the very act of eating them requires habit and skill. Many of these tasty foods of the East are called “evil spirits” and even “trash” by our pilgrims on the Holy Mountain and in Palestine. In other words, even if our liturgical books mentioned this type of food in their instructions for fasting, they would hardly soften the severity of fasting in any way. Black and red caviar, from which in the East very tasty sauces are prepared on Saturdays and Sundays of Lent, is not an ordinary occurrence at the meal of monks in most Russian monasteries. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Lenten Triodion recommends eating caviar to monks only once during Lent - on Lazarus Saturday, carefully stipulating: “even if the imams have caviar, let it be given to anyone.” So, after all that has been said, there can hardly be any doubt that in the practical view of fasting, our liturgical books - the Lenten Triodion and the Church Rules - very noticeably diverge from the view of fasting that is proposed in the Word of God and in the wondrous church works of the venerable ascetic fasters Theodore and Joseph Studites, who make up the liturgical content of our Lenten season. Triodion. These rules of the named book regarding fasting are far from those, imbued with sublime Christian love, truly humane instructions, which we saw in the most ancient monastic regulations of Byzantium, the lands of the South Slavic and our ancient Rus' and reigned in the East with particular force from the 9th to the 13th centuries, and in our Fatherland even until the 16th century. Considering the late and not entirely canonical nature of the instructions of the Lenten Triodion on the rules of fasting, the inquisitive thought of an archaeologist and historian of the liturgy of the Orthodox Church and its practical disciplines involuntarily turns from the current harsh fasting regime to that humane and truly Christian routine, which the ancient Byzantine monastic Typics and our ancient Church Rules before the 16th century depict to us in amazing diversity. inclusive. In fact, if it is impossible to accept on the pages of our Lenten Triodion and Church Rules the comments about the permission of fish in the week, for example, of Orthodoxy, the greatest triumph of the Church and the most joyful celebration, in the week of the Cross, when the Holy Church “with the life-giving tree of the honorable and life-giving Cross sweetens the sorrow of fasting from Pentecost: and comforting us, as if we were in the desert, until then he will lead to intelligent Jerusalem with his resurrection” (Synaxarion of the Week of the Veneration of the Cross), on the days of the celebration of the memory of the finding of the head of John the Baptist, the Forty Martyrs, Alexis the Man of God, on Lazarus Saturday, etc., to which, as we have seen, there are no serious and fundamental obstacles in the canons of the church and in the teachings of the patrists, then in any case it would be desirable to see here in relation to those exhausted from fasting a lenient and humane prescription, which was accepted by our Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and through it by the entire Russian Church in the Charter of Patriarch Alexy, put into practice by St. Theodosius of Pechersk and stayed with us until the 14th century. This injunction refers to a simple weekday - Tuesday of the third week of Lent, but the motive for allowing fish, expressed in it, can be considered higher than the festive one: “There is consolation, and the fish are eaten,” this injunction says, “as if they preferred not a little, they will be stronger for everything else.” It is even more desirable to see on the pages of our Lenten Triodion and our Church Charter the remark widely practiced in the ancient Christian Church about the lover of Christ offering fish to monks at a meal during the days of Great Lent, except for the first and Holy Weeks, as well as Wednesdays and Fridays throughout Great Lent. This remark in the ancient clergy Typicons undoubtedly breathes with brotherly love, humanity, and is in full accordance and wonderful harmony with the truly evangelical and apostolic teaching on Christian fasting, with the views of the fathers and great ascetics of the saints. Savva the Sanctified and Euthymius, for the sake of the dear guest, not only allowed fasting, but also ate more food than they did even in ordinary times and on holidays. The above does not contradict the view of the post of the main songwriter of the Lenten Triodion, St. Theodore the Studite: “We will not strain ourselves too much in our exploits, so that we may maintain physical health with spiritual success. For what is the use of being a mother-in-law quickly at first, and then completely weakening and stopping? But it’s better to mother-in-law with calculation and restraint, keeping in mind the distance to the end of the current.” “Perhaps someone will say that eating food every day is a detriment to the perfection of fasting. No way. For if it were so, then the Lord would not have commanded us to ask for our daily bread; then the prophet Elijah would not have been fed with crows every day in the desert; then St. Paul of Thebes, who began to live in the desert before the divine Anthony, would not have received bread from above every day; then Anthony the Great himself would not have preferred eating food every day to fasting for more than one day or a week. And I think this is for this reason. Since our body, working throughout the whole day, gets tired and exhausted and requires rest and reinforcement, the Creator designed it so that it would be strengthened by eating food every day, and would again be capable of further work, and not exhausted and relaxed, as happens to those who do not take food for two or three or more days, which is why they are not able to bow along with others, nor to sing loudly, as it should, nor to perform the works of obedience to others. Thus, daily eating of food is not only allowed for the weak, but is also given for the perfect, according to the faithful rule of the fathers” (See Philokalia. Ed. 2nd. T. 4. M., 1901. P. 390, 514–515). This is how the great ascetic and ascetic St. Petersburg looked at fasting. Theodore Studit, and before his strong word, breathing love for man, our weak word hastens to fall silent. You might be interested in: