The integral fast of the 3 first days of Great Lent

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Jean-Serge
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Re: The integral fast of the 3 first days of Great Lent

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Since the 3 first days of Lent are over, well, at least in Europe, here is a translation from "Le typikon décrypté" by Job Getcha, also available in Englidh the Typikon decoded. Excellent book by the way.

"The Palestinian tradition, (kept in the monastery of Saint Sabbas and the cenobium of Saint Euthymus) will adopt a stricter practice. It will make the integral fast last longer forbidding the consumption of any food until Wednesday and even Friday for those who are able. Consequently, no communion is possible before Wednesday or Friday from this comes the Sabbait practice of celebrating the Presanctified twice a week [note of the translator : and not daily as in other practices that no longer exist].[...] It is important to note that this practice is still kept almost universall in monasteries, where there is no meal until the end of the Presanctified, and where al monks that are able, do not eat and drink during three days (trimeri). Among the laymen, the first day of Lent is also strictly observed"

Page 191 in the French edition

Personal commentary: I personally knew a family in France, a widow in her 50s and her son between 20 and 30, who kept this practice the whole week but after Wednesday, they allowed themselves to drink, if I remember correctly. Other sources told me that the practice was not unfamiliar in 19th century and early 20th in Greece and Romania, in Romania even by field workers (with one person from Monachos forum remembering that her late mother indeed respected the trimeri).

Priidite, poklonimsja i pripadem ko Hristu.

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Re: The integral fast of the 3 first days of Great Lent

Post by jgress »

Jean-Serge wrote:

Since the 3 first days of Lent are over, well, at least in Europe, here is a translation from "Le typikon décrypté" by Job Getcha, also available in Englidh the Typikon decoded. Excellent book by the way.

"The Palestinian tradition, (kept in the monastery of Saint Sabbas and the cenobium of Saint Euthymus) will adopt a stricter practice. It will make the integral fast last longer forbidding the consumption of any food until Wednesday and even Friday for those who are able. Consequently, no communion is possible before Wednesday or Friday from this comes the Sabbait practice of celebrating the Presanctified twice a week [note of the translator : and not daily as in other practices that no longer exist].[...] It is important to note that this practice is still kept almost universall in monasteries, where there is no meal until the end of the Presanctified, and where al monks that are able, do not eat and drink during three days (trimeri). Among the laymen, the first day of Lent is also strictly observed"

Page 191 in the French edition

Personal commentary: I personally knew a family in France, a widow in her 50s and her son between 20 and 30, who kept this practice the whole week but after Wednesday, they allowed themselves to drink, if I remember correctly. Other sources told me that the practice was not unfamiliar in 19th century and early 20th in Greece and Romania, in Romania even by field workers (with one person from Monachos forum remembering that her late mother indeed respected the trimeri).

Was this level of strictness just for the first week, or for every week in Lent? I ask since the Presanctified is normally celebrated only twice a week for every week in Lent, but other than the first week we are allowed to eat every day according to the strict observance I know of.

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Jean-Serge
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Re: The integral fast of the 3 first days of Great Lent

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For the first week only!

Priidite, poklonimsja i pripadem ko Hristu.

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Re: The integral fast of the 3 first days of Great Lent

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Jean-Serge wrote:

For the first week only!

Whew! But still I'm very impressed by anyone who can keep such a strict fast and still do his everyday work. I remember vaguely reading a canon that forbade monks from doing heavy labor during Clean Week because they would be tempted to break the fast. With strong faith anything is possible.

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Re: The integral fast of the 3 first days of Great Lent

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I found a mention of this fast of 3 days in a text from Saint Pachomius of Chios published in an issue of Saint Edward Brotherhood here(the text deals with other matters but testifies that the practice was well alive by them among people (and by the way is still alive today too, not only in monasteries):

In like manner, regarding the first week of the Great Lent, I know of many men and women who keep the three-day fast [an optional tradition of fasting completely from food and water], and they go to church on Wednesday for the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and the clergy do not allow them to receive Holy Communion, saying, “Just the other day you were eating meat, and today you come to receive Communion?”

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Re: The integral fast of the 3 first days of Great Lent

Post by jgress »

Interesting that it says the three-day total fast is "optional". As for eating meat, do they mean that the people ate meat during Cheesefare Week?

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Re: The integral fast of the 3 first days of Great Lent

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The portion into brackets [...] is from the translator, not from the saint, so that there is no confusion. I also wondered why they talk about meat. A possibility is that a majority of people at that time were getting lenient and ate meat even during cheesefare week and knowing this, priests would suppose that anybody did the same, eating meat.

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