Christian vegetarianism?

[Pensees]

Is there any support for vegetarianism in the Scriptures, Church theology, or the lives of the saints? Any help would be much appreciated.

Peace.

[尼古拉前执事]

Dear Matthew,

Monastics do not eat meat (with the exception of fish and seafood)because it fuels the passions, but other than fasting rules the Church has, ality was given the provision to eat meat by God himself after the Great Flood.

[Pensees]

But doesn't God desire mercy, not sacrifice?

In Romans, Saint Paul was appealing to a Gentile audience, in order to make the faith more palatable. That does not mean that the consumption of meat is the most healthy of diets or gives the most glory to God.

Romans 14:21
It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

Several fathers of the church have practiced vegetarianism:

The unnatural eating of flesh-meats is as polluting as the heathen worship of devils, with its sacrifices and its unpure feasts, through participation in which a man becomes a fellow-eater with devils.
Clementine Homilies

Surely we ought to show them [animals] great kindness and gentleness for many reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves.
St. John Chrysostom

The body that is burdened with meat foods is plagued by illnesses; a moderate style of life makes it healthier and stronger and cuts off the root of evil. The vapors of meat foods darken the light of the spirit. It is hard for one to love virtue when one is gladdened by meat dishes and festive meals.
Basil the Great

But the seed of a good house father is the good wheat, from which he bakes bread ... The indulgence in meat dishes is a disgraceful wrong and I desire that you may strive to offer your soul nourishment that lasts eternally.
Gregory von Nazianz

Peace.

[GOCPriestMark]

Vegetarianism sounds like a religion. It would be inaccurate to say that any "fathers of the church have practiced vegetarianism".

An Orthodox Christian may abstain from eating meat, (we do it often during the regular fasting days/seasons), for ascetic reasons. So ask your priest/bishop about performing this ascetic practice more regularly/permanently.

But also be mindful of these two Apostolic Canons:

CANON LI
If any Bishop, or Presbyter, or Deacon, or anyone at all on the sacerdotal list, abstains from marriage, or meat, or wine, not as a matter of mortification, but out of an abhorrence thereof, forgetting that all things are exceedingly good, and that God made man male and female, and blasphemously misrepresenting God's work of creation, either let him mend his ways or let him be deposed from office and expelled from the Church. Let a layman be treated similarly.

CANON LIII
If any Bishop, or Presbyter, or Deacon, on the days of feasts will not partake of meat and wine, because he loathes these things, and not on account of asceticism, let him be deposed from office, on the ground that he has his own conscience seared and has become a cause of scandal to many.

[Anastasios]

Is there any support for vegetarianism in the Scriptures, Church theology, or the lives of the saints? Any help would be much appreciated.

Peace.

No. If you don't want to eat meat no one will criticize you. Just don't try to push it on anyone or look for justifications in the Fathers.

Anastasios

[Pensees]

Just don't try to push it on anyone or look for justifications in the Fathers.

I don't intend on pushing anything on anyone. About the church fathers, what if such justfications do exist? I'm not going to knock you for consuming meat, but I hope you know how it got onto your plate and where it's coming from. I was healthier when vegetarian, and have more or less lost the appetite for meat.

Peace.

[Pensees]

Vegetarianism sounds like a religion. It

CANON LIII
If any Bishop, or Presbyter, or Deacon, on the days of feasts will not partake of meat and wine, because he loathes these things, and not on account of asceticism, let him be deposed from office, on the ground that he has his own conscience seared and has become a cause of scandal to many.

I do not loathe meat if it hasn't come from an animal so abused that it was too sick to walk. The meat from factory farms is just gross when you really consider the reality of it.

Peace.