01/06/2026
The Apostles' Fast begins today on the Gregorian calendar. A 'hybrid' of the fixed and moveable calendars, it begins the Monday after the Sunday of All Saints and ends on the eve of the feast of the Holy Chief Apostles Peter & Paul (29 June). An ancient fast, known in different forms in both the East and the West, its genesis is attested in Book V of the late-fourth century Apostolic Constitutions, believed to be written in Antioch: “Having feasted for Fifty Days, continue to feast for still another week, and then fast for a week; for it is reasonable to rejoice for the gift of God, and to fast after that relaxation [...] after this week of fasting, fast every week, doing so on every Wednesday and Friday." Likewise, in Sermon 78 of Leo the Great, Pope of Rome, written c. AD 441, Pope Leo explains the purpose of fasting on the Ember Days of the Pentecost octave in the Roman tradition, which served as a corrective to the long fast-free period between Pascha and Pentecost week:
«“[...] after the days of holy joy which we have spent in honour of the Lord, risen from the dead and then ascended into heaven, and after the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the custom of a fast has been advantageously and needfully ordained. If a careless freedom of uncontrolled license should put anything in the way of the real joys of the feast, the discipline of a devout abstinence will correct it. This result must be earnestly sought for, so that those things which have been given to the Church by divine grace on this day might remain in us. Since we have become the "temple of the Holy Spirit" and are flooded by a greater flow than ever of the divine outpouring, we ought not to be overcome by any evil desires. We ought not to be possessed by any vices, so that the home of virtue will not be stained with any pollution.
«It is possible for us all to achieve this, God ruling and helping us, if through the purification of the fast and the generosity of mercy, we wish earnestly to be freed from the stain of our sins and to be rich in the fruits of charity. Whatever we spend on food for the poor, on the care of the weak, on the ransom of captives, and on any other work of mercy, is not lost but increased. What had been expended in kindhearted faith never perishes before the Lord, for whatever it has paid out will be kept as a reward. "Blessed are the merciful, for God will be merciful to them,'' nor will there be any memory of faults where there is the witness of compassion.»
(Translated by Jane Patricia Freeland, Pope Leo I: Sermons, Catholic University of America Press, 1996).
Although today most Latin and Byzantine jurisdictions return to regular weekly fasting after the octave/afterfeast of Pascha, this was not always the case. Indeed, until the Byzantine 'cathedral rite' was gradually superseded by the more rigorous monastic practice after the sack of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, there was no fasting or abstinence of any kind for the 56 days between Pascha and the Sunday of All Saints.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch is one of the few jurisdictions to have recently returned to the ancient practice, having abolished fasting between Pascha and Pentecost in Lebanon during the civil war of 1975–1990, and between Pascha and Ascension for the entire Patriarchate from 1997. In the non-Chalcedonian Oriental Orthodox Churches, however, the ancient practice has been preserved unto this day (albeit the Armenians also resume fasting after Ascension, rather than Pentecost).
Canon 115 §2.4 of the Particular Law of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church obliges its members to at least abstain from meat and meat products on Wednesdays and Fridays of the Fast. The traditional fast proscribes meat, eggs, dairy, fish, oil, and alcohol, with oil and alcohol being permitted on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and fish, oil, and alcohol on weekends. In the strictest form of the fast, nothing at all is eaten until after the Ninth Hour (about 3pm) during the week, though there is no fasting of this kind on weekends.
As ever, fasting should always be proportionate to health, circumstances, and spiritual maturity, in consultation with one's pastor, and combined with works of prayer and almsgiving. Children under the age of 14, adults over the age of 60, the seriously ill, pregnant and nursing mothers, those who travel more than eight hours, who do manual labour, who do not prepare their own food, and those who live on alms are always exempt from the obligation to fast. ✠
