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by Fr. Dr. Biji Chirathilattu
Maphriono Mor Gregorios Yuhannon Bar 'Ebroyo
The famous thirteenth century Syrian Orthodox Maphrian Yuhanon Gregorios Aboul
Faraj Bar Ebroyo (1225/6–1286), commonly known in the West as Bar Hebraeus (in
Araibic Ibn Al-'Ibri), who dominates the Syrian Orthodox Church History and who
is rightly called the Thomas of Acquinas of the Syrian Orthodox Christianity,
was the last Syrian Father to do an extensive codification of the different
patristic directions towards the spiritual exercises in his Church. He is today
considered as the "authority" on all matters of the Syrian Orthodox Church. In
the matters of prayers and fasts, he has produced the official canon of the
Church. Therefore it will be significant to consider his main instructions.
Often many questions are asked from the part of the believers as to the dos and
don'ts in the fasts. There are many doubts regarding the beginning, duration,
and ending of the fasts also. One example is the question, why is a forty day
fast observed when in reality it is forty-eight days. Bar Ebroyo was well aware
of this situation. So, both in Ethicon and Nomocanon, he narrates in minute
details the number and days of the fasts observed in his Church. He quotes from
the Canons of Apostles, the fourth century Synods of Gangara and Laodicea, the
strict Syrian Orthodox canonist Jacob of Edessa (AD 640/5-708) et cetera; he
describes the traditional rules of the Church and then gives his own
interpretations and opinions by means of his directions (Hoodoye) so that
everything will be clarified.
According to Bar Ebroyo, fasts until noon cannot be considered as fasting but
those until the evening are the true fasts. All the believers have to fast on
Wednesdays and Fridays. Quoting the ninth century Patriarch John III, he says
that those who eat meat on Wednesdays and Fridays should be prohibited from the
Church. In his directive following it, Bar Ebroyo prohibits egg, milk, and
cheese also on these days and says that no believer should eat the prohibited
food before the sunset. He thinks that it is the best that one does not break
the fast in the evening also, rather fast till the morning of the next day. The
reason behind this directive is that it is confirmed in the texts that God has
begun the creation not from the darkness but from the light. Quoting Jacob of
Edessa, he says that the Holy Apostles have not entrusted us anything regarding
observing Friday by abstaining from the job and from the handwork. But only
fast, prayer service, and reading of the holy books are suggested on Fridays and
Wednesdays.
The great lent begins on the Monday coming closer, before or after the full moon
between second of February and eighth of March. Quoting the Canons of the
Persians, Bar Ebroyo directs that a believer who is staying in an uncivilized
place having no way to know about the beginning of the fast should begin to
observe the fast on twentieth February and end it on twentieth April, it means,
he should observe it ten extra days. On the Sunday coming nearest, before, or
after, to the completion of this time period he should end the fast with prayers
and celebrate the feast. But if he is at a place where he can avail the holy
elements of the Eucharist, he has no right to loosen the fast before receiving
the Eucharist on the Maundy Thursday, Saturday of Annunciation and on the great
Sunday of the Resurrection. But he can loosen the fast if he is in a place where
he cannot avail of the Eucharist, because Bar Ebroyo sees Eucharist on all the
days and on these days as alike. However, if one hopes that the Eucharist will
be prepared for him in few days after the Resurrection, he should not end the
lent before receiving it. But, if he does not have a hope like that, he may
loosen the lent on the Resurrection day itself in the hope of the faith.
In the Nomocanon, at the beginning of the chapter on feasts, fasts, and prayers
(Chapter: 5) itself, referring to the decision of the Apostles, Bar Ebroyo says
that nobody should fast on the Saturdays and Sundays during the great lent. But
in his "Direction" following it, he instructs that even if the release of the
fast is permitted in the Canons of the Apostles because of the added fasting
days in the Passion Week, it is not right to eat in the morning itself. But,
because of the honor of the holy fast one should attend the Eucharistic Service
at the third hour, and finish it and everything associated with it, without
being haste, and come out of the Church at the noon.
This forty days great lent is being finished in 48 days. Bar Ebroyo presents the
different arguments of various people regarding these extra eight days. The
first view is that these days are added as the Passion Week in order to
persecute our bodies more. It is the Apostles who decided that the Passion Week
and the feast of Resurrection should be observed after the forty days lent.
Otherwise, this fast would have been finished with the Friday of the forty-day
(of the lent). Some say it is because of the Saturdays and Sundays that we break
in the fast time, that we fast more than forty days. Still others say that
according to the ten percent of the number of the days of the year, we separate
by fasts 36.5 days for the Lord. When we reduce the number of the Sundays and
Saturdays that we break, from the number of the days from the evening of the
Monday of the beginning of the fasts to the morning of the Easter Sunday, we get
this number. In this respect Bar Ebroyo further cites from the "Second Book" of
the "Holy Clement," which is the extensive Syriac canon collection known as the
"Clementinian Octateuch." The first two books of it contain the fifth century
ecclesiastical order, "Testamentum Domini." Bar Ebroyo puts down the referred
canon of this work as follows: "The end of the 'Pascha' (here used to denote the
fast before Easter ) should happen after Saturday, namely at midnight." Bar
Ebroyo interprets the word 'midnight' as follows: "So that the one tenth part of
those five days, that are missing to complete the whole year also will be
added." It means that the 36 fasting days unto the Saturday of the Passion Week
form just one tenth of the 360 days. From the five days, which are absent to
form a full year, 10% will be taken, and it results in an additional half
fasting day. That is why the Great Fast is not ended on the beginning of the
Easter Sunday, which begins on the Saturday evening as any other day according
to the Syrian calculation of times, but only at the mid-night with the
celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Bar Ebroyo evaluates these arguments
and concludes that only the first one is the genuine reason.
Bar Ebroyo depends upon the decision of the Synod of Laodicea and from him oft
quoted Patriarch Timotheos and Patriarch John III of Antioch to describe the
"dos and don'ts" in the great lent. The synod of Laodicea admonishes that one
should fast on the whole fasting time eating only the less nutritious (dry)
food. In the 40 days lent, it is not right to say the Holy Mass except on
Sundays and Saturdays. It is not correct to conduct wedding feasts and birthday
parties in the forty days lent. But the remembrance of the martyrs may be done.
Patriarch John says that it is not allowed that the commemorations of the
deceased or funeral repasts take place in the great lent except on Sundays or on
Saturdays. In one of his directives, Bar Ebroyo says that, not only meat, egg,
milk and cheese, but fish and wine are also prohibited for the believers during
the big lent. But Patriarch Timotheos gives the exemption that if a woman
delivers in the Passion Week; she is allowed to drink wine, if she wishes it.
Likewise, Patriarch Cyriacus exempts all the sick people, the people under
constraint, the pregnant and nursing women and all under the age of twenty from
fasts. In the normal days of the great lent a Christian should not break the
fast before the ninth hour. On Saturday and Sunday and in the other lent times
it is ended at noon.
The general fast of the community of believers and the righteous believers (i.e.
the laity in general) has eleven Canons. The first Canon is that every believer
should know the computation of all the periods of fasting, especially that of
the great lent. It is necessary to avoid the danger of being ignorant of the
fast when one is staying at a foreign place among the heterodox people. He
should know it exactly when it begins or should fast ten extra days if he does
not know to compute it. The second Canon is that, everyone who fasts, should
have the intention to fast from the morning time onwards. He must entreat his
God to accept his fasting and to give him strength in the struggle. It is
because, those who unintentionally happen not to eat until the evening, should
not be considered as people who fast. Likewise, many who do not have even dried
and green vegetables to eat cannot be considered as ascetics.
The third Canon is to take care that nothing edible or drinkable accidentally
comes to the throat of the one who fasts, especially when he desires to partake
in the vivifying Mysteries (i.e. the holy Eucharist). Even though his fast does
not break, when he unintentionally swallows something, he is not allowed to
approach the vivifying mysteries. But, if he just washes his face without
swallowing any water, he is permitted to approach them. Nevertheless, in the
Nomocanon Bar Ebroyo quotes the canonist Jacob of Edessa and the famous Bishop
of Tella, John son of Qursos, to propose that one may partake in the Mysteries
if he drank the water by mistake. In his directive also, Bar Ebroyo says that
one should not be prohibited from partaking the Mysteries on Maundy Thursday and
the Saturday of the Announcement, even if water gets into his throat while
washing the face. Even when some people say that, if blood is coming out from
between somebody's teeth he is not allowed to take part in the Mysteries, Bar
Ebroyo permits him to partake in it on Maundy Thursday and on Resurrection,
provided that he has not swallowed any blood.
The fourth Canon is that the one who fasts should not stimulate vomiting. If he
vomits because of illness also, his fast is broken. In that case, he must give
food to two hungry poor people in the evening. The fifth Canon is keeping the
eyes away from any shameful spectacle and anything that keeps the intellect from
the remembrance of God and His frightening judgement. Keeping the tongue from
any vain word like falsehood, calumny, slander, mockery, injury, madness and
nonsense is the sixth Canon and closing the ears to listening to shameful words
is the seventh one.
The eighth Canon of the fast is dictating the hands not to commit the crime of
blows, and dictating the feet not to lapse into sin. The ninth Canon is complete
watchfulness, for the substances of sin and iniquity. In order to explain this
canon Bar Ebroyo quotes Isaac of Nineveh, who declares the fasting of the
sinners as a real disgrace, because they fast but eat usury, pray but drink of
profits, and from evening till evening they eat the flesh and the blood of the
poor. The tenth Canon is that a rich person should adorn his fasting with
merci¬fulness, because according to Bar Ebroyo mercifulness is much more
becoming for a rich person than fasting. Hence Bar Ebroyo cites a learned person
who effectively portrays, the futility of the fasting of the rich without acts
of charity, through the following words: "Wretched is the man, who forsakes his
own occupation, but takes the occupation of others. For, it would be much more
becoming for him to satisfy the hungry, to clothe the naked and to relieve the
needy (cf. Mt. 25: 34-45) than to be hungry and to pray, so that his riches will
increase." The eleventh Canon is to fast without ostentation. It is the
hypocrites who are gloomy and who disfigure their faces in order to show the
labour they perform by fasting. If one is in the habit of anointing his head,
let him anoint and wash his face, and let him, according to the commandment of
the Gospel, hide asceticism as much as he can (cf. Mt. 6: 16-18).
Being strict towards those who discard the rules of the Church regarding fasts,
Bar Ebroyo instructs with quotations from the Apostles that, the layman who is
not fasting in the 40 days fasting and on Wednesdays and Fridays, other than for
the reason of sickness, should be separated. He quotes the Patriarch Cyriacus
also with the same purpose. The 22nd Canon of Patriarch Cyriacus says that a
priest, deacon, any male, or female believer above the age of twenty should not
break the fasting on Wednesday and Friday. But those who are in sickness or in
difficulty or in captivity, the pregnant women, and the stilling mother may
break the fast. Except on the Saturday of the Annunciation or in the case of
emergency, no believer, whether it be man or woman, has the right to fast on the
Sundays and Saturdays. Any male or female believer who does not observe the 40
days lent should be separated from the Church. In the same way one who is 20
years old or above, drinking wine or anything of its category in the fast time
should also be separated.
(For more details see the book: "Prayers and Fasts according to Bar Ebroyo, a
study on the prayers and fasts of the Oriental Churches", by Fr. Dr. Biji
Chirathilattu, Lit Publishers, Hamburg, 2004)
References:
1 TEULE, G. B. H.: Gregory Barhebraeus Ethicon Memra I, (ed.), CSCO.S 219;
(transl.), CSCO.S 218 (syr.text), Louvain, 1993, pp. 92-96; BEDJAN, P. (ed.):
Nomocanon Gregorii Barhebraei, Paris-Leipzig, 1898, pp. 52-61.
2 The council of Laodicea was held in the 4th century. For a list of the Syriac
manuscripts of its canons and its spread in west-Syrian legislative literature
cf., SELB, W.: Orientalisches Kirchenrecht, Band II, Die Geschichte des
Kirchenrechts der Westsyrer (von den Anfängen bis zur Mongolenzeit), SÖAW.PH
543, Wien, 1989, pp. 99-102. The synod of Gangara, that countered the radical
ascetic movement of the Eusthatians, took place between AD 362-371. Its canons
were translated into Syriac and were widely read among the West-Syrians.
Cf.op.cit. SELB: Orientalisches Kirchenrecht II, p. 99f.
3 Born in AD 640/5 at 'En Deba, Jacob was appointed as Bishop of Edessa in 684.
Being a strict adherent to the canons, he resigned after four years his post as
Bishop owing to the lax attitude of the hierarchy concerning the ob¬servance of
the canons (?AD 708).
4 Op.cit, Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 53.
5 These regulations refer to the synods held at Mar Sila, Sarug in November AD
846, led by the Patriarch of Antioch Johannan III.
6 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 55.
7 Ibid., p. 55.
8 Ibid., p. 60.
9 Op.cit. Nomocanon, p. 57. In Ethicon it is given more detailed: "The great
lent begins on the Monday of the week after the new moon rising in February, (or
in March, in case it does not rise in February), and lasts forty-eight days."
Cf. op.cit. Ethicon (ed. TEULE), p. 89.
10 The origins of these canons remain anonymous. Bar Ebroyo cites forty-two of
them in Nomocanon. Vööbus has collected them in, VÖÖBUS, A.(transl.): Syrische
Kanonessammlungen. Ein Beitrag zur Quellenkunde I, Westsyrische Originalkunden,
I, CSCO.Sub 35; Louvain, 1970. p. 219f and gives an edition and translation of
26 of them in VÖÖBUS, A. (ed. and transl.): Syriac and Arabic Documents
regarding Legislation relative to Syrian Asceticism, PETSE 11, Stockholm, 1960.
pp. 89-92. He proposes a West Syrian monophysitic origin of them. Cf. VÖÖ¬BUS:
Syrische Kanonessammlungen I:1, B, p. 513, note 44 also. Selb as well agrees to
this opinion. Cf. op.cit.SELB: Orientalisches Kirchenrecht II, pp. 161-162.
11 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), pp. 57-58.
12 Ibid., p. 54; op.cit.TEULE: (ed.). Ethicon, pp. 95-96. Bar Ebroyo has adopted
with acknow¬ledgement these rules regarding the receiving of Eucharist in
connection with the ending of the lent from Jacob of Edessa. Cf. DE LAGARDE, P.
(ed.): Jacob of Edessa, Letter to Addai, Reliquiae Iuris Ecclesiastici
antiquissimae, Leipzig, 1866, p.119; VÖÖBUS, A. (ed. and transl.): The Synodicon
in the West-Syrian Tradition I, CSCO.S 161 / 162, Louvain, 1975; p. 262/239.
13 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 52.
14 Op.cit. VÖÖBUS: Syndicon I, p. 102.
15 They are found in op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), pp. 55-57.
16 For details on this collection Cf. BAUMSTARK, A.: Geschichte der syrischen
Literatur mit Ausschluß der christlich-palästinensischen Texte, Bonn, 1922 /
reprint Berlin, 1968, p. 252; HOFMANN, J.: Clemens von Rom, (DÖPP, S. and
GEERLINGS, W. (ed.),) Lexikon der antiken christlichen Literatur,
Freiburg-Basel-Wien, 1998, p. 133.
17 Cf. PAYNE-SMITH, J. (ed.): A Compendious Syriac Dictionary, Oxford, 1903, /
reprints Oxford 1990; Eisenbrauns, 1998, p. 452.
18 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 56; op.cit. VÖÖBUS: Synodicon I, p. 49,5f
(Syr. text) /p. 60, 7f (Engl. transl.).
19 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 56.
20 Ibid., pp. 55-56. A brief account of it is found in op.cit Ethicon (ed.
TEULE), p. 93 also.
21 It is not yet clearly identified who this Patriarch Timotheos is, though
Vööbus identifies him as the Timotheos of Alexandria. Cf. op.cit. VÖÖBUS,
A.(transl.): Syrische KanonessammlungenI, 1B, p. 515 note 56 and p.578.
22 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 53; op.cit. Ethicon (ed. TEULE), pp.
95-96; SCHULTHESS, F.: Die Syrischen Kanones der Synoden von Nicaea bis
Chalcedon, AGWG:PH 9 / XX / 2, Göttingen, 1908, p. 104; op.cit. VÖÖBUS:
Synodicon I, p. 123/125 (transl.).
23 Op.cit. Ethicon (ed. TEULE), p. 96; op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 55;
op.cit. VÖÖBUS: Synodicon II, pp. 12-14 and 37f.
24 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 55.
25 Ibid.,p. 53.
26 Ibid.,p. 54; op.cit. Ethicon (ed. TEULE), p. 96.
27 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), p. 52.
28 These first four canons are found in op.cit. Ethicon (ed. TEULE), pp. 89-90;
WENSINCK, A. J. (transl.): Bar Hebraeus' Book of the Dove together with Some
Chapters from his Ethicon, Leyden, 1919, pp. 27-28.
29 Op.cit. Ethicon (ed. TEULE), p. 89.
30 Bar Ebroyo always quotes Jacob of Edessa and John of Tella, whenever he wants
to intro¬duce any reform in the laws of the Church. Johannan bar Qursos was the
Bishop of Tella (known as Konstantina) from AD 519-538 and was much respected
for his ascetic practices. Cf. op.cit. VÖÖBUS: Syrische Kanones¬sammlungen, I:
1, A, pp. 161-164 for his biography written by his pupil Elijah and pp. 156-161
and 263-267 for a collection of his canons. Cf. op.cit. SELB: Orientalisches
Kirchenrecht II, pp. 116-128 for more on their popularity.
31 Op.cit. Nomocanon (ed. BEDJAN), pp. 38-40.
32 Op.cit. Ethicon (ed. TEULE), p. 90.
33 Canons 5-11 are found in op. cit. Ethicon (ed. TEULE), pp. 90-91.
34 BEDJAN, P (ed.): Homiliae Sancti Isaaci Syri Antiocheni I, On The Holy Fast,
Paris-Leipzig, 1903, pp. 171-180. Isaac of Nineveh the famous Father from the
Church of the East was born in AD 613 at Beth Qatraye (i.e. today's Qatar in the
Per¬sian Gulf). He was consecrated as Bishop of Nineveh (Mosul), but five months
later, he re¬signed and retired as a solitary. Through his 'Discourses' and
other works he has proved to be one of the most influential among the Syriac
monastic writers and he still continues to exert a strong influence on the
monastic circles on Mount Athos and in the Egyptian desert monasteries.
See Also:
Pierce Thou My Heart, Love Crucified by Fr. Mark
This excellent article by Fr. Mark dwells on the meaning of lent. He explains the various facets of the lent - fasting, meditation, scripture reading and reflection, charity, etc.Why Great Lent? What's the purpose? How do I take part? by George Aramath
Is it possible to observe the Great Fast/Lent in our current culture? What's the point of it anyway? It seems like an ancient practice irrelevant today.Fasting Enlightens the Soul
Fasting helps to have serenity of the soul because the one, who hungers in his stomach, enlightens his intellect. Therefore, the hunger is a key, which opens the door of wisdom.
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