Dietary Restrictions of Fasting

– G.S. Chistyakov

Following the church schism of the 17th century, the traditions of Old Believers and New Ritualists gradually diverged, growing further apart over time. Over 350 years, numerous differences accumulated in theology, liturgy, church singing, iconography, hagiography, and everyday customs. However, surprisingly, some church practices remain unchanged across all branches of Old Belief and New Ritualism. This primarily concerns the rules of fasting.

Modern calendars of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church, the Russian Old Orthodox Church, the Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church, as well as most calendars of the Russian Orthodox Church and other New Ritualist denominations, contain identical regulations for the dietary restrictions of Great Lent and other fasts. The reason for this is that these widely accepted rules trace back to the Typikon (“Church Eye”), published in 1641 under Patriarch Joseph and, according to tradition, linked to the ancient rule of the Jerusalem Monastery. This Typikon outlines five possible types of meals during fasting:

Skoromnaya food (products of any origin: meat, dairy, eggs, fish, seafood, vegetables, fruits, grains, etc. Interestingly, in the early centuries of Christianity, there were other meal variations, with poultry sometimes considered a separate category from meat);
Food with fish (any plant-based products, fish, oil, and wine; meat and dairy products are excluded);
Plant-based food with vegetable oil (includes oil and wine, and on some days, seafood is also permitted);
Food without oil (fresh or cooked vegetables and fruits, grains, but without the use of vegetable oil);
Dry eating (sukhoedenie) (refers to uncooked food, such as nuts, raw vegetables or fruits, and bread, which, though prepared with heat and sometimes with vegetable oil, is allowed on these days).

In Old Belief communities, the so-called “Small Domestic Typikon” gained particular popularity. This book, compiled in the 19th century, became a unique collection of regulations concerning fasting, meals, and private prayer. Although it is commonly believed that the Small Domestic Typikon consolidates pre-schism church traditions, including those of ancient Russian monasteries and parish churches, its instructions actually stem from the same “Church Eye” published in 1641.

It should be noted that the Old Believer Small Typikon and the 1641 Typikon reflect only part of the pre-schism dietary traditions. There are other regulations with different instructions regarding fasting dietary restrictions, found in well-known Russian texts such as the Domostroy, Zonar, Slavic Nomocanons, and various Russian monastic typikons.

Current Old Believer calendars include instructions for Great Lent and other fasts as outlined in the Small Typikon. However, since calendar instructions are more concise, we are publishing the full text of the Small Domestic Typikon concerning Great Lent, with brief commentary. Additionally, we include the regulations of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery Typikon from 1652 and the Solovetsky Nomocanon from 1493.

Small Domestic Typikon

On Fasts and Permissions Throughout the Year. On Great Lent: The Great Typikon

First Week, Called Theodore’s Week:

On Monday and Tuesday, neither bread nor water is consumed. Instead, one should dedicate themselves to prayer and prostrations.
On Wednesday, after the dismissal of Vespers, around the fourth hour of the day (mid-morning), dry eating is permitted: raw vegetables, herbs, and dill with honey. Then fasting resumes until Friday.
On Friday, bread, raw vegetables, and cooked food without sweeteners are consumed.

For the Weak:

If someone is weak or unable to fast for two days, they may eat bread and water on Tuesday and Thursday.

For the Elderly or Infirm:

If someone is elderly, weakened by illness, or very young, they may eat bread and water on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

On Saturday and Sunday:

Cooked food with oil is permitted.

Other Days of Great Lent:

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, cooked food is not consumed.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, cooked food is permitted.

According to the rule of the Holy Mountain (likely referring to the Athonite Typikon), on the first day, one should not eat at all. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, one may eat one liter of bread and water, with nothing else except salt. St. Theodore the Studite praises those who eat only at the appointed hour each day, as noted in his catechesis for the Friday of the first week.

Nomocanon

During the Holy and Great Forty Days (Great Lent), one eats once a day, practicing dry eating, specifically soaked grains without oil. Wine and oil are consumed on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as “shellfish” (seafood, excluding fish). Fish is permitted only on the Annunciation and Palm Sunday.

Solovetsky Typikon

First Week: On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, no meal is provided. On Tuesday and Thursday, white bread, honey-sweetened infusions, cloudberries, salted cabbage, or mixed oatmeal are served to the brethren. On Saturday, white cabbage soup, pea noodles, and juicy porridge, all with oil, are served. On Sunday, cabbage soup and porridge are provided.
Other Weeks: On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, cabbage soup with two cold dishes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, borscht-style cabbage soup with juice and croutons, cold dishes, and other hot dishes. On Saturdays and Sundays, cabbage soup is served with dried or cured fish and porridge.

Wednesday of the Fourth Week:

Three hot dishes without oil are served at the meal.

Thursday of the Fourth Week:

Food with oil is consumed, and wine is drunk due to the effort of the all-night vigil.

Saturday of Righteous Lazarus:

Cooked food with oil, caviar (if available), and wine are consumed.

Palm Sunday:

The brethren are comforted with fish and wine, giving thanks to God.

Holy Week

From Monday to Saturday evening of Holy Week, for six days, only bread with water and cooked herbs are consumed, with moderation. If possible, one should not eat every day, as was prescribed for the first week. On Great Friday, nothing is eaten. On Great Saturday, fasting continues until the fourth hour of the night (late evening), and after the Divine Liturgy, a small amount of bread with water and one cup of wine are consumed.

Psalter

On Holy Thursday, cooked food without oil is eaten, wine is drunk, and dry eating is practiced. The Council of Laodicea, in its 49th canon, states that it is not fitting to break the fast on the Thursday of the last week of Lent, thereby dishonoring the entire Forty Days.

Also from the Psalter:
On Great Friday, if possible, one should not eat, as the Fathers command. However, this is not strictly mandated, and one eats according to their strength, as determined by the Fathers. Therefore, if one can fast for both Friday and Saturday, it is good and pleasing. If not, at least on Saturday. On Friday, bread, raw vegetables, and water are consumed, according to one’s ability and desire.

Solovetsky Typikon

During Holy Week, on Monday and Wednesday, a meal is provided at the discretion of the brethren, consisting of three cold dishes. On Tuesday, cabbage, berries, and mixed oatmeal are served. On Thursday, cabbage soup, pea noodles, and juicy porridge, all without oil, are provided. On Great Friday, neither the brethren nor laypeople eat. On Great Saturday, after the dismissal of the Liturgy, the brethren receive “ukruhi” (small pieces of bread).

Structure of Dietary Restrictions

The structure of dietary restrictions during Great Lent is consistent across all typikons. The first week is the strictest, with significant restrictions also imposed on Friday and Saturday of Holy Week. However, the degree of abstinence varies on other days. Some regulations permit only food with oil on Saturdays and Sundays, while others allow a broader range of dishes. The Nomocanon permits “shellfish” (seafood), while the Solovetsky Typikon allows dried or cured fish.

Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery Typikon of 1652

The Obikhodnik, that is, the ecclesiastical and domestic Typikon of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, is well-known and was published by Indrik Publishing House in 2002. This Obikhodnik provides a detailed schedule for nearly every day of Great Lent, as well as other days of the church year. The first week of Great Lent is as strict as in the previously mentioned typikons. Let us examine the dining regulations of this renowned monastery for the second week of Great Lent.

Monday:

The brethren eat monastery bread, radish, kvass in pitchers, water in large cups, chopped cabbage with horseradish, mixed oatmeal, turnips, or mushrooms (such as milk mushrooms) with garlic. On days of dry eating, no portions or cups of kvass are provided to the reader.

Tuesday:

At the tables, the brethren eat four pieces of monastery bread, croutons, borscht-style cabbage soup with juice, kvass from the smaller cellar in large cups, peas, or juicy porridge. If this Tuesday, or any other day of Great Lent, coincides with the Finding of the Head of John the Baptist, the Forty Martyrs, or the new saints (Euthymius of Novgorod, Dimitry of Priluki, Alexis the Metropolitan, Makary of Kolyazin, or Jonah the Metropolitan), then white bread, barley kvass in large cups, cabbage soup, mushrooms in juice or warmed cabbage with oil, ground peas with oil, caviar or round loaves, juicy porridge or pea noodles with pepper are served, and a portion is given to the reader.

Wednesday:

Dry eating: monastery bread, radish, kvass in pitchers, water in large cups, cabbage with horseradish, mixed oatmeal, turnips, or mushrooms with garlic.

Thursday:

At the tables, four pieces of monastery bread, juicy borscht-style cabbage soup, croutons, monastery kvass, peas, or juicy porridge.

Friday:

Dry eating: monastery bread, kvass in pitchers, water in large cups, cabbage with horseradish, mixed oatmeal, turnips, or mushrooms with garlic.

Saturday:

A memorial service is held for Tsar Ivan, and a meal is provided for the brethren: white bread, a cup of diluted kvass, cabbage soup with pepper, tavranchug with sturgeon (a dish of stewed vegetables and sturgeon), or porridge with salmon, ground peas with oil, caviar or round loaves, pies (if round loaves are served, no pies are provided). A meal is also prepared for laypeople. For supper: monastery bread, cabbage soup, kvass in large cups from the smaller cellar, and kvass in pitchers.

Second Week of Great Lent:

White bread, cabbage soup, a cup of barley kvass, mushrooms in juice or warmed cabbage with oil, ground peas with oil, caviar or round loaves, porridge, or pea noodles with pepper. For supper on the same day: monastery bread, cabbage soup, a cup of barley kvass in large cups, and kvass in pitchers.

Interestingly, according to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery Typikon, fish was served on all Saturdays of Great Lent (except Great Saturday, which is not technically part of the Forty Days). Additionally, caviar was served more frequently than in other typikons during the middle of the weeks of Great Lent on revered feast days. In the Kirillo-Belozersky Typikon, such feast days included: the Finding of the Head of John the Baptist, the Forty Martyrs, or the new saints (Euthymius of Novgorod, Dimitry of Priluki, Alexis the Metropolitan, Makary of Kolyazin, or Jonah the Metropolitan).

Caviar was also served on Palm Sunday alongside fish. Remnants of this ancient tradition can be observed in some Old Believer parishes, where fish may be prepared for patronal feasts “if the rector blesses it.”

On Palm Sunday at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, fish was also served: “For the brethren: white bread, pans with fish broth or cabbage soup with pepper, diluted kvass, two types of fish, pancakes with honey, and matching cups. For supper on the same day: monastery bread, cabbage soup, barley kvass by measure in large cups, two types of fish, and a side dish.”

Fish meals were typically associated with memorial feasts: the 1st and 2nd Saturdays for Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the 3rd and 5th for Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich (son of Ivan IV and Anastasia Romanovna), and the 4th for Abbot Christopher (the third abbot of the monastery, a disciple of St. Cyril). Additionally, on the 1st Sunday of Great Lent, a health-related feast for the tsar also included fish. In total, according to the Kirillo-Belozersky Typikon, fish was served eight times during Great Lent.

Solovetsky Nomocanon Typikon of 1493

The Typikon of Great Lent from the Solovetsky Nomocanon of 1493 was published in the works of the renowned researcher of Russian ecclesiastical antiquity, Professor Sergey Ivanovich Smirnov (1870–1916), author of several studies, including the well-known Old Russian Confessor. It should be noted that the Great Lent Typikon in this Nomocanon is not specifically that of the Solovetsky Monastery but one of the typikons in use in Rus’ at the time.

Based on its content, it is possible that this typikon represents a now-lost and forgotten lay typikon for pious living. This is suggested by references to abstaining from wives during Lent (an instruction irrelevant for monks) and the allowance for widespread fish consumption during Great Lent. These provisions are supported by other historical sources.

In particular, the Domostroy provides the following information about Great Lent food: “During Great Lent, on the table, there are radish, horseradish, cabbage, strong brine, and various vegetables sent by God; on other days, depending on the guests, there are caviar, dried fish, cured fish, boiled fish, fish broth from dried, smoked, or boiled fish, and all kinds of offal, dried German herrings, small dried fish, fish in brine, in pies, in porridge, in vegetables, various small dried fish, any pies, porridge, pancakes, and kissels — a good housewife has plenty of all kinds of fasting food.”

Great Lent Typikon:

Throughout Theodore’s Week, after Vespers and the Liturgy, white bread with cabbage, roasted peas, and radish are consumed. For drink, one cup of kvass, but those who abstain from drinking throughout the entire fast receive greater reward from God and should abstain from their wives, as this is the Lord’s fast. On Saturday and Sunday, fish is eaten twice a day, with three cups of drink, including at supper. (Fish was likely permitted on all weekends of Lent, except Great Saturday.)

After Theodore’s Week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, bread, cabbage, and mushrooms are eaten, continuing until Palm Sunday.

On Tuesday and Thursday: peas with barley, caviar, fresh honey, and rye kvass. During Palm Sunday week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: bread and cabbage. On Tuesday and Thursday: peas with barley.

From Theodore’s Week, 400 prostrations are performed each day and night until Lazarus Friday. On all Fridays, 200 prostrations are performed, as able, either touching the ground with the hand, kneeling, or, if ill, bowing to the waist.

The sick may eat fish, except on Wednesdays and Fridays, including during Theodore’s Week and Palm Sunday week. (Thus, the sick were allowed fish nearly throughout the entire Lent, except Wednesdays and Fridays.)

If a woman is nursing a child, she may eat fish, but alms should be given for this. (Allowance for fish for nursing mothers.)

If the day of the Finding of the Head of John the Baptist, the Forty Martyrs, or Alexis, Man of God, falls outside Theodore’s Week, fish is eaten; during Theodore’s Week, fish is not eaten.

If the Annunciation falls on Great Friday, fish is eaten once a day. On other days, fish is eaten once a day for the Annunciation, the Finding of the Head, the Forty Martyrs, and Alexis’ Day.

During Holy Week, on Monday and Wednesday: bread and cabbage. On Tuesday and Thursday: peas with barley. On Friday: soaked grains without poppy seed oil. On Saturday, no cooked food is eaten; only a small amount is tasted at supper, with oil permitted. For the holy fathers and apostles established fasting on this Saturday, and no other. For on that Saturday, Christ lay in the tomb, and the Mother of God and the apostles were in sorrow.

On Easter Sunday, those worthy may partake of Communion and eat everything. If someone is under penance, they do not partake but drink holy water and eat everything, including meat, throughout the week. Observe Wednesday and Friday and abstain from wives. Do not ruin the labor of fasting with excessive drinking or debauchery, for the entire week is as one day. When Christ rose, the sun stood still without setting for the entire week, seven days. On the eighth day, it set from Easter to the Sunday of Kneeling. On Wednesday and Friday, milk is not eaten, except on the Wednesday of Mid-Pentecost, when it is permitted. During Pentecost week, on Wednesday and Friday, meat is eaten by all, but we remain in purity, avoid excessive drinking, and care for the church.

Conclusions:

The dietary restrictions for the Holy Forty Days and other fasts, as currently published in church calendars, were formed just before the 17th-century church schism and trace back to the liturgical books of the 1640s.
Compilers of modern fasting guidelines typically include only the strictest level of fasting in their tables and rarely mention existing variations. I have not encountered calendar references to seafood, despite the clear statement in the Old Believer Small Typikon: “Wine and oil are consumed on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as shellfish.” Similarly, the Solovetsky Typikon’s instruction, “On Saturdays and Sundays, dried or cured fish with cabbage soup,” is often ignored. The omission of these important typikon details leads to attempts to reinterpret these phrases. For example, some claim that “shellfish” refers to nuts or mushrooms, or that fish was eaten on Solovki due to a supposed lack of bread. I have also encountered absurd claims that references to seafood and fish during fasts are “Nikonian forgeries.”
Nowadays, dispensations from fasting are typically sought only from a spiritual father and only in cases of special need. There is a practice of relaxing the fast by one degree for pregnant and nursing women. For example, on dry-eating days, they are allowed cooked food, and on days without oil, oil is permitted. However, it is clear that neither dry eating nor food without oil provides sufficient proteins, fats, and carbohydrates for a nursing woman. The same applies to those with gastrointestinal conditions, for whom traditional fasting dishes like pickled cabbage, salted cucumbers, or pea porridge are clearly contraindicated. In this regard, it is worth taking a closer look at the fasting traditions prevalent in Rus’ before the mid-17th century, during the time of the Domostroy, when there were healthy and natural distinctions between monastic and lay customs.

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