Elder Dionysius was one of the most revered Athonite confessors, one of the last pillars of the “old school” of hesychasm. He was called the “Patriarch of Athos” and people from all over the world came to him different nationalities. Father Dionysius passed into eternity on May 11, 2004 at the age of 95, of which he spent 81 years in the monastery, including 78 years on Holy Mount Athos, of which 67 years in the cell of St. George “Kolchu”, and for 57 years he cared for numerous spiritual children from all over the world. We present to our readers a conversation with the elder dedicated to fasting.
- Father Dionysius, tell us about fasting. Today Christians no longer observe fasts as much as they did before. Everyone fasts as he wants...
Yes, everyone fasts as he wants. But not everything happens as we would like.
The fasts were established by the holy fathers at the seven Ecumenical Councils, and if we observe them, we are given great Divine grace. If you don’t observe them, then it begins: “Ah, Peter’s Fast! Yes, he's not that important. Dormition post! Yes, the Mother of God knows that we cannot fast. Lent! Oooh, that’s too much: seven whole weeks.” And so you invent all sorts of excuses for yourself and completely move away from fasting. But if there is no fasting, there is nothing! After all, fasting is Divine grace.
And look, the post was emasculated a long time ago. Even in those days when I was little, at school, during Great Lent we fasted only during the first week and during Holy Week, and in the interval between them we were allowed to eat everything. But this is far from the truth, and if you have moved away from the truth, then we have already begun to limp. You limp first on one leg, then on both legs, until you completely say: “Fuck it, God knows! I will live like everyone else."
Do you see? You need to have a little attention. A little attention - and God will help us.
Yes, what kind of Christian is this if he doesn’t honor fasting? Then it doesn’t matter what faith you are. You say that you are a Christian, but if you do not fast, then how are you different from a pagan?
Do you see how evil is progressing? Catholics did not fast, and they justify themselves with evidence from Scripture, as they understand it, as if fasting was not needed at all. And even though there were Catholics at the seven holy Ecumenical Councils - after all, there were no divisions between us then - little by little they reached the point where they no longer had fasting.
In Romania in 1939, I talked with a Catholic nun, and she told me: “If I can, I don’t eat meat in Good Friday. If I can; and if not, then I eat.”
On Good Friday, when the Savior was ascended to the Cross, Catholics say that there is nothing wrong with eating meat! They were also orthodox Christians, like us, and look what happened?
So I told you this as an example. After all, look, when a person starts going down the mountain, he almost runs, because when you go down, it’s harder to stop. It gets to the point where a person says: “Why should I fast? It is written in Scripture: what comes out of a person defiles him, but what enters a person does not defile him.”
Yes, that's true - but it's not. All fasts were established by the holy fathers, so that by fasting you would diminish your passions. You observe fasting, honoring the passions of the Savior: “I fast because the Savior suffered for me,” and so on. Well, in the state in which humanity is now, what else can we expect?
They say this: you can’t fast now because if you fast and don’t eat meat, you won’t be able to work in the field.
See, people think that way, but it's a misconception. This is a deception of the enemy, because human nature is now full of passions. And passions, if they settle in the mind, heart and thoughts of a person, become second nature. If they have become second nature, then the person begins to say: “If I don’t eat meat, I’ll die. That's it, this is the end." And with such thoughts he will really die!
But this is not true. This is a passion imposed by the tempter, who is in charge of the warehouse of all evils and plants the seed of evil deeds in our soul and heart. And if our nature is inclined towards one of those evils that he throws at us, then from now on he will “help” us with this (evil). If you want to drink vodka, he “helps” you with this! If you want to eat more excellent dishes, he also “helps” you with this until evil settles in the soul of a person. If you want to tell a lie, he “helps” you with this too, until the passion takes root, until it hatches, and if it hatches, then it already takes root in the soul and heart of a person. And if it has taken root, then this root already becomes second nature, and you are already convinced that if you don’t eat or drink what you want, you will die. But this is not true! This is the action of the tempter.
That is, the passion that has taken root in a person’s heart, has taken root, is more difficult to eradicate. Therefore, the holy fathers teach that every evil thought that is in our soul and heart is obvious, and we must be sure that it is from the tempter, and hasten to the confessor and tell him: “This is what the mind tells me, father. Look, my mind is inclined towards this and that,” so that your confessor can give you instructions on how the grace of the Holy Spirit will enlighten you.
And by this you shame the enemy, because if you do not go to confess, then the passions brought into your soul and heart will destroy you. And when you just can’t find a priest, then confess to each other, as the holy apostles say, so that at least you can get help and be healed, for you cannot be healed any other way.
- Do those monks who eat meat have a chance of salvation?
Look: the holy fathers initially decided that monasteries should be built far from people, that is, in the desert, so that a monk performing repentance could keep his five senses pure, close to God.
The monk left the world to be closer to God, because a person, living in the world, slips into the malice of the world.
The Holy Fathers decided that monks should not eat meat, because it inflames passions more than any other food. A monk, if he eats enough, drinks enough and sleeps enough (sleep is especially important), then woe to him - he can no longer be pure. You will be fought by passions, carnal passions, which are colossal passions; Therefore, the holy fathers set a limit for you to protect yourself: do not eat food that inflames carnal passions.
You also need, as a monk, not to sleep enough, because you, as a monk, do not need to sleep for eight hours. You need to strive, because that’s why it exists monastic life so that you strive. After all, look how the holy fathers write: even if your food is humble, as befits a monk, but if you sleep enough, passions will again fight you with terrible force.
Therefore, watch and pray in order to enter the Kingdom of God, that is, do not sleep as much as the body wants, but let us humble it with prayer and fasting so that passions do not flare up in us.
What to do if they eat meat in the monastery? Should he obey the abbot or go to another place where he is not eaten?
The temptations of the enemy will not leave you alone, no matter where you go. If you leave a monastery because they eat meat there and go to another, then the enemy has already prepared other temptations for you there. But since you cannot correct the situation, then show obedience, and over time, maybe the leaders will decide that they no longer eat meat here, because, thank God, the monks in the monastery have something to eat besides meat. If they cannot refuse meat, then eat so that only you can be seen to eat, but not so that you are full.
Meat is not unclean food, it is food given by God, but the holy fathers decided that in monasticism they should not eat meat under any pretext, so that it would be easier for you to fight carnal passions. That is why they established punishment for those who eat meat.
But since people have changed and unrest occurs in some monasteries, if the monks do not eat meat, then you better be obedient, sit down at the table and eat, if it is a communal monastery. But eat so that only others see what you are eating, and do as doctors advise - get up from the table with some desire to eat more.
Let's start with the vows. How many and what vows do monks take? I was not interested in this issue in others Local Churches, in the Russian Orthodox Church everything is very simple. Let’s open in the Great Trebnik “The succession of the minor schema, that is, the mandia” (this is the name of the order of monastic tonsure) and begin to read.
The first question that the person being tonsured hears from the confessor is: “Why have you come...?” (“Why did you come?”). And he answers: “Desiring a fasting life, honest father.” Thus emphasizing that fasting is the basis of a monk’s life 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (366 in leap days). Undoubtedly, Orthodox fast This is not a “spiritual diet” and its gastronomic component (abstinence from certain foods) is far from the goal of fasting. But, nevertheless, while not being a sufficient component of fasting, abstinence from certain foods is a necessary part of fasting. And the penalties that violators of the food fast are subjected to, which we will mention below, may even seem too harsh. But what is important for us for now is that the first purpose for which a monk takes monastic vows is life in constant fasting. One might, of course, think that the strictness of a monk’s lifestyle is already a form of fasting, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Read the Trebnik further.
From the dialogue between the confessor and the person being tonsured, we learn what vows the monk takes: 1) fasting; 2) celibacy; 3) obedience; 4) non-covetousness; 5) compliance with the Charter; 6) patience with sorrows (see also http://www.uspenie.by/rites- tonsure-in-a-cassock/). It is noteworthy that the vow of fasting is highlighted separately. It is separated from the vows of celibacy, obedience, and non-covetousness. Special mention should be made of the vow to comply with the Charter. For some reason it is not in the Trebnik, which can be downloaded from the first link. And in the quote from the Trebnik on the second link there is. This is not fundamental to the issue being considered here, although it is not unimportant. It is not important because the Typica is the church-wide Charter of the liturgical life of every Christian. In this case, liturgical life does not mean participation in the Eucharist, but the entire system of prayers, fasts, and services every day and every week throughout the year.
Actually, let’s move on to the fast prescribed by the Rule for monks. But first, let's make a short historical and geographical excursion together with a professional expert on the Church Charter - Mikhail Nikolaevich Skabalanovich.
According to St. Epiphany (late 3rd century - early 4th century), “some of them (monks) abstain from all meats and four-legged animals and birds and fish, and eggs, and cheese; others only from four-legged animals and allow the consumption of birds and other things: others abstain from birds and eat only cheese and fish: others do not eat fish, but only cheese; others don’t even eat cheese” (Exposition of Faith, 23. Quoted by M. N. Skabalanovich, “Explanatory Typikon”). Mikhail Nikolaevich, emphasizing that in Egypt abstinence from meat was complete, cites the words of the Cypriot saint, from which it becomes clear that even the most “free” monks in their choice allowed only bird and fish meat to eat. We're not even talking about four-legged animals. Also from the words of St. Epiphany, we can conclude that the severity of food fasting for monks in one area or another, in one or another monastery, was regulated by local tradition.
Another quote from the “Explanatory Typikon”: “Meat, of course, was not consumed, but eating it accidentally or out of necessity was not considered desecration. St. Pachomius reproached the brothers in charge of the hospital for refusing to give the sick monk beef at his request and ordered them to buy a kid for him.” As we can see, the absence of meat in the monks’ diet is something that goes without saying. Only in exceptional cases is leniency given.
For the entire Russian Orthodox Church, the local tradition is the tradition enshrined in the current Typikon. So let's move on to it.
P.P.S. The funniest excuse I've ever heard for a monastery's culinary freedom sounds something like this: “Easing? Well, these are the last times, so there’s a relaxation.” 1) It is not entirely clear what is the effect and what is the cause. 2) Is this the desire to eat before death? One monk I knew, going to a meal after the Liturgy, often said jokingly: “Well, what about the brethren? We have already lost our souls, let’s go and save our bodies.” Every joke has some humor in it. 3) The Lord secretly revealed to the monks that the times are already very, very last? Well, is tomorrow coming? And at the same time gave difficult urgent instructions?
Recently, I began to notice that when talking about products and dishes “monastic...”, or “like a monastery...”, people mean: “high-quality”, “real”, “delicious”. Honey, bread, lunch...
Observing this specifically, it struck me that this trend is not only expanding, but is already being used by various product manufacturers, conscientious and not so conscientious. Then the question arose: what is modern monastic food, monastic products? What is behind consumer recognition - traditional respect for the religious way of life, which excludes deception and laziness, or the absence of clear government quality guidelines, the same GOSTs, for example?
For answers to these questions, we turned to Father Micah, hieromonk of the St. Daniel Monastery. The path that led this wonderful person to the church was not easy.
| Our interlocutor | |
|---|---|
| Hieromonk Micah, in the world Alexander Petrovich Gulevsky, was born on November 22, 1964 in Rostov-on-Don. After graduating from school in 1980. entered the Rostov School of Arts, specializing in “Accordion”, graduated in 1984. 1984-1986 - military service in the Airborne Forces. From 1987 to 1988 Father Micah served as a sexton in the church, and in 1988. entered the seminary, which he graduated from in 1991. In the same year he entered the Trinity-Sergius Lavra as a novice, and in 1992 he was transferred to the Danilov Monastery. Obediences in the monastery: 2 years in the icon shop, for 10 years since 1994. construction of a monastery and apiary in the Ryazan region, since 2004. - cellarer in the Danilov Monastery, currently serving in a honey shop, in 2 monastery stores, as well as in the department for the production of posters of spiritual and patriotic content by modern and classical artists. |
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Let's start with the fact that Father Mikhei was a paratrooper and knows the concept of a “hot spot” firsthand. Already, while in the monastery, Father Micah performed difficult obediences: establishing a monastery in the Ryazan region, organizing the monastery apiary, the duties of a cellarer in the St. Daniel Monastery itself, and many others that I do not know about.
As a result, we were able to draw a picture from the questions and answers of how a Russian Orthodox monastery lives today: what it produces, what it eats, who it feeds and how.
website:It is known that the absolute majority of monasteries in Rus' were self-sufficient in the production, storage and distribution of products. The monasteries owned gardens, fields, orchards, ponds and apiaries. Also, since ancient times, the tradition of feeding monastic products not only to the brethren, but also to workers, pilgrims, students, and guests has been preserved. Is this tradition alive in St. Daniel's Monastery now?
O. Micah: Since centuries in Rus', monasteries have been not only centers of spiritual life, but also economic ones. Not only did they feed themselves, but they also carried out breeding work, grew new varieties of plants, looked for and found new ways to store and preserve food. For many hundreds of years, monasteries not only fed themselves, but also widely helped those in need. Both in normal times and, especially, in war years, in lean periods, in times of epidemics.
It’s no different in the monastery: today the economy of the St. Daniel’s Monastery feeds up to 900 people every day. We have just over 80 brethren, almost 400 lay workers. And also pilgrims, guests of the monastery, those in need - every day the monastery kitchen, with God's help, provides food for all these people.
Most of the products we have are of our own production. This includes flour from monastery fields in the Ryazan region, vegetables, fruits, and honey. We mostly buy fish for now, but we want to dig ponds there, on the lands of the monastery, and start growing fish. We keep cows for butter, cottage cheese, milk. They don’t eat meat in the monastery.
website:How did the revival of the monastic economy begin?
O. Micah: The revival of the monastery economy began from the moment it was transferred to the Church in 1983. Over the next five years, the monastery as a whole was restored, and the economy supporting it began to function. However, even now we are only moving towards a truly independent structure that produces, preserves and nourishes.
Until 1917, the monastery had extensive lands, arable lands, apiaries, and ponds. There were many and good products. The monastery sold a lot of things, incl. in their own shops and stores. People have always loved them - both Muscovites and pilgrims. Then everything was destroyed, literally - to the ground.
But over the past 17 years, of course, a lot of progress has been made. If you look back today, you see how much we, with God’s help, have achieved! And we ourselves grow wheat on the monastery lands, grind flour, and bake our famous baked goods. And we grow and preserve all the necessary vegetables: we can them, ferment them, and salt them.
And now the monastery has more than one apiary - in the Moscow region on the monastery farm, near Ryazan, near Anapa and from Altai, honey is also supplied from the apiaries of the Church of the Archangel Michael. The largest apiary is near Ryazan. Now we have about 300 hives here and during the season we manage to obtain more than 10 varieties of honey in our apiaries. These include sweet clover, linden, buckwheat, and honeys of forest and field herbs. Every new season, before the bees fly out, special prayers are held to consecrate the apiary, and the beekeepers receive a blessing for the upcoming work.
Honey such a product is God's blessing. You need to treat him that way. After all, if you put an apiary, for example, near the road, there will be a lot of things coming out of the exhaust pipes: lead and all sorts of heavy metals. And the bees also collect all this and transfer it to honey. We are responsible before God for the fact that we have apiaries in good, environmentally friendly places, and so we offer pure honey to people.
We love our people and want people to be healthy and beautiful and for children to be born healthy. Beekeeping is a traditional Russian trade. Back in the 16th century they said: “Russia is a country where honey flows.” Honey was made in almost every home. It was also supplied abroad along with wax. All Russian people ate honey. This is a necessary product for every person.
It is now customary for us to eat honey only during illness. Only this is wrong. You should eat honey three times a day: a spoonful in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. Honey contains everything the body needs, including vitamins. After all, honey is a natural product that people have been eating for centuries to improve their health. Warriors of the past always carried honey with them on campaigns. By eating it, they increased their strength before the upcoming battle
They began to revive the tradition of monastery bread. People come for our baked goods from all over Moscow and even from the Moscow region. A variety of pies, prepared according to old monastery recipes, are very popular. Made with soul - and people like it!
| From the sermon | |
|---|---|
| The Kiev prince Izyaslav came to the Monk Theodosius, and after the conversation the guest was offered a monastic meal. Having tasted it, Grand Duke I was amazed at how tasty the simple monastery food was, that he did not have such dishes even in the grand ducal palace. To this the Monk Theodosius replied: “This happens because the food in our monastery is prepared with the blessing of the abbot. Therefore, despite its simplicity, by the blessing of God, received through the blessing of the abbot, it turns out to be so nutritious, healthy and tasty.” Sermon by the abbot of the New Jerusalem Monastery, Abbot Theophylact, on the 20th Sunday after Pentecost. Wonderful catch of fish. |
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Our parishioners and guests of the monastery really appreciate the fact that we use recipes not only from our monastery, but also from other holy places: for example, we have yeast-free bread, baked according to Athonite recipes, there is bread from the sisters from the Serpukhov convent.
website:And all this is managed by the small brethren of the St. Daniel Monastery?
O. Micah: Of course not! We are helped by both lay workers and voluntary assistants. There really are few monks, especially those who know how to work on earth. Many came to the monastery from cities, some are not able to do physical labor. But work in honey apiaries is called “sweet hard labor”...
Not everyone knows how much work one has to put in to ensure that good food ends up on the table of the monastery.
website:Please tell us about the monastery food system. What products and dishes make up the monastery table for the brethren?
O. Micah: We do not come to the monastery to eat deliciously - we come to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven through labor, prayer and obedience. The highest virtues are fasting, prayer, renunciation of worldly temptations and obedience.
By the way, according to the monastery charter, there are about 200 fast days. Fasts are divided into multi-day (Great, Peter the Great, Dormition and Christmas) and one-day (Wednesday, Friday of each week). It was during the days of abstinence from fast food that thousands of original, simple dishes available to the population were developed in the monastery refectories.
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Lunch menu for the brethren of St. Daniel's Monastery |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| No post 7 | No post 8 | Yeley 9 | No post 10 | Yeley 11 | No post 12 | No post 13 |
| Vegetable salad Squid salad Sliced cheese |
Beet salad with mayonnaise Sliced cheese Salad of cucumbers, eggs and greens. Luke |
Vegetable salad Daikon with carrots |
Vegetable salad Sliced cheese Salad with shrimp |
Vegetable salad Cabbage salad with carrots |
Beet salad with mayonnaise Greek salad Sliced cheese |
Sliced fish Squid salad with egg |
| Soup Rassolnik | Cabbage soup | Mushroom soup | Meatball soup | Pea soup | Ear | Borsch |
| Fried fish Pasta Tomato sauce |
Fish fried in egg and breadcrumbs Puree Bechamel sauce |
Broccoli with onions and carrots Buckwheat |
Fish fried in egg and breadcrumbs Pasta Tomato sauce |
Ratatouille Rice Tomato sauce |
Fried perch Pasta Tomato sauce |
Fried pike perch Mashed potatoes |
| Compote Milk Sour cream |
Compote Milk Sour cream |
- | Compote Milk Sour cream |
- | Compote Milk Sour cream |
- |
| Tea Cookie Apples |
Tea Cookie Apples |
Compote Tea Cookie Apples |
Tea Cookie Apples |
Compote Tea Cookie Apples |
Tea Candies Apples |
Morse Tea Candies Apples |
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Dinner menu for the brethren of St. Daniel's Monastery |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| No post 7 | No post 8 | Yeley 9 | No post 10 | Yeley 11 | No post 12 | No post 13 |
| Vegetable salad | Vegetable salad Egg with mayonnaise |
Lobio Squash caviar |
Salad from crab sticks | Country salad Vegetable salad |
Herring with onions and green peas Vegetable salad |
Tomato and onion salad Egg with mayonnaise |
| Zrazy Millet porridge Sauce |
Marinated fish Rice |
Potato balls Stewed cabbage |
Fish cabbage rolls in sheets | Potatoes with mushrooms and onions | Meatballs with sauce Fried potatoes |
Fried fish Rice with vegetables |
| Compote Milk Sour cream |
Compote Milk Sour cream |
- | Omelette | - | Compote Milk Sour cream |
Compote Milk Sour cream |
| Cottage cheese casserole | Syrniki | - | - | - | - | Casserole |
| Tea Candies |
Cocoa Candies |
Tea Candies Compote |
Tea Candies Compote |
Tea Candies Compote |
Tea Candies |
Tea Candies |
The main difference between the monastic table and the secular one is that we do not eat meat. In the monastery they eat vegetables, cereals, dairy products, baked goods, fish, and mushrooms. The monastery's storerooms always stock a lot of sauerkraut, cucumbers, tomatoes, and mushrooms.
The cellarer monitors this, and both the monastic brothers and the lay workers do it. And it goes to everyone’s table without exception. According to the rules, monks eat only twice a day: lunch and dinner. The cellarer of the monastery especially makes sure that the meals are tasty, varied and maintain strength - after all, the interval before meals is long, and no one sits idly by, everyone has their own housework - obedience.
The weekday menu usually consists of fish soup, if allowed on that day, pickle soup, vegetable, mushroom or milk soup and fish with a side dish. For dessert - tea, compote or jelly, pies, cookies. The Sunday menu consists of fish borscht, fried fish with a side dish of mashed potatoes or rice with vegetables, fresh vegetables, sliced fish and products from the monastery farmstead - cheese, sour cream and milk. On the holidays of Christmas and Easter, a festive menu is served at the meal.
We have Father Hermogenes - he was the cellarer of the monastery for more than 10 years, so he even wrote a book about the monastery meal, “The Kitchen of Father Hermogenes.” On this moment cellarer in the monastery of Fr. Theognostus. I was a cellarer for several years, and before that I carried out obedience in the construction of a skete, the restoration of the Church of the Archangel Michael, taking care of apiaries, a bakery...
Now I have obedience - I offer monastery products for Muscovites, in a honey shop and 2 monastery stores “Monastic Honey” and “Monastic Grocery Store”, where you can buy our products: honey, beekeeping products, honey jam, an assortment of fish, porridge, monastery baked goods - yeast-free bread, pies, health products: non-alcoholic balms, sbitn, teas, herbs.
I also have an obedience in the department of making posters of spiritual and patriotic content by modern and classical artists.
website:We thank you, Father Micah, for your attention and story. We wish you joy in your work!
PRAYERS BEFORE AND AFTER EATINGFOOD
BEFORE EATING
Our Father, who art in heaven! Hallowed be it your name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The eyes of all trust in You, Lord, and You give them food in good season, You open Your generous hand and fulfill every animal’s good will.
AFTER EATING
We thank Thee, Christ our God, for Thou hast filled us with Thy earthly blessings; Do not deprive us of Your Heavenly Kingdom, but because You have come among Your disciples, Savior, give them peace, come to us and save us.
SECRET PRAYER BEFORE EATING FOOD FOR IMMEDIATE DIET (prayer for weight loss)
I also pray to You, Lord, deliver me from satiety and lust and grant me in peace of mind to reverently accept Your generous gifts, so that by tasting them, I will receive strengthening of my mental and physical strength to serve You, Lord, in the short remainder of my life on Earth.
Editor's Note
Dear readers!
On November 28, Orthodox Christians begin the Nativity Fast. This is one of four multi-day fasts in Orthodoxy, which prepares believers for happy holiday Nativity of Christ. This fast is less strict than the Great Fast and the Assumption Fast, but even here questions arise: what can and cannot be eaten, about what Orthodox holidays At this time, every believer who is allowed indulgences must know whether there is any benefit to the soul if you observe only physical fasting? Micah. These days Fr. Micah. And then at the meeting you will receive comprehensive answers to them.
Reverend Vasily Polyanomerulsky
ABOUTabstaining from brushing forbidden to monks
Preface
About the reason why they were collected from Holy Scripture these answers to resolve questions about abstinence from brushes prohibited by the monastic voluntary promise
There are many of us who speak, but those who do are few, but no one should hide the word of God or move away from it through his own negligence, but should, confessing his weakness, not hide God’s truth, so as not to be guilty of us, along with the crime of the commandments, and in the reinterpretation of the word God, as Saint Maximus said. But since I, sad and unfit, have been honored to read with diligent zeal and undoubted faith the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as well as teaching and fatherly books, and learn from their many useful words, but have no good deeds, then the word of the Lord convicts me: “To the doctor, heal yourself” (Luke 4:23). on the other hand, I am horrified by the fate of that slave who hid his talent and is deprived of any justification, not only because he himself was idle and idle, but especially because he did not convey the word to other listeners, as the divine maxim believes.
I saw that some of my brethren, to whom, during monastic tonsure, I, unworthy, was named a successor, while traveling through other lands, are convinced by some people that supposedly eating meat by monks is not a sin and not a violation of a vow. “For,” they say, “to eat or not to eat meat is in the will of everyone, and this is not a law or an inviolable rule. Some of the ancient fathers ate meat, some did not, but this was in their will, for the apostle said: “Let not a poisonous man rebuke him that eateth, and let not a poisonous man condemn him that eateth him” (Rom. 14:3)” and so on. Some, finding in all these words an excuse for their ignorance, devoid of any forgiveness, begin to take a frivolous attitude towards eating meat.
The much bewilderment that surrounded me about this led to the most thorough research and, with God’s help, I found a very useful ancient history in the Official Book of St. Nikon the Montenegrin. This holy teacher, having read the letter of Cyrus Peter, Patriarch of Antioch, who permitted the consumption of meat by monks, did not tolerate this in any way, but out of divine jealousy, like Phinehas (see Num. 25:7), piercing this patriarchal scripture with the sword of reproof, as if with a spiritual spear, declared delusion and spoke out against vice, saying: “The Patriarch, by his passionate will, introduced passionate teaching into monasticism and cited the fasting rules of Basil the Great as justification for this. But one should not remain silent about this, for what does this antiquity mean now, when monks are completely forbidden to eat meat? That was at the beginning of Christianity, but now it is invalid,” and so on, which will be said later.
In 1749, I asked the Most Blessed Patriarch of Antioch, Cyrus Sylvester, about this, in the presence of His Majesty Mr. Konstantin Nikolaevich, Prince of Ugrovlah. And then His Holiness gave my badness the blessing to speak and write against those who teach monks to eat meat. Based on this, I dared, although I am devoid of all boldness before God, to collect from the Holy Scriptures and from the books of church teachers and from the typologies of the great monasteries, which the Holy Catholic Church accepts and adheres to, evidence that today is not at all appropriate for monks, looking back in ancient times, eating meat. And not in order to denounce or condemn others, I collected this, but only in order to teach my brothers, assuring, and strengthening, and leading them away from such trampling of conscience and fearing the righteous judgment and vengeance of God that befell that ancient bishop Ili 1 I because of his sons Hophni and Phinehas (see 1 Samuel 1–4).
Unworthy Elder, Vasily Schemamonk
Study
About abstinence and non-eating of meat by monks: where did this start?
The Divine Apostle called everything in the Old Testament a shadow of the future and the intelligible (see Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1), as the most sacred Gregory the Theologian says: “That is why these three cities were created by the people of Israel in Egypt: Python, Ramessin and He was typified by three main passions: voluptuousness, love of money and vanity, the first of which, that is, voluptuousness, like some kind of payment for their work, the Israelis took with them from Egypt and because of it many times, more prompted by it, they tried to return again to Egypt, as shown in the second and fourth books of Moses, called Exodus and Numbers."
“For,” says the Scripture, “the whole host of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: “Oh, it would have been better if we had died, struck down by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the meat pots” (see Ex. 16, 2 and 3 ). And again: “And the children of Israel sat down and wept and said: “Who will feed us with meat, for our soul is dried up; there is nothing before our eyes but manna.” And Moses said: “Where can I get meat to give to all these people, for they cry before me, saying: Give us meat to eat.” And God commanded Moses to say to them: “O cleanse yourself in the morning and eat meat, for you have wept before the Lord, saying: Who will feed us meat? How good it was for us in Egypt! And the Lord will give you meat to eat until it comes out of your nostrils and it becomes disgusting to you” (see Numbers 11:4-20).
And in the exodus of the ancients from Egypt, the most godly fathers see the image of the monks leaving the world and renouncing it, while the food or food prepared for them from the seeds and fruits of the earth can have the image and perfect likeness of manna from heaven. Just as manna, and not meat, was sent from above to the Israelites from God, so initially all people were given seeds of the earth and fruits from trees, and not meat, for food by God Himself, once desiring which and despising the heavenly manna, the ancient Israelites died in the desert: “For “also,” it is said, “the meat was in their teeth, and the Lord was very angry with the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague, and they called that place “The Coffins of Whimsy,” because whimsical people were buried there” (see part 11, 33 and 34). “Whose bones,” says Basil the Great, “fell in the desert? Are they not seeking meat-eating? For while they were content with manna, they defeated the Egyptians and passed through the sea, but when they remembered the meat and the cauldrons, they did not see the promised land.”
So, finding here a reason and a reason, to all those opposing the good tradition of our God-inspired fathers about abstaining from meat according to a monastic voluntary promise, we present only one thing in response: if some of the ancient monks were involved in meat-eating, then these customs were accepted by God just as and Old Law blood sacrifices. “And it is clear that initially God did not want to establish such sacrifices for them, but, forbearing their weakness and seeing them frantic and overwhelmed by the desire for sacrifices, he allowed them,” said the divine Chrysostom. So it is with eating meat: initially it was not so much the will of God as it was indulgence and a forced thing. That is why this was subsequently abolished by the God-bearing fathers, which will be shown quite and truly below. Since the monastic promise seeks its original existence and dispassion, and not the condescension revealed to Noah, one must choose the food given by God to Adam in paradise, and not to Noah after the flood. For food is the first evidence of the fear of God and shows the love and reverence of a monk.
Question: about whom the monks adopted the custom of not eating meat - after all, the divine Apostle Paul clearly opposed him when he wrote to Timothy: “In the last times, some will depart from the faith, heeding spiritual flattery and the teachings of demons, in hypocrisy a liar, burned by their conscience, commanding to depart from what God has created for the consumption of the faithful and those who know the truth" (1 Tim. 4:1-3)?
Answer:Although there were heretics called Manichaeans, Encratites, Eustathians, Marcionites, Saturnians and Priscillians, who called the flesh of all animals, wine and marriage unclean, we now do not need to have any doubt about all this, since by the grace of Christ the Holy Catholic Church , cursing the heretical blasphemy about breastfeeding, honors abstinence. It is appropriate to pay attention to how the devil, seeing that this weapon of his has completely weakened, takes up his first tricks and abuse, with which he cast down the primeval one from paradise and sought his condemnation to death. And about this the divine Paul wrote to the Philippians not only with ink and pen, but more with his tears: “the noses,” he said, “walk, of which there are many words to you, but now I say in tears: the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose womb is God, and glory is in their cold, who philosophize on earth” (see Phil. 3, 18 and 19) and so on. Interpreting this, the divine Chrysostom says: “There is nothing so unworthy and alien for a Christian as to seek joy and peace. Your master has been crucified, and you are satiated. Wear the cross not just, but with compassion for the Savior’s suffering on the cross. For everyone who is a friend of satiety and this peace is an enemy of the cross of Christ. Paul cries about what those for whom, as he said, God is a womb, laugh at. That is why it is God for them that they say: “Let us go eat and drink.” Do you see what evil satiety is? For to some God is a possession, to another is a belly, and their glory is in their shame. And is it only about those (about the Jews) that this is said, but those who are here escaped this reproach and is there no one guilty of this? Doesn’t anyone have a belly for God and shame for glory? I want and really want none of this to happen to us, and I don’t even want to see anyone guilty of what was said, but I’m afraid that it won’t be said more about us than about those living then. When someone spends his entire life eating and drinking on his stomach, wouldn’t it be appropriate to say about him that God is his stomach and his glory is in his shame?”
P Therefore, it is most fitting for us, monks, to avoid such audacity and fearlessness before God, about which sins, caring little, the entire Latin and Lutheran race explores the above and the below, the scriptures and ancient histories, with a sly spirit collecting words and justifications for the constant consumption of meat, likening hornets and wasps who, not knowing how to collect honey from wild flowers or fruit trees and plants, feed on the carrion of animal flesh, or more correctly, they, like beetles born in manure, feed on manure. In general, each of us who is disgusted by such a disposition needs to be like bees, collecting honey-bearing words from the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the holy fathers (like bees from flowers - honey), which can quench the lust of a voluptuous spirit and subdue us into obedience to Christ and the tradition of the holy fathers ours, completely prohibiting monks from eating meat.
Question:If God allowed the righteous Noah to eat meat after the flood, for “every animal,” God said, “will be for you to eat, and I will give you everything like green herbs” (Gen. 9:3), then what sin or what virtue will be for the monks, those who eat meat or those who do not eat meat?
Answer:Before the flood, not to eat meat was a general law for all people, originally given to Adam by God in paradise. “For behold, I have given you,” said God, “every herb that yields seed, and every tree that has fruit in it that yields seed, which shall be food for you, and for all the beasts of the earth, and for all the birds of the air, and to every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, which has a living soul in itself” (Gen. 1, 29 and 30).
And the fact that after the flood they began to eat meat seems more like God’s permission and indulgence towards our intemperance than God’s law. “For after the flood,” said Basil the Great, “God allowed Noah and after it all people to eat meat, not as necessary for our nature, but as an indulgence for our weakness. For the Lord knew that people were cruel, and He allowed pleasure for everyone. And according to this permission, other animals began to eat meat without fear, rebelling against each other. It is possible for those who wish, imitating the life of paradise, to now guide themselves and direct themselves towards this life, avoiding the enjoyment of many and various dishes and eating fruits and seeds of trees. Let us reject what is superfluous as unnecessary, not because we consider it vile, for we honor the Creator, but as undesirable because of the gratification of the flesh.”
One should be surprised here at how this divine hierarch, in one of his fasting words, allows the monks to dip bread in the liquid in which a small piece of meat was boiled, and eat it for some kind of pleasure. Here, in the word for six days, he prohibits eating meat, calling it food that arouses passions, and commands everyone who wants to imitate the aforementioned heavenly life to eat only seeds and fruits of the earth, and even Basil the Great himself had bread and water as food, according to testimony divine Gregory the Theologian. And from this it is learned that even in the time of this great teacher, some of the monks did not completely abstain from meat, since it was not yet prohibited.
When our venerable father Anthony the Great, the first desert dweller, completely refused to eat meat, as the very description of his life shows, from then on this good institution of abstinence from meat began to spread among all monks, as from food that arouses voluptuousness and because in which the bones of the ancient Israelites fell in the wilderness, and the Israelites did not see the Promised Land. For just as then manna was called the bread of angels, because it came down from heaven, so now it is bread, and not meat, that is the food of angels, which is sent to many saints from above by holy angels.
After the Great Anthony there was the Monk Euthymius, after him - Sava the Sanctified, whose names are supposed to be remembered in the rank of monastic tonsure, as the founders and executors of all monastic deanery and vows. For they were the first, according to Bose, to teach monks to abstain from meat. They saw that the ancients were sent manna from heaven, but in the new grace, many desert dwellers were sent instead of manna bread, wine and oil, and not meat, sometimes through angels, sometimes through birds of heaven, and sometimes by the invisible hand of the Divine. And especially through the fact that in the desert Christ himself, the Giver of Life, offered bread and fish, and not meat, to four and five thousand people, they came to know the will of God and the preference of the law given to Adam in paradise, and in the typica they completely forbade the monks from eating meat.
Here’s something else that needs to be remembered here: in the life of St. Paul of Thebes it is written that when he was sitting, talking with the Great Anthony, a raven flew in, carrying whole bread, and, having laid it in front of them, quietly flew away, and St. Paul said to the Great Anthony: “ For sixty years now I have been receiving half a loaf of bread, but for the sake of your coming, Christ the Lord has doubled the alms given to His servants.” The Great Onuphrius says something similar about himself: “God, seeing my hunger, commanded the holy angel to take care of me: to bring a little bread every day.”
From the lives of our venerable fathers Simeon and John: “John brought a certain man into his cell, and they found a meal offered by the invisible hand of God, unusual in the desert, for it was clean and warm bread, and excellent fish, and good wine.”
The life of St. Euthymius says: “It happened that pilgrims from Jerusalem, about four hundred men, came to the monastery of St. Euthymius, and the elder, seeing that they were hungry, said to the steward: “Give these people food.” He answered: “Father, the cellarer does not have bread to feed at least ten people, where will we get bread for so many people?” The saint said: “Go and do what I command you!” When the steward came to the place where the bread was stored, he could not open the doors, for the blessing of God filled this place to the top with bread. When they called several brothers and removed the doors, loaves fell out, and the same blessing was on the wine and oil: the vessels were suddenly filled.” This is what they say about the Great Euphemia.
Although there are many divine fathers who lived both in solitude and in community and accepted food sent to them from God, except for meat, however, for the sake of brevity, it is impossible to describe everything here in order. Here alone we have shown that God, neither Himself, nor through the holy angels or birds of heaven, never in new grace gave meat to His servants, but only bread and fish, wine and oil, which, according to the economy, God the Word Himself tasted after His resurrection from the dead. All this assures us that it is not appropriate for us monks, looking at certain ancient fathers, to eat meat today, since God’s testimony that one must abstain from meat is much greater and more reliable than human permission. Assuring us of this, God never appears to send meat food to slaves. Therefore, we must submit more to the good tradition of the holy fathers, who forbid monks to eat meat, than to those who eat it and allow others to eat it. For Christ the Lord Himself, honoring the law on food given to Adam in paradise, fed, as it is said, four thousand men with seven loaves and small fishes, and then five thousand, besides wives and children, with five loaves and two fishes, although he could have fed them with meat feathered birds, like the rebellious Jews in the desert in ancient times. Then He Himself, after His rise from the grave, appeared to His disciples, then to the eleven, before whom He ate fish and honeycomb honey (see Luke 24:42), then to Simon Peter with the other disciples on the Sea of Tiberias, with whom He ate bread and baked fish (see John 21:13). But nowhere does He appear to eat meat; it is better to say that this is not mentioned anywhere in the Holy Gospel. And seeing that the evangelists do not mention anything about meat, showing Christ the Lord eating only fish, bread and honey, we believe that this, as indicated by our conscience, is nothing more than a preference for the law on food given in paradise to Adam initially, and this is an example and an instruction for monks to eat such food, and not meat. For all the holy life of the Lord on earth and His deeds would be an example and example for us, so that we would follow His footsteps (see 1 Peter 2:21), for He said: “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me” (John 12, 26).
Question:If there was any virtue or sin for monks in abstaining from meat or in eating it, then wouldn’t the holy Ecumenical Councils legislate whether monks should eat or not eat meat? But if the Councils are silent about this, then how can everyone know the truth?
Answer:This question causes great surprise and is filled with extreme recklessness. If in the ancient law the law of God was different, another is the tradition of old age, another is the arbitrary promise of every individual, for it is said: “A husband or wife, whoever has been promised by a strong vow to purify himself with purity to the Lord, let him abstain from wine and strong drink, and let him not drink from the wine, and from the strong drink, and from the grapes of wine, let him not drink, and from the fresh and dry grapes, let him not drink, all the days of his vow” (Num. 6, 2 and 5) and again: “A man who promises a vow to the Lord or swears an oath does not defile his word: let him do all the things that come out of his mouth” (Num. 30:3), then why don’t you accept the like of this in the new grace? For when you renounce the world and accept of your own free will all the rules and traditions of monastic life, is this not a voluntary promise? Do not think that the holy Councils, by keeping silent about the abstinence of monks from meat, give the monks in their voluntary vows a reason to despise the good traditions of the God-bearing fathers - let this not happen - for by such silence they mainly confirm these traditions. If the Holy Councils had considered that the abstinence of monks from meat was contrary to the statutes of the Holy Church, then, of course, they would have prohibited it and would not have accepted for the Holy Church the typologies: Jerusalem, Studite and Athos on the quality and quantity of food that all Christians, that is, monks and worldly ones are guided to this day. If you are tempted by the silence of the holy Councils, then understand this in such a way that not only the holy Councils do not lay down a law for the monastic promise through rules and prohibitions, but our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, although He showed many examples and deeds to the monastic promise of the Divine, by His life on earth , however, nowhere does he confirm these vows with threats and hell, like his other sacred commandments, but what does he say? - “If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). And he said to that young man: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and come after Me” (Matthew 19:21). Why should monks demand the law and why should the holy councils legislate this, if a voluntary monastic promise according to God is itself their law and rule? The firmness of the vows was legitimized by God in the Old Testament.
Question:But we are not talking about the entire monastic vow, but only about one abstinence from meat, which from apostolic times to the time of Basil the Great, many monks ate without any condemnation. Why has this become a temptation now?
Answer:To this, enough has already been said that not only the God-bearing fathers rejected the eating of meat by monks as food that conveniently evoked passions, but first of all, the Lord Himself was an example and example of this, for, showing His displeasure towards eating meat, He never sent His servants meat, but only bread and oil, sometimes fish and wine, the same food He Himself providentially ate after His Resurrection. And he commanded the multitude to offer only bread and fish, and not meat. And the fact that some of the ancients had no shame in eating meat seems to be nothing more than the fact that abstinence from meat had not yet been defined, and not only this did not happen, but the monastic order itself had not yet come to its full beauty and perfection. Saint Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica, said: “And this is not surprising, for the very church deanery with all sacred rites even until the Seventh Ecumenical Council, little by little accepting the pious tradition, it came to perfection, and not immediately from the beginning everything was like this. Since it is impossible for anyone, and not even pious, to reject or despise anything from the written or unwritten Church Tradition with the justification and under the pretext that not all of this received its origin and perfection from the holy apostles, then it is not righteous and not pleasing to God, when someone, justifying himself first by the seemingly imperfect monastic rules and definitions, eats meat food that is alien to the monastic image and vow.”
The life of the Monk Alexander, teacher of the monastery of the “Unsleeping”, says: “Ravul, the mayor, followed the advice of the Monk Alexander and, getting up in the morning, took with him many family and friends, and they walked through the impassable desert all day, before eleventh hour, and they saw a certain villager leading loaded cattle, on which there was clean and warm bread and other food - garden and vegetable fruits, and they asked him: “Where are you from and who sent you here?” He said: “My lord has sent me to you.” And at that very moment he became invisible. Alexander said to Rabul: “Take your food and do not be unbelievers, but believers” (see John 20:27). And again the monk learned that some of the citizens came to him, wanting to know where he gets food from for many brothers, being a beggar, and he said to one brother in front of those men: “Go and bring the man standing in front of the gate with warm and clean bread " When this man entered, he asked him in front of everyone: “Where did you come from with these loaves?” He answered: “When I took these loaves out of the oven, a certain bright young man powerfully ordered me to carry them after him and, bringing me to the gates of this monastery, he told me to give the loaves, but he himself became invisible.” And what will those who eat meat say against this? Doesn’t this clearly show that monastic food, which does not include meat, is sent by God? And to the Great Onuphrius, who was still a youth, Christ the Lord gave clean and warm bread with His own hands. Also, the Most Holy Virgin Mary Herself, who loves monastic abstinence from meat, talking with Blessed Dositheus face to face, gave him these three commandments, saying: “Fast, do not eat meat and pray often, and you will get rid of flour.”
Question:IN ancient Church Didn’t many of the monks who ate meat appear to be fasters and more pleasing to God than those of today who do not eat meat?
Answer:The divine apostle said well: “I knew no sin, but the law, but the acceptance of sin by the commandment brought about all lust in me. Because the commandment came, sin lived, but I died” (Rom. 7, vv. 7, 8, 9, 10). The Lord also says: “If he had not come and spoken to them, they would have had no sin” (John 15:22). Fasters and abstinents in the ancient Church, since they had no tradition about the quality of food, were not guilty of transgressing the good and pious institution of the God-bearing fathers: Anthony, Euthymius, Sava and others. Now the monks who dare, breaking tradition, to eat meat, will they not be condemned by the same judgment and answer before God, as it is said about Israel: “I still had meat in their teeth, and the Lord smote them with a great plague, and the name of that place was called graves lusts: for there they buried the people who lusted” (Numbers 11, 33 and 34). But we, who hear this, should be very afraid that we, having the monastic food established by the holy fathers, like the ancients - manna from God, abhor it, being carried away by the lust of meat, just like those whose bones fell in the desert. We cannot be like the ancient Church in everything, in which, fearing the infidels, the priests sometimes celebrated the liturgy in the evening and at night, administering the Holy Mysteries to those who ate food that day, and Holy Baptism postponed until the age of thirty, and deacons were allowed to marry after ordination, and the Most Holy Mysteries were taught, placing them directly in the hands of all communicants.
If these and many other ancient customs, as well as the eating of meat by monks, are postponed, is it really possible in good time who reveres everything ancient without distinction, accept all these abandoned customs along with eating meat? How can we compare with the ancient fathers, who ate meat with such great abstinence and cutting off lust, with which we now do not eat even unsatisfying food, subservient to the belly as to God, serving him and wanting to offer him sacrifices of voluptuousness and intemperance without eating meat? If, even without meat, with meager food, we plan to perform voluptuous service to the belly, then what do we impute our voluptuous disposition and slavery to the belly when we allow ourselves, at our desire, to taste the natural sweetness of meat? The lust that arises from eating meat is like a Chaldean oven fired seven times, and that which appears conceivable from simple food is equal to the lions' den into which Daniel was once thrown. And just as this oven was more terrifying and the torment in it was more frightening than the lions and this ditch, so much more terrible is gluttony and voluptuousness, enslaved by eating meat than by simple food. And how much more difficult was it for anyone to approach and look into the furnace, the flame of which spread over forty-nine cubits, and to see the three youths thrown into it, than to approach the den with the lions and Daniel sitting there with them - so much more unforgivable is the insolence of those who despise the typicals and the statutes of the holy fathers and those who eat meat today, than the boldness of the ancients, who, without having a tradition about it, ate meat.
Question:But wasn’t it the same meat that the ancients ate as now? And what difference can be found here?
Answer:The meat is the same, but the reasoning is not the same, for if there is no tradition, there is no crime. Nowadays, the eating of meat by monks contradicts tradition, or, more correctly, it contradicts the law originally given by God, and is charged with disobedience and self-obedience before God. If that ancient Johanadab, the son of Rechab, forbade his entire tribe to drink wine, and to his sons, who kept this commandment, the prophet Jeremiah said on behalf of the Lord: “Thus says the Lord God Almighty: Because the sons of Jonadab have obeyed the commandments of their father, to do as is commanded unto them.” their father: for this reason says the Lord of hosts: a man shall not fail from the sons of Jonadaulih, the son of Rechabel; stand before me all the days of the earth” (Jer. 35: 18-19).
How much better and much more favorable it would be to God if we, monks, listened to our holy fathers, who commanded not wine, but meat, as food that easily inflames passions, not to eat all the days of our lives! For just as much as our blessed fathers are more numerous and higher in holiness before God than Jonadab, so it is fitting for us to keep their commandments with priority. Where are those now who carry on their lips an unhelpful antiquity and with it ruin the pious tradition of the holy fathers established for monks about the quality of food? Do not the most ancient sons of Jonadab destroy their antiquity with the mere praise of God for them for such great obedience and keeping the commandment of their fathers, which not only seems small to many and is imputed to them as nothing, but is also most despised by everyone, both in ancient times and now? The tradition of our God-bearing fathers was initially laid down in paradise, then in the Holy Gospel, or better yet, attested by the Divine life on earth of Christ our Lord and transmitted by the Most Pure Mother of God Herself, and also confirmed by the food sent from God to many saints, as already was said above. Therefore, it is appropriate to consider and call it the first law, which is given from God and which we must preserve with undoubted faith and good will with all our souls, and not just the later invented tradition of our fathers. Those who argue with us about this and ask: who established this tradition? - we must answer that initially God himself laid down this law, but the eating of meat was allowed by God only because of our weakness, just like the ancients - the sacrifice of livestock.
Therefore, eating meat for lay people, and not for monks, is neither a sin nor a virtue, according to a simple saying: it brings neither sin nor salvation to a person, but abstinence from meat is the saving law of God and a godly virtue. The first reason for holy fasting is the curbing of the flesh and the taming of any dumb movement, which is very necessary and useful for monks. The second is that fasting makes the soul easy for prayer and heavenly reflections. The third is that by doing this we serve God and fasting is piety. The fourth is that fasting is the satisfaction of God and the propitiation of His righteous anger. Fifth - fasting is a request from God for eternal and temporary blessings, and so on, as the divine Chrysostom said: “Fast so as not to sin; fast because you have sinned; fast to receive; fast so as not to lose what you have received.” Although fasting is divided into four types, that is, spiritual and moral fasting and natural and ecclesiastical fasting, monks should still always abstain from meat-eating. Spiritual fasting is avoidance of sins, moral fasting is moderate consumption of food, natural fasting is not eating or drinking at all for a certain time, following the example of the Ninevites, and church fasting is abstaining from meat according to the law and rules of the church and worldly. people should keep this fast four times a year and on every Wednesday and Friday, and, out of reverence, on Monday, along with monks. However, our word is not about this fast, but about the constant abstinence of monks from meat, while eating fish, cheese, eggs and oil at the time indicated in the typicas. If we promise before God to preserve virginity and voluntary poverty all the days of our life, which is above natural, then shouldn’t we, according to the tradition of the holy fathers, have the will to naturally abstain from meat? Since our monastic life and promise seeks nothing else, but only heavenly dispassion, we must also choose the food given by God in paradise. Why are those five virgins called foolish by the Lord (see Matt. 25:1-12)? Is it just because they retained virginity, the highest of all virtues, but did not find almsgiving, the easiest and most convenient virtue for everyone, because it is natural? In the same way, it is equal madness for monks to practice the highest and most difficult virtues, that is, virginity and voluntary poverty, and not to preserve the very easy virtue of abstinence from meat.
Light to the whole world and glory to the monks, especially to the Church of Christ - Mount Athos, Kyiv and all great Russia, where in these last times the reverend fathers shone with such great holiness, who, obeying the tradition of the most ancient holy fathers, took for food only seeds, oil, fish, cheese and milk, and we do not see any of them eating meat. Their life and abstinence makes all the laity jealous of fasting and causes great surprise that in other places monks eat meat. And many of the monks, convicted by their conscience, tremble before an unknown judgment for this.
Therefore, it is not appropriate for us to joke with serious things and, justifying our gluttony with ancient stories and stories, to dare to eat meat, thinking that this is left to the will of everyone, and is not the law of God and our renunciation before God and His holy angels.
Question:If, as can be seen, abstinence from meat is the first law of God, and not just the tradition of the holy fathers, depicted in the typologies and accepted by the Holy Catholic Church, and spreads in all Orthodox countries, that is, Greek, Russian, Bulgarian and Serbian, Ugrian-Lachian and Moldavian, and others, then where did this contempt and fearlessness in the monks come from?
Answer:The beginning and the end, or better yet, the source of many iniquities before God in this world is old Rome, which since the time of the apostles has been prophetically called the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, as it is written in Revelation (see Rev. 17: 3–5). From there, along with many other evils, began the contempt for the pious fatherly traditions about the abstinence of monks from meat. The All-Blessed Patriarch of Constantinople, Cyrus Michael Cerularius, writes against the Latin heresy: “If in the Roman Empire someone from the monastic rank becomes a bishop, then without fear he allows the monks to eat meat, and even if a minor illness befalls him, he eats meat. And in communal monasteries everyone, being healthy, eats lard.” Baronius the Roman recognizes this when in the seventh chapter he describes the events of the 1054th year of the Lord: “Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, in agreement with Leo of Ohrid, Archbishop of Bulgaria, wrote an accusatory letter against the Roman Church, listing such Latin errors: they celebrate liturgy on unleavened bread, they eat strangled , the monks eat their meat, and so on.” It is not surprising that the Greek monks also learned from the Latins to eat meat. When the Romans ruled Jerusalem for eighty years or more, from 1099 to 1186, and installed their Patriarch and King in it, then it became necessary for many voluptuous Greek monks to adopt meat-eating from the Latins, especially when Constantinople itself was taken by the Latins. Baronius writes about the events of 1191: “When Balsamon, Patriarch of Antioch, dared to express in a letter many blasphemies against the Pope, considering and calling him vile and unworthy not only of commemoration at the most holy liturgy, but even of the Christian name, then, two years later, the Latins took Constantinople and installed their own Patriarch.” All this was by God’s permission, with the help and action of Satan, who was released after a thousand years of imprisonment in the abyss, as the seer said (see Rev. 20: 1–3), and who showed a sign of his new return to Rome as a retreat of the Latins from the New Roman monarchy, and the division of the Holy Council and Apostolic Church and permission for monks to eat meat, and for laymen to neglect the holy fasts preserved by the Holy Church since the apostolic days.
And about the fact that Basil the Great wrote in one of his fasting words that the monks boil a small piece of meat in salted water and, dipping bread in this brine, eat, let’s say that they did this not out of voluptuousness, but to strengthen the body, and The saint wrote about this not as a legal tradition, but as a custom of that time. Affirming and preferring the law originally given by God, he commands the monks to eat plants and the fruits of the earth, and not meat, the eating of which was allowed due to the intemperance of people after the flood, as was said about this. Therefore, the God-bearing fathers, seeing that eating meat was not good for monks and kindled lust, banned it completely and set out rules against this antiquity in typicas. Therefore, looking at all antiquity, it is fitting for us to adhere only to what constitutes our salvation, and to abolish what is not. Because still in ancient history it is written about Saint Peter, the Supreme Apostle: “He said to Clement: “Why do you, not understanding my life and will, want to always be with me? Don’t you see that I eat only bread and olives and a meager amount of vegetables?” Such antiquity is useful for understanding our monastic vows. Clement of Alexandria writes something similar about the holy evangelist Matthew in the second book of the Pedagogue, in the first chapter: “He ate only herbs.” James, the apostle, always abstained from meat, as Saint Eusebius writes in the second book of history, in the twenty-second chapter. What more can we tell us about those Christians who lived near Alexandria and who were taught by St. Mark? - They ate food once a day in the evening, but always abstained from meat, as Saint Eusebius writes about this in the second book of history, in the seventeenth chapter. And Saint Epiphanius, in his book against heresies, says: “There were many who, of their own free will, always abstained from meat.” And Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, in the fourth teaching of the catechism, also testifies to abstinence from meat, which was customary among many Christians. Also, Augustine in the book on church customs, in chapters thirty-one and thirty-three, and Jerome in the third book against Jovian, and Theodoret, and many others write in their books about the constant abstinence of Christians from meat. If initially among the laity there was such care and zeal in abstaining from meat, then isn’t it more appropriate for him to be among the monks now? And why do you need to talk a lot? Let us only say the very words of Christ: “Strive to enter through the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. And narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it” (see Matt. 7: 13-14).
And since here in many places it is mentioned about the types of great monasteries compiled by the holy fathers, it is necessary to briefly cite excerpts from them. The studio type, defining the quantity and quality of food, says: “You should know that after Easter until the Sunday of All Saints we eat boiled juice with oil and herbs, and we also eat fish, cheese, and eggs, except Monday, Wednesday and Friday.” The Jerusalem Typik writes: “It is appropriate to know that all year long on simple days, when there is no holiday or fasting, at the fifth hour we go to the Liturgy and after dismissal we enter the refectory and eat two dishes: one boiled, and the other - boiled greens or juiced, in fast days, that is, Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the whole year, are dry eating, according to the legend of the divine fathers.” The typik of Saint Mount Athos says: “It is appropriate to know that from Easter to the Sunday of All Saints in the refectory we eat two dishes with butter, greens and sochi, cheese and fish, if we have it.”
About the Nativity of Christ: “If the feast of the Nativity of Christ happens on Wednesday or Friday, we allow: the laity - meat, the monks - cheese and eggs, and we eat from the Nativity of Christ on all days until the eve of Holy Epiphany, the laity - meat, the monks - cheese and eggs."
About the Assumption Holy Mother of God: “If this holiday is on Wednesday or Friday, we allow only fish and wine. If it’s Monday, laymen are allowed meat, cheese, and eggs, but monks are allowed only fish and wine.”
This is the tradition of our God-bearing and most blessed fathers about abstinence from meat, preserved from the days of the apostles only by the will of every pious monk, and in the years of the Great Anthony and Euthymius, Savva and Theodosius and other God-bearing fathers, collected and approved by typologies and writings, accepted by the Holy Catholic Church and even to this day it has not been erased from church books. Therefore, opponents of abstinence, although they do not dare to blot out this tradition, nevertheless have irreconcilable enmity and hatred towards these rules, and they seek out such words and ancient stories to destroy and exterminate them from the monastic rank.
Such was their teacher of the law, Cyrus Peter, Patriarch of Antioch, about whom in the book called “Tactikon”, in 1033, it was written like this: “This Cyrus Peter was like a two-edged sword: Latin wickedness due to the service on unleavened bread and the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit from He completely rejected his son, but because of permission to eat meat and everything else, he accepted and justified him, and therefore he opposed the Most Blessed Patriarch, Cyrus Michael Cerularius.” “And this, from the beginning to this place, I chose from various epistles of the cyrus of Peter,” writes the Monk Nikon the Montenegrin, “and I skipped some, as not having great harm, namely, permission for the laity to eat the meat of some livestock and animals unlawfully, what are bears and the like like? And the fact that he expounded a very harmful doctrine for monastic life about eating meat according to his passionate thoughts and, having found the friars’ apostasy, introduced a passionate doctrine according to his passionate will and cited the fasting words of Basil the Great and the life of Pachomius, one should not remain silent about this. For what does such antiquity mean now, when eating meat is completely prohibited for monks? The Armenians also talk about such antiquity. So Cyrus Peter wrote about her, being enslaved by passion, as Cyrus Luke, Metropolitan of Virza and my spiritual father, told me, for when Cyrus Peter accepted the appointment to the patriarchate, this father of mine was there too. It was to him that the king said: “We give you the Patriarch, but he does not give up eating meat.” The elder dared to say in front of everyone: “My lord is good and reasonable, but we do not accept a Patriarch who eats meat in Antioch.” Then Cyrus Peter answered him: “Stop, my lord, do not forbid me this, for I will not give up eating meat, and our holy king condescended to me in this.” But since the elder did not allow this, Cyrus Peter was completely forbidden to eat meat. When they all left Constantinople together and came to Antioch, the Patriarch was enthroned, and those who did not eat meat sat with the Patriarch, and those who ate sat separately. When they cooked the meat, they first brought it to the Patriarch, and he smelled its smell with pleasure, and then they took the meat away to those who ate it. The elder, sitting next to the Patriarch, again forbade him, as before before the king, and said in front of everyone: “My lord, do not do this, for you will bring great reproach upon yourself.” Then the Patriarch, who could not bear this word, took a piece of meat and said: “Shut up, elder, so that I don’t hit you with it!” The elder answered: “I, my Lord, said this, seeing your mercy towards me and hoping for it; if you do not command, then I will not speak any more.” The Patriarch said: “The Holy King commanded me to eat meat, but you forbade me, and now I have no consolation except the smell of meat.” This is how my spiritual father Luke told me this. I, fearing that someone else would accept deception into my soul, before I die, I set out in writing what I know for sure.
And also about this same Patriarch, some told me that he secretly ate meat, and from this I understood: what he wrote about meat was caused by passions, just like the indulgence towards other things, towards blood and strangulated meat, which The Fryags also have it. He writes to the Patriarch of Constantinople: “In Greek soil they eat blood, and even in Constantinople itself, and you cannot prohibit it, how can you tell a flask not to eat strangled meat?” But let it be known to everyone that he writes this out of his own passionate thoughts, to the temptation and stumbling of many, as Scripture says: “Everyone is carried away and enticed by his own lust” (see James 1:14). And the Lord Himself says: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you yourself do not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and you forbid others” (see Matt. 23:13). And he also says about those who accepted the talent and did not teach others: “Evil servant, it was fitting for you to give my silver to the merchants, and when I came, I would have taken what was mine with profit” (see Matt. 25:26-27). And the divine Chrysostom, understanding this in this way, says: “It would be fitting for you to speak and teach, and bring Me profit - instruction in good deeds. For us, who see and hear all this, what should we say or understand? For if the light that is in us is darkness, then what is the darkness (see Matt. 6:23)? And where is the word of the divine Paul, thundering: If meat causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat.(see 1 Cor. 8:13)? And he didn’t add: If righteously tempted, but anyway. And I don’t say, Chrysostom continues, meat sacrificed to idols, which is forbidden to eat for another reason, but if what is in our power and permissible tempts me, I move away from it, and not just for one day, but for the entire time of my life, as said the apostle, “I will never eat meat.”
But, as we see, the entire Antioch diocese with all the consecrated ranks of bishops, and priests, and monastics, and laymen did not want to have a Patriarch who ate meat, and considered this a temptation for themselves. However, Cyrus Peter did not pay any attention to this; it would be better to say, he despised the Apostle Paul himself, who had the mouth of Christ, interpreting whose writings, the divine Chrysostom said in the twenty-first sermon on the Epistle to the Corinthians: “Let us hear this, beloved, and let us not despise those who are tempted, and may we not lose our salvation! Do not tell me: “What does it matter if a brother is tempted, because this is not forbidden.” I’ll tell you more: if Christ Himself allowed it, but you see that someone is being harmed, then wait and do not take advantage of the permission.” And he also says in the twentieth lesson on the same epistle: “All this was said not only to them, but it is appropriate to say to us, who are careless about the salvation of our neighbor and say such satanic words: “What do I care if this one is tempted and this one perishes?” This is cruelty and extreme inhumanity." Thus, by the power and action of the apostolic spirit, the divine Chrysostom legislates that which is permitted and left to our will, but brings much harm and temptation. Eating meat is not allowed to monks and is not left to the will of everyone. Not to eat meat is the law and decree of God, given before the flood, and after the flood, as it is said, Noah was allowed to eat meat out of condescension. That is why this tradition was abolished by the God-bearing fathers, and confirmed by the types not as something new and unattested, but as original and connected with the existence of the primordial Adam, and, first of all, more pleasing to God Himself than eating meat. And if this is the truth (as it is), then who can wash the monks, black as the Ethiopians, and eating meat to the temptation of the world, from vice? Where are those who now say and write that the holy Queen Theophania commanded the monks not to eat meat? Isn’t Baronius, a former Roman, shutting their mouths, who testifies in the description of 1054: “Patriarch Michael Cerularius reviles the Latins not only because they serve on unleavened bread, but also because they eat strangled meat and all unclean things, and their monks and bishops eat meat, and so on.” Blessed Queen Theophania lived in 885, and if in the days of His Holiness Patriarch Michael the monks, according to Baronius, did not eat meat, then how did they want to eat it one hundred and sixty-nine years earlier, in the days of Tsar Leo the Wise? Moreover, Cyrus Peter, arguing with the Antiochians about meat, would not have kept silent about calling the abstinence of monks from meat a tradition of women (that is, Queen Theophania), and not patristic. But he did not say this, knowing for sure that such eating of meat began in Rome, as all church teachers agree about this, and it was not abolished and stopped by Queen Theophania, but by our wise and holy fathers, and abstinence from meat began from them, more correctly to say, from the Creator of all God Himself, talking to Adam and the one who gives the law: “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb that yields seed, and every tree that has the fruit of seed in it, and it will be for you to eat” (see Gen. 1:29).”
This book was written by elder schemamonk Vasily
Extracted from the “Sling,” from the Acts of the Council convened in Kiev against the heretic Martin, from the message of His Holiness Patriarch Luke Chrysovergo of Constantinople to Metropolitan Constantine of Kiev with all the spiritual rank, where, among other things, he writes like this: “The Armenians command the monks to eat meat, but you don’t listen this Armenian teaching, for although previously Orthodox monks They ate meat, but then the holy fathers collectively forbade the monks to eat meat, and ordered those who ate it to undergo penance. And you do not allow the monks to eat meat in any way, but command them to abstain from it in every possible way and not to eat it, as we received from the fathers from ancient times and passed on to you.” In the lives of the twenty-first day of the month of July it is said: “It is also worthy to mention what was announced by God to the holy prophet Ezekiel: “If a righteous person, trusting in his righteous life, dares to commit any sin, and in that sin he will die, and he dies without repentance, then God will no longer remember all his previously righteous and godly deeds, but will be condemned for the sin in which he dies. Likewise, a lawless person who has spent his entire life in iniquities, if at his death he repents and in repentance suffers his death, then God will no longer remember all his previous iniquities, but he will be counted among the righteous” (see Ezek. 3:20; 18, 21–22)".
Translation from Church Slav. languagemade according to the edition:The life and writings of the Moldavian elder Paisius Velichkovsky. Rep. playback ed. 1847. Holy Vvedenskaya Optina Pustyn, 2001. pp. 138–164.
I always thought that monastic food was bread and water. But one day I found myself in the monastery refectory - and my opinion completely changed. I have never tasted more delicious Lenten dishes in my life. What's the secret? The monks of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, on Mount Athos, always welcome pilgrims cordially. The law of hospitality is strictly observed here - first feed, then ask questions. However, no one will bother you with questions even after dinner: everyone, they believe, has their own way to the temple.
We were not at all surprised by the modesty of the meal: bread, buckwheat, seasoned with stewed vegetables, pea soup with herbs (which you wouldn’t even look at in worldly life and certainly wouldn’t covet), baked potatoes with sauerkraut, fresh cucumbers and kvass. There were also olives (by the way, as they explained to us, they can be eaten with pits) and dry red wine (on the bottom of the mug). But the taste of these dishes... It amazed us! The most appropriate word in this case is ‘unearthly’. I asked one of the monks about this. He silently raised his eyes to the sky and quietly, without the slightest hint of didacticism or edification, answered: “It is important with what thoughts, not to mention words, a person begins preparing food and the meal itself. Here is what is written about this in the ‘Kievo-Pechersk Patericon’: ‘It was given to one old man to see how the same food differed: those who blasphemed food ate sewage, those who praised it ate honey. But when you eat or drink, glorify God, because he who blasphemes harms himself.
The sauerkraut came with carrots, beets and aromatic dill seeds. It was they who gave the familiar to us Russians winter preparation amazing taste. And, as the monks said, such cabbage is very useful for good stomach function. Above the mounds of cabbage, laid out in simple aluminum bowls, towered a sparkling, glossy soaked apple. Several of these apples must be placed in each tub when sauerkraut is sauerkraut. They also give it a special aroma.
Meat delicacies and baked goods are not for Athonite monks. In their opinion, gluttony is a dangerous trait that entails physical illness and various mental illnesses. Fatty foods ‘salt the soul’, and sauces and canned food ‘thin the body’. For Athonite monks, eating is a spiritual process, somewhat of a ritual act. Prayer - while preparing a particular dish (in this case it will definitely succeed), short prayer before sitting down to the table, prayer after eating food. And the very furnishings of the spacious and bright refectory, the walls and ceiling of which are painted with paintings of biblical scenes, turns a modest monastic dinner into festive feast and a feast for the soul. “So a layman’s kitchen,” the monk told me, “should not be a place of family squabbles and political discussions, but just a refectory.”
Most recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Goritsky Resurrection Convent, which opened in 1999. Sisters Yulia and Nadezhda carried out obedience in the monastery refectory. They were young, each of them hardly looked like they were a little over twenty, but they managed with kitchen utensils confidently and without fuss. New items of technological progress, such as mixers and vegetable cutters, have bypassed these holy places. The nuns do everything themselves: they knead the dough in large vats with their hands, and churn the butter with hand buttermilk. And the monastic meal is prepared not on gas in a non-stick cookware, but on a wood-burning stove, in cast iron pots. That’s why, the nuns say, it turns out more tasty, rich and aromatic.
I watched the youngest Nadezhda shredding cabbage and admired: the strips were very thin, one to one, as if each one had been measured out. She lightly salted it, sprinkled it with vegetable oil, put a flower made of beads of thawed cranberries and sprigs of dill on top - not a dish, but a picture, it’s a shame to even eat it, and put it aside with the words; ‘Let the cabbage give juice, then you can put it on the table.’
I heard somewhere that monks should not arrange their meals beautifully, so I asked Sister Nadezhda about this. “Well,” she answered, “God cannot be against beauty, as long as it comes from a pure heart, does not become an end in itself and does not lead to bitterness if something does not work out.” “In general, I noticed,” she added, “that I began to cook very well here, although I had never studied it, and had not yet accumulated much worldly culinary wisdom. It’s just that when you have peace in your soul and love for the world and those who live in it, everything you do turns out well.”
As she spoke, she was cutting up a herring to prepare a jellied herring made from salted herring, chopped with mushrooms. The nun soaked white dried mushrooms in advance cold water and now she put them on the fire. After they were cooked, I passed them through a meat grinder and mixed them with finely chopped herring fillets. She added black pepper and chopped onion to the minced meat and... began to paint a new culinary still life. I formed a herring from the prepared minced meat, carefully placed the head and tail, placed small parsley around it, small jugs of boiled carrots and filled everything with mushroom broth mixed with swollen gelatin. The result was a lake with delicious fish inside.
“You can,” she said, seeing my enthusiastic look, “decorate your dish as you wish.” Yes, and it is not necessary to cook it using dried mushrooms. It’s just that my sisters and I collected so many of them over the summer and fall... And if you don’t have dried ones, take regular champignons. Although, in my opinion, not a single mushroom grown in captivity can compare with forest mushrooms. They give off such a spirit!.. It must be said that the dinner for which Sister Nadezhda prepared her “culinary masterpieces” was not a festive one, and among the guests there were only a few travelers like me, who were real It’s a stretch to call them pilgrims. But here everyone is accepted and they don’t ask how strong your faith is: if you came, it means your soul is asking.
In addition to the aspic, Nadezhda prepared several more unusual mushroom dishes. For example, mushroom cheese, caviar and some incredibly tasty cold snack. Dried mushrooms for it are soaked in water for an hour, and then boiled in salted water until tender. They, as the nuns said, can be replaced with fresh ones: champignons or oyster mushrooms. In this case, just boil the mushrooms, chop finely, mix with chopped onions, add salt if necessary and pour over the sauce. It is prepared from grated horseradish, diluted with a small amount of strong bread kvass and mushroom broth. The dish is not spicy, but only with a slight aftertaste of horseradish, which should not overwhelm the taste of the mushrooms.
Among the cold appetizers on the table there were also boiled beets hot sauce, prepared from boiled egg yolks, grated horseradish and vegetable oil. This dish was familiar to me, but this was the first time I tried boiled beans fried in oil - very tasty. The dish, as my sisters told me, is simple to prepare, but takes quite a long time. The beans must first be soaked in water for 6-10 hours, then boiled in salted water until tender, but so as not to boil, drain in a colander, lightly dry in the fresh air and only then fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. A couple of minutes before it’s ready, add it to the cauldron. sauteed onion, salt, season with spices to taste and remove from heat. The beans are served cold.
While Nadezhda was conjuring (although this word is not very suitable for a nun) over cold dishes, Yulia was preparing the first and second. For starters there was monastery borscht with beans and kalya (soup cooked in cucumber brine) with fish. For the second course - pilaf with vegetables and raisins, lean cabbage rolls, pumpkin perepecha - something like pumpkin casserole with rice: pumpkin and rice for this dish are first boiled separately from each other, then mixed, and separately beaten whites and yolks are added to the minced meat and put everything in a greased form. It turns out something between baked goods and a main course. For dessert, the sisters prepared a pie with apples and pies with poppy seeds and honey - makovniki. And although the dough was kneaded without using butter, it turned out fluffy, tender, and the filling... Baking with poppy seeds is generally my weakness.
As you can see, the nuns had a meal and treated the pilgrims without any meat at all. But believe me, we didn’t even notice it. On fasting days, the number of dishes on the table, as the nuns said, decreases, fish, eggs, and dairy products disappear. But the meal does not become less tasty and, of course, remains just as satisfying.
Saying goodbye to the hospitable sisters, I asked if they had heard of the ‘Angel Curls’ jam? They say that the Virgin Mary gave this recipe to the abbess of one of the Spanish monasteries on the night before Christmas. Pumpkin fibers (in which the seeds are hidden) are boiled in sugar syrup along with pureed hazelnuts. ‘No,’ said the nuns, ‘we haven’t heard, but we also make jam from pumpkin fibers, which most housewives simply throw away. You just need to separate the fibers from the pulp and seeds, dry them slightly (air dry). Prepare sugar syrup, pour it over the fibers, leave for a day, and then cook like our jams - for five minutes: 3-4 times for five to seven minutes, (It is important after each cooking to completely cool the jam and only then put it on the fire again.)' Try to cook it too homemade monastery cuisine. Perhaps then the upcoming post will not seem so bland and difficult.