Recovering the Lost Art of Fasting in the Christian West
Recovering the Lost Art of Fasting in the Christian West
The History of Christian Fasting (Part 2)
“There is no island, no continent, no city or nation, no distant corner of the globe, where the proclamation of [the] Lenten fast is not listened to. Armies on the march and travelers on the road, sailors as well as merchants, all alike hear the announcement and receive it with joy. Let no man then separate himself from the number of fasters, in which every race of mankind, every period of life, every class of society is included.” -St. Basil the Great (4th century)
Sadly today, many Western Christians (both Catholics & Protestants alike) do not fast like their ancestors did in the faith. Many Protestants gave up fasting at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, protested the fasting traditions of Rome by publicly eating sausages on the first Sunday of Lent to show his new freedom from the ‘Papists.’ In reality, he was breaking with Apostolic Tradition and the fasting program of the whole Christian world!
Lent used to begin the day after ‘Carnival’ or Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) when Christians would eat the last of the ‘carne’ or ‘flesh meat’ in the home before Ash Wednesday. This day would slowly lose its original meaning as fasting rules began to ease in the Catholic Church particularly in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Here is a short list (organized by author, Matthew Plese) of some of the most significant changes that have led us to the present moment:
1741 AD: “Pope Benedict XIV issued Non Ambiginius, which granted permission to eat meat on fasting days (except for Wednesdays and Fridays).”1
1886 AD: “Leo XIII allowed meat, eggs, and milk products on Sundays of Lent and at the main meal on every weekday [of Lent] except Wednesday and Friday in the [United States].”
1917 AD: “Effective per the 1917 Code of Canon law, the Wednesdays and Fridays of Advent were no longer fast days for the Universal Church… And eggs and milk (i.e., lacticinia) became universally permitted.”
1941 AD “Pope Pius XII allowed bishops worldwide to dispense entirely from fast and abstinence except on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, provided that there was abstinence from meat every Friday, and fast and abstinence on these two days and the vigil of the Assumption and Christmas. Eggs and milk products were permitted at breakfast and in the evening.”
1966 AD (Spring) “On February 17, 1966, Pope Paul VI published an apostolic constitution on fasting and abstaining, called Paenitemini. Its principles were later incorporated into the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Paenitemini allowed the commutation of the Friday abstinence to an act of penance at the discretion of the local ordinaries, and gave authority to the episcopal conferences on how the universal rules would be applied in their region. Abstinence, which previously began at age 7, was modified to begin at age 14. Additionally, the obligation of fasting on the Ember Days and on the remaining Vigils was abolished. Paenitemini maintained the traditional practice that “abstinence is to be observed on every Friday which does not fall on a day of obligation.”
1966 AD (Fall) “The NCCB then issued a statement on November 18, 1966. Abstinence was made obligatory only on all the Fridays of Lent, except Solemnities (i.e., First Class Feasts), on Ash Wednesday, and on Good Friday. Abstinence on all the other Fridays throughout the year was “especially recommended”; and the faithful who did choose to eat meat were directed to perform an alternative penance on those Fridays outside of Lent, even though the U.S. bishops removed the long-established precept of requiring Friday penance.”
1983 AD “Per the 1983 Code of Canon Law, fasting and complete abstinence are required only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The notion of “partial abstinence,” introduced under Pope Benedict XIV in 1741, was also removed along with nearly all fast days
Many Catholics simply took full advantage of these new exceptions and forgot their inheritance. By 1983, Catholics were essentially fasting like Protestants in contrast to Christians in the East or the saints of old. For centuries, much poorer Christians would not eat their first meal on a fast day until sunset. Eventually this changed to 3pm and then noon. (Middle Eastern ‘Syriac’ Christians still have this tradition among them of fasting until sunset, and it is the regular practice of Muslims who received it from the Middle Eastern Christians).
Concerning fasting in the modern era, Pope St. Paul VI in 1966 limited fasting to only two days in Lent (Ash Wednesday & Good Friday), and these regulations allow you to still eat a full meal with two small ones! Honestly, this regulation is barely fasting, and I encourage most people to give up at least half of the calories they normally consume.
Concerning abstinence from meat in the modern era, many Christians abstain from land animals on Fridays during Lent, which can be sacrificial. However, many of us have found ways to really still feast compared to our ancestors. The Filet-O-Fish by Mcdonald’s was specifically marketed towards Catholics who were abstaining on Fridays. There are also plenty of light-hearted memes on social media that ‘make fun’ of this phenomenon of feasting on fried foods with a pint of beer on during the Friday Fast:
Overall, the Christian West of modern times has neglected its inheritance of fasting handed down by the saints and fathers of the church. This has caused many Christians to falter in the modern age, because we need fasting to wage war against the Kingdom of darkness.
Facing East to Restore the West
Recently, I had a former Catholic seminarian contact me to describe this massive change in the fasting during the 1960s and what sort of damage it caused to his own spiritual life and the American Catholic Church as a whole at the time. He writes,