Russian fasting, 1630s

[bunnyjadwiga]

Again from The travels of Olearius in Seventeenth-Century Russia, p. 269-272):

The Russian Church prescribes an extremely severe mode of fasting, which those who wish to be pious and God-fearing observe conscientiously, others less stringently. Everyone I knew, even during the journey, refused meat offered on fast days, although the foremost allowed themselves the finest fish on Wednesdays and Fridays. However, when a major fast begins, as far as one can tell from the outside, they practice great moderation in eating and avoid everything that comes from meat. Recently they have also begun to abstain from sugar (which they did not formerly consider impermissible), for some years ago a foreign merchant named Bock told the Patriarch that eggwhite was used to purify sugar.

In the course of the year they have more fast days thn days on which meat may be eaten. Besides the two fast days each week, they have the great seven-week fast in Quadrageima. It begins on Sunday [evening} of Esto mihi and runs until Easter. The first week of this fast they call Maslianitsa (Butter Week), a period during which they eat neither meat nor fish [footnote: according to Rushchinskii, Religioznyi byt russikikh po svedeniiam inostrannykh pisatelei XVI i XVII vv Moscow, 1873, p. 85 fish could be eaten during this fast-- Samuel H. Baron], but only butter, milk and eggs; however, they so indulge themselves daily on vodka, mead, and beer that they lose their heads. . . . In the succeeding weeks, they begin to conduct themselves moderately, eating only honey and garden vegetables, and drinking kvas and water; going to baths, sweating, and washing out the sins committed in the previous week; and having the priests bless them. During this period most of those who wish to be more pious do not eat fish either, except on Sunday. A second fast begins on the eighth day after Pentecost and continues until Peter and Paul Day. They call it Peter's fast. A third begins on August 1st and lasts 14 days; a fourth lasts from November 12 until Christmas. In the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, everyone eats meat, and no one does without if he has enough money. They do the same during all the holidays and on Sundays, if these do not coincide with a fast; and they count it a sin not to eat meat on these days. In Guagnino's words, they do not want to violate the apostle's rule, transmitted by Clement, that no one is to fast on Sunday...

In the course of a fast, especially the great fast when they eat neither meat nor fish and also for a period of eight days prior to the taking of communion, no one, priest or layman, may copulate with his wife, on pain of heavy fines. [Although this rule may be widely violated] I believe that neither the men nor their wives give one another away, so very little money is taken in.

During the great fast, when the time for confession approaches, some of them purchase birds, which they then set free again. They supposed that by liberating the birds they do a good deed, and that on this account God will free them from their sins.

. . . In the eight days before confession they are supposed to chastise the body with severe fasting, taking nothing but hard bread and kvas, and sour drinks that give them a stomach ache and make them somewhat ill . . .

. . . As Holy communion may not be taken on days when meat is eaten, the would-be communicant must abstain from meat, even if it is not a fast day. . ."

It appears that while the tradition of fasting had begun to fade in Protestant countries and even in Roman Catholic countries it had loosened by the 17th century, in Russia the traditions remained strong and somewhat severe, even if it they were broken.