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| Chapter IX. The reason why a Vigil is appointed as the Sabbath day dawns, and why a dispensation from fasting is enjoyed on the Sabbath all through the East.
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Chapter IX.
The reason why a Vigil is appointed as the Sabbath day
dawns, and why a dispensation from fasting is enjoyed on the Sabbath
all through the East.
And throughout the whole
of the East it has been settled, ever since the time of the preaching
of the Apostles, when the Christian faith and religion was founded,
that these Vigils should be celebrated as the Sabbath dawns,749
| 749 The observance of a
vigil for the whole or greater part of the night was a regular part of
the preparation for the greater festivals, and as such was usual in the
East before the Sabbath (Saturday) and Lord’s Day, as well as
Pentecost and Easter. See Socrates, H. E. VI. viii., where there is an
allusion to this. | for this reason,—because, when our
Lord and Saviour had been crucified on the sixth day of the week, the
disciples, overwhelmed by the freshness of His sufferings, remained
watching throughout the whole night, giving no rest or sleep to their
eyes. Wherefore, since that time, a service of Vigils has been
appointed for this night, and is still observed in the same way up to
the present day all through the East. And so, after the exertion of the
Vigil, a dispensation from fasting, appointed in like manner for the
Sabbath by apostolic men,750
| 750 Saturday, as well
as Sunday, was long regarded as a festival in the East, and, indeed,
originally in most churches of the West as well. See the Apost.
Const. II. lix. 1; VIII. xxxiii. 1. Apost. Canons lxvi.;
Council of Laodicæa, Canons xvi., xlix., li. | is not without
reason enjoined in all the churches of the East, in accordance with
that saying of Ecclesiastes, which, although it has another and a
mystical sense, is not misapplied to this, by which we are charged to
give to both days—that is, to the seventh and eighth
equally—the same share of the service, as it says: “Give a
portion to these seven and also to these eight.”751
For this dispensation from fasting must not
be understood as a participation in the Jewish festival by those above
all who are shown to be free from all Jewish superstition, but as
contributing to that rest of the wearied body of which we have spoken;
which, as it fasts continually for five days in the week all through
the year, would easily be worn out and fail, unless it were revived by
an interval of at least two days.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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