ABOUT THE HOLY PASCHAL TABLES AND THE CHURCH CALENDAR
MESSAGE OF THE BISHOPS’
COUNCIL OF THE ANCIENT-ORTHODOX
CHURCH
“Remember
the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he
will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee” (Deuteronomy 32:7)
“Remove
not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set” (Proverbs 22:28)
“Now
I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the
ordinances, as I delivered them to you” (1 Corinthians 11:2)
“Therefore,
brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught,
whether by word, or our epistle”
(2 Thessalonians 2:15)
The Orthodox Archpriest, being
by his duty of service the defender of the faith and the guardian of it from
any encroachment by various heretics, as a skilful doctor should not only treat
ailments affecting the church body but should also do his best to completely
disallow any pernicious contagion of heresy into the Church. Of special
importance it is nowadays when the Ancient-Orthodox
Church
In our opinion, one of such
dangers is the issue related to the so-called calendar reform which was started
by the Roman Catholic Church in the late XVI century and after various
metamorphoses has spread throughout the world and is now universally used by
the majority of other religious confessions.
The history of this issue is
as follows.
The main solemn festival celebrated
by the Church is the feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Christ –Holy Pasch.
Initially the tradition of celebrating the Holy Pasch festival had no canon but
the Christians of many countries celebrated it in different ways and in
different times.
The absence of the uniformity
in such an issue, so important for all Christians, causing heated debates over
the supremacy of this or that local tradition relating to the time of
celebrating the Pasch, was the reason for concern of both the ecclesiastic hierarchy
and the secular authorities: “And let
your Holinesses' sagacity reflect - wrote Saint Emperor Constantine the
Great to the bishops, - how grievous and
scandalous it is that on the self-same days some should be engaged in fasting,
others in festive enjoyment; and again, that after the days of the Pasch some
should be present at banquets and amusements, while others are fulfilling the
appointed fasts”.
In the year of 325 the Emperor
Constantine the Great summoned in the city of Nicea Roman Empire
by the Emperor Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.
As the celebration of the Pasch
and preparation for it are the remembrance of the Evangelic events related to
the last days of the earthly life of Christ the Saviour and His Resurrection
from the dead were preceded by the Judaic Passover, the holy fathers ruled so
as to retain the sequence of these events in celebrating the Pasch of Christ.
It was resolved to celebrate the Pasch of Christ on the first Sunday after the
Judaic Passover and since it is celebrated by the Jews beginning on the 14th day of the spring month
of Nisan, it is dependent on the lunar calendar and is a moveable feast, therefore
the feast of the Pasch of Christ also became moveable. This canon of the feast
became common for the entire Church: “At
this meeting the question concerning the most holy day of the Pasch was
discussed, and it was resolved by the united judgment of all present, that this
feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day. For
what can be more becoming or honourable to us than that this feast from which
we date our hopes of immortality, should be observed unfailingly by all alike,
according to one ascertained order and arrangement?” (the Saint Emperor
Constantine the Great, letter to the Bishops who did not attend the Council).
The Ruling of the First Ecumenical
Council that the Pasch of Christ should not precede the Judaic Passover or
coincide with the same was repeated and confirmed by canon i of the Council of
Antioch: “Before the devout Emperor
Constantine, beloved of God, the Council of Nicaea
Thus, the Church Calendar and
the Paschal Tables have received the status of the dogmatic ruling of the
Orthodox Church. They have existed for over a thousand years in this format.
The uniformity of celebrating
the Pasch was violated in 1582 by the reform of Pope Gregory XIII. The
commission of the papal astronomers ruled inexact the acting Paschal Tables
from the point of view of the secular science which caused the reform of the
Paschal Tables necessary in the opinion of this commission and the reform of
the Church Calendar which unavoidably accompanied this reform.
The false ecclesiastical
reason – to amend the Paschal Tables, i.e. the date of celebrating the Pasch -
was declared as the official purpose of the calendar reform. As it has been
said before, the First Ecumenical Council ruled to celebrate the Pasch on the
first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. However, the
papal astronomers noted that by the XVI century the vernal equinox had moved by
10 days and fell on March 11, whereas in the IV century it had fallen on March
21. To move it to its former place the reformers moved the calendar by 10 days.
Thus speaks the text of the bulla (edict) of Pope
Gregory XIII «Inter Gravissimas»[1] of
February 24, 1582 which became the basis for the calendar reform: “Therefore we took care not only that the
vernal equinox returns on its former date, of which it has already deviated
approximately ten days since the Council of Nicaea, and so that the fourteenth
day of the Paschal moon is given its rightful place, from which it is now
distant four days and more, but also that there is founded a methodical and
rational system which ensures, in the future, that the equinox and the
fourteenth day of the moon do not move from their appropriate positions”.
But the result of the calendar
reform was not just the one as the papal scientists had envisaged. Wishing to
obtain the astronomical exactitude from the Church Calendar the Catholics
subsequently defied the ruling of the Council of Nicaea about celebration of
the Pasch. The era under the Gregorian calendar resulted in that the Catholics
started celebrating the Christian Pasch either before or at the same time with
the Judaic Passover, which, as has been already said, is absolutely prohibited
by the canonical rules. It should be noted that the Orthodox Paschal Tables so
wisely designed by the holy fathers by the prompting of the Holy Spirit in
principle disallowed precedence of the Judaic Passover which testifies to the
wisdom of the fathers of the First Ecumenical Council and how spiritlessly and
blindly was the arrogant sophistication of the papal scientists– “unruly and vain talkers and deceivers”
(Titus 1:10), - for it is written: “I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:19-21).
Having fallen away in the XI
century from the Church of Christ the papists, carried by the pestilence of
Modernism and innumerable heresies absorbed by them, cheekily grasped the right
and the possibility, which is even more laughable, to stop the movement of
celestial bodies, subdue to their whim the order of natural phenomena
established by God: “which ensures, in
the future, that the equinox and the fourteenth day of the moon do not move
from their appropriate positions”. They decided that they could command the natural elements and subdue
to their wish the order of things established by God and obedient only to Him
having forgotten the Scripture’s writing that “there is nothing better for a
man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy
good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God”
(Ecclesiastes 2:24); “Thus saith the
LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon
and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves
thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name” (Jeremiah 31:35).
And God humbled these
reformers – “the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27). At least in Russia upon the initiative of the Russian
Astronomic Society in 1899 a special Commission
was established to consider the issue of the calendar reform in Russia Russian Universities Russia
and all Eastern Europe . It was admitted that
the Gregorian calendar is neither more exact nor better than the Julian
calendar; on the contrary, it is not justified astronomically, is illegal from
the religious and canonical point of view and is useless from the historical
point of view. Thus, Russia
And truly, as it has already
been said above, the reformers lacked wisdom and had excessive wiles. They had
been preparing the calendar reform for quite a long time. The first to call for
the calendar amendment was Pope Clement VI in the XIV century. In 1437 the
Calendar issue was discussed by the Catholics at the Council of Basel. In 1475
Pope Sixtus IV tried to implement the calendar reform but due to various
circumstances the reform did not occur. In the XVI century the Catholics again
spoke with new zeal about the calendar reform. This issue was the subject for
discussion at the Lateran Council (1512–1517) and the Council of Trent
(1545–1563). In 1514 the Lateran Council invited the famous Polish astronomer
Nicolas Copernicus to join the calendar commission. But Copernicus refused
believing the calendar reform irrelevant. Yet, Popes Paul III and Pius IV had
tried to implement the calendar reform before Gregory XIII but without result.
In this issue Pope Gregory turned out to be more successful than his
predecessors – by violence, under the threat of excommunication from the Church of Christ
All this calendar reform in
reality had the nature of a large-scale spiritual subversion against Orthodoxy.
Upon the prompting of Jesuits the Polish King Stefan Batory tried to implement
the new calendar by force in the Western Russian Orthodox Church. Jesuits
believed that the transfer to the new calendar would unavoidably facilitate the
conclusion of the Union between the Orthodox
and the Roman Catholics. But even before that, under the threat of
excommunication the new calendar was imposed in all Catholic countries.
Somewhat later, the Protestant states also adopted the new calendar. Using the
calendar reform the Catholic Church yet another time tried to subdue the entire
Christian world.
The Orthodox Hierarchs unerringly
identified the true purposes of the reformers, thus, both the Gregorian calendar
and the Paschal Tables were flatly renounced by the Orthodox Church. In 1583
the Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremiah II, jointly with the Patriarch of
Alexandria Sylvester and the Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius VI, summoned the
Great Ecumenical Council where the Gregorian calendar was renounced as a
novelty contrary to the canons of the Orthodox Church and violating the rule of the First Ecumenical
Council about the calculation of the day of the Holy Pasch, and those
Christians who by any way would facilitate the penetration of the Catholic
novelty into the Church of Christ were subjected by the Council to
excommunication – anathema: “Since the
church of ancient Rome, which, as if glad for the vanity of its astronomers,
unctuously changed most beautiful canons on the Holy Pasch followed and
celebrated by the Christians of the entire world as had been established and,
hence, become the subject for abomination for our Modesty Armenian people
stood, asking about the practice of celebration, since they as well are being
forced to accept these novelties. That is why we had to say what the Holy
Fathers established. Our Modesty, considering this issue, together with the
Most blessed Patriarch of Alexandria and the Most blessed Patriarch of
Jerusalem and other Synod members, in the Holy Spirit, clarifying what on this
subject the Holy Fathers decided, decrees. He who does not fallow the Church
traditions as they were handed down to us by the Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils
concerning the Holy Pasch and the calendar which established them for us to
follow, but wishes to follow the Gregorian Paschal Tables and the Calendar, he,
like the godless astronomers, is in violation of all the Holy Synod decrees and
seeks to change or weaken them – Anathema to him, excommunication from the
Church of Christ and gathering of the faithful. You, the Orthodox and blessed
Christians dwell in what you were taught, in what you were born and in what you
were reared, and when necessary you would shed your blood to save the holy
fathers’ faith and confession. Protect yourselves and be on guard against these,
and may our Lord Jesus Christ help you and the prayer of our Modesty be with
you. Amen”.
Just as the Council of the Russian Church 1621 in
the Collection of Heresies of the Roman Catholics decreed: “About the new calendar. During the seventh thousand of years
during the reign of the King and Great Prince Ivan the Great, the King of all
Russia, after the Polish King Stefan Batory returned from Pskov he, together
with the Pope of Rome and rulers of other Western countries, changed the
calendar and the Christian Paschal Tables having thus adopted new rules for
themselves. Hence, the difference appeared between their Pasch and the Pasch of
five ecumenical patriarchs sometimes being earlier, sometimes being later.
Often their Pasch also coincides with the Judaic Passover. While all the Church
canons testify to the contrary: “he who celebrates the Pasch with the Jews be
cursed”; “And Romans and many other advocates of Latin heresies… perverted the Pasch,
during the reign of King Ivan since King Stefan had moved away from Pskov. It
happened quite recently, not more than forty years ago. Until this year of 1729
their Pasch many times coincided with the Judaic Passover. And the 7th canon of
the Holy Apostles condemns them for such: “If any Bishop, or Presbyter, or Deacon
celebrates the holy day of the Pasch before the vernal equinox with the Jews,
let him be deposed”. The same says the first canon of the Council of Antioch : “Before the devout Emperor Constantine, beloved
of God, the Council of Nicaea
The calendar reform in the Western Church
was one of the consequences of the severance by the Roman Catholics of the
historical and spiritual bond with the Ancient Church
Due to the decree of the VII
Ecumenical Council one should remember the 87 and 91 canons of Saint Basil the
Great in which the holy hierarch explains that maintenance of the Church
Tradition and the ancient righteous customs inherited from the saints are as
vital as maintaining the written religious dogma: “Of the dogmas and preaching kept safely in the Church, we have some
from written doctrine, and some, from tradition handed down to us by the
Apostles, we have received in mystery, both of which have the same validity and
force as regards piety. Accordingly, no one gainsays these, at least no one
that has any experience at all in ecclesiastical matters, for if we should
undertake to discard the unwritten traditions of customs, on the score that
they have no great force, we should unwittingly damage the Gospel in its vital
parts, and should rather be left with preaching confined to the mere name”
(canon 91). “The tradition kept by us
with the power of the law as these decrees are handed over to us by the holy
fathers” (canon 87).
But the opponents of the
Church calendar are stopped by neither corrections of the holy fathers nor the
anathema of the Ecumenical Council. Wishing to plant doubt and shatter our
strictness about the issue of the calendar the heretics threaten the Christians
by the breakaway which, in their opinion, would, in comparatively remote
future, lead to the increase of the difference between the Gregorian calendar
and the Church calendar by one day. Now the difference is 13 days while in 2100
it will be 14 days, thus, Christ’s Christmas would be celebrated under the New
Style Calendar not on 7 but 8 January and the Epiphany – not on 19 but 20.
Consequently, our opponents argue, the hierarchy would face a difficult task in
explaining to the people that if we would stay loyal to the Julian calendar
such movement of dates would be unavoidable and, allegedly, this could provoke
religious dissent. The lay and secular reasoning of our
opponents evidently does not allow them to realize that the Church, living by
the Julian calendar, has celebrated and celebrates Christ’s Nativity on
December 25 and the Theophany on January 6 and nothing can impede it. Nonetheless,
the amendment of the secular calendar has no relation to the life of the
Church, thus, the increase in the difference in the calendars would in no case
be the reason for dissent for Orthodox Christians. And it is perfectly well proved
by the fact that the Church several times without any embarrassment underwent
such a situation when at its very onset the Gregorian calendar was different
from the Julian calendar by 10 days and during the past centuries this
difference increased by 3 more days. Since this increase of the difference
between the Church calendar and the Gregorian calendar caused no discord it is
hardly possible that the difference in one more day would lead to Church
disorder in the future.
Having presented the Church’s opinion
about the Gregorian calendar we shall also say a few words about the so-called
New Julian calendar which is also unacceptable to us.
The New Julian calendar was
adopted in the family of the New Believer Churches by the decree of their
Moscow Council in 1948 according to which all their Churches should celebrate the
Pasch, just as it is celebrated by us, the Ancient-Orthodox Church, according
to the Alexandrian Paschal Tables and the Julian calendar but for the fixed
date feasts every New Believer Church may use the calendar used by such Church,
also including the Gregorian calendar,. 13 out of 17 New Believer local
Churches, except the Jerusalem , Russian,
Georgian and Serbian
Churches St. Paul St. Paul Milan
The defenders of the New
Julian calendar try to justify it also by the fact that they dare to
re-interpret the absolutely clear Church canons relating to the Calendar Issue.
Thus, appealing to the decree of the Council of Eastern Patriarchs of 1583,
they state that it has no formal absolute ban for reform of the Church calendar
but only for its replacement by the Gregorian calendar. Thus, in their opinion,
application of the canons of the 1583 Council to the advocates of the New
Julian calendar is unfounded. However, such a statement of our opponents is
untrue because the decree of the 1583 Council condemns and excommunicates
anybody “who does not follow the Church
Traditions and the decrees of the seven holy Ecumenical Councils about the Holy
Pasch and the calendar which we are to lawfully follow”. It is known that
the Holy Church in the person of the Ecumenical Councils adopted not merely some
abstract calendar and Paschal Tables which anybody may reform proceeding from one’s
own vision of the Church’s benefit but
the direct Alexandrian Paschal Tables and the Julian calendar. Thus, the canon
of the 1583 Council condemns not only those who introduce the Gregorian
calendar and the Paschal Tables in the life of the Church but also those who in
any way encroach on the permanency of the Church Calendar and Paschal Tables.
As for all other astronomical
and mathematical arguments of our opponents we are unwilling to put them to
study at all. We are unwilling to try to understand the empty arguments of
astronomers having no relation to the Church in dealing with the accuracy and
supremacy of this or that calendar. Although, as it has already been said, Soviet
science quite proved the indefensibility of the Gregorian reform and the
erroneous nature of the new calendar compared to the old – Julian - one. We
testify that we keep and uphold the Julian calendar not for the reason of its
astronomic exactness but only for the reason that it is a part of the Church’s Holy
Tradition. The Orthodox Christians have been offering their prayers to God for
exactly 17 centuries according to the Julian calendar. Thus, the Julian
calendar spiritually unifies all the generations of the Orthodox Christians
both the living and the dead. By using the Julian calendar we share in the unbroken continuity of prayer
with the ancient holy fathers and men of faith of later times, making us aware
of the timeless life of Christ’s Church.
Preserving the Church calendar
preserves the Church’s internal life from encroachments of the external world
alien to it. The secularized world wished to impose on the Christians its
godless ideology. It tried to put into our minds the notion of the necessity of
reforming the Church, its preaching, life, re-orientation of its purposes and
objectives for the purposes of conditions and interests of this world. But the
Christian should not be like this. We need to reform ourselves not the Church
but we as individuals and our life must conform to what the Church requires because
we save not the Church by our staying in it but we hope, by fulfilling God’s commandments
and the Church canons, to gain in the Church our eternal salvation. The Church,
as the Divine, Heavenly society has not and may not have any common objectives
and tasks with the faithless or non-conformist world as we aspire to God, the
Heavenly City, whereas the secular world seeks the implementation and
satisfaction of its carnal interests and passions here, in this temporary and
brief life. Hence, the Church calendar is a strong defence against the
influence of the rational spiritless world of the external persons who do not
believe in God. By conforming our life to the
Church calendar we testify to all who are outside the Church that they are in
fact outside the Church, that they have
nothing in common with the faithful neither in prayers, nor holy festivals, nor
the promise of Our Lord.
No one in the Ancient Orthodox
Church has ever attempted to implement a similar reform. To us the very thought
of it nowadays seems utterly improbable. Nevertheless, the Gregorian calendar
and the civil calendar adopted in our country on January 26, 1918 by the decree
of the Council of the People’s Commissars have become part and parcel of the
life of all our fellow citizens, including the faithful. Thus, it is impossible
to exclude the possibility that in future somebody either due to simplicity or
ignorance or intention might try to offer the Ancient Orthodox Church the suggestion
of introducing such a calendar in its liturgical life. Possibly, due to the
superficial study of our church canons and proceeding from the usualness of the
Gregorian calendar in the civil life or for any other reason the lay
authorities too might insist on the introduction of the new calendar in our
internal liturgical life. For this very reason we thought it necessary to declare
the Church’s position about the Calendar Issue, thereby, protecting from any
encroachment the Holy Church Tradition of which the Julian calendar is a part
without any doubt whatsoever.
Having said about the relation
of the Church to the cancellation or any distortion of the Julian calendar in
the internal liturgical life we also think it expedient to explain our attitude
to the use of the Gregorian or any other calendar in the relations between the
Church and the secular society. It has already been said that we carefully keep
the Julian calendar not for its exactness or antiquity but only as the Church’s
sacred heritage received by us from the holy fathers as a shield of the Church
against the influence of any heresy and it is valuable to us only from this
point of view. And only from this point of view we do not accept any other
calendar for our liturgical practice. The Scripture teaches us that “what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law” (Romans 3:19), thus, we have neither the
wish nor the right to expand our vision about the calendar to the life of the external
world. And since the issue of the secular calendar has no immediate relation to
the spiritual life and has no special value to us as such for it is said: “One man esteemeth one day above another:
another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that
regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it” (Romans 14:5,6),
thus, we neither see anything obnoxious in the fact that the Ancient Orthodox Christians
use the calendar accepted in the country of their residence in their relations
with the external world. Moreover, we believe it unacceptable for Christians to
enter into disputes with the authorities about this issue, thus, causing
without any justification the negative attitude of the external world to the
entire Church. It is just one of those cases about which Christ the Saviour
Himself said: “Render therefore unto
Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's”
(Matthew 22:21). Thus, conforming ourselves in the secular matters to the
calendar accepted in this or that country of our residence we “Render therefore unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar's”. And invariably keeping and protecting the Julian
calendar in the liturgical life we “render
unto God the things that are God's”.
Using the above said as the
foundation, we, bishops of the Ancient Orthodox Church, having joined together,
profess and preach to all sons of the Church believing in Christ our oneness
with the previous Councils and fathers and repeat after them the anathema against
any person attempting to introduce in
the life of the Church any calendar or Paschal Tables different from those that
we have inherited from the Nicaean fathers.
The
city of Moscow
25
(12) December 2009
For
the memory of our venerable and godly father
Spyridon
the Wonderworker, Bishop of Trimithunt
ALEXANDER, the Patriarch
of Moscow and all Russia
PAVEL, the Archbishop of
Tbilisi and all Georgia
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ALEXANDER (RAZUVANOV), the
priest and representative of His Eminence Joseph, the Bishop of
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VASILIY, the Bishop of Poti
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SERGIY,
the Bishop of
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MIKHAIL,
the Bishop of Mtskheta
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SAVIN,
the Bishop of
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GEORGIY (NOVIKOV), the priest and representative of His
Eminence Jacob, the Bishop of Sion and
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VASILIY,
the Bishop of
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[1]
This papal bulla is thus named after the first two words in the text which may
be translated as “Among the vital tasks…”
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