[Note: AN Excerpt from The
Rudder, Orthodox Christian Education Society, 1983, p. 12-20]
Introduction
Gregory ascended the Papal throne (A.D. 1572)
and in cooperation with the astrologers J. Stoeffler, Regiomonus
and Aloysius Lilius effected the change of the calendar, and
changed its name to the "Gregorian." But it took 150
years to establish the new calendar in the West, during which
rivers of blood were shed, and it is even now acknowledged to be
erroneous both from the ecclesiastical and from the scientific
points of view by astronomers of the West.
Following the Holy Scriptures, tradition, and
the first Seven Ecumenical Councils, and treated these as a
criterion of the truth, the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church,
being tools of the Holy Spirit, by means of three Council
decisions (in the years 1583, 1587 and 1593) condemned and
anathematized all the innovations and heresies of the Pope that
had been introduced up to that time. The Ecclesiastical History of
Meletius, a former Metropolitan of Athens, also records the fact
concerning their rejection of the Gregorian Calendar introduced by
the Pope. In Vol. III, 1 402 of this luminous work, we read the
following: "During the patriarchate of Jeremiah a council of
metropolitans met in Constantinople in A.D. 1583, attended also by
Sylvester of Alexandria, which condemned the calendar
introduced as an innovation by Gregory of Rome, refusing the
accept it in compliance with the request of the Latins."
In the Ecclesiastical History of Philaretus
Bapheides, Metropolitan of Didymoteichus, we read the following
(Vol. III, p. 124-5): "When towards the end of the sixteenth
century Gregory XIII with the help of the Calabrian astronomer
Louis Lily reformed the Julian calendar and introduced what was
thus called the Gregorian calendar on the 5th day of October,
1582, counting the 5th day of October as the 15th, he desired to
have other churches accept it. Inasmuch as the Protestants refused
at first to accept it, he sent an embassy to Jeremiah II with
gifts, entreating him to approve acceptance of the correction. In
view of the difficulties involved in in applying the correction in
practice, he rejected the Pope's proposal, and in common with
Sylvester of Alexandria he issued in 1583 a letter in which, by
reference to the instructions contained in the four ordinances of
the Nicene Council concerning the feast of Easter, he pointed out
the defects of the Gregorian calendar. This letter was written in
consequence of the Council held in Constantinople in that year,
which principally condemned the Gregorian calendar." (See in
adddition Dositheus, volume on Love, p. 538; M. Gideon, Canonical
Ordinances, I, p. 34; Hypsilantes, p. 111; Heineccius, III, p.
180; and Sathas, in the above.)
The
Decrees of the Pan-Orthodox Councils of 1583 and 1593
In accordance, therefore, with these
testimonies and many others concerning the aforementioned Council
and its ordinances, a letter, or bull (sigillion), on the part of
the attending patriarchs and other prelates, was issues by which
bull the new calendar of Pope Gregory of Rome was condemned. The
foregoing sigillion (bull), issued after a conciliar conference in
the year 1583, and dated the same year, i.e., 1583 of 12 years of
indiction, November 20th, and bearing the signatures of the
patriarchs and other prelates already referred to, appears in the
MS Codex No. 772 of the Sacred Monastery of St. Panteleimon (of
the Holy Mountain, or Mt. Athos). In this sigillion, besides other
things, there is contained an anathema of Orthodoxy against the
"Papal calendar" and the new paschalion (i.e., Easter
reckoner). This sigillion is also found together with the anathema
in it in the MS Codex No. 285 of the cell named "The Akathist
Hymn" of the Saced Hermitage of Causocalyvia of the Holy
Mountain (Mt. Athos). This sigillion was sent to all Orthodox
churches by Patriarch Jeremiah. The text of the sigillion in
question is as follows:
SIGILLION
of the Patriarchal
formulation of an encyclical to Orthodox Christians
throughout the world not to accept the modernistic Paschalion,
or calendar
of the innovated Menologion, but to keep what was once
for all and well-
formulated by the three hundred and eighteen Holy God-bearing
Fathers
of the First Ecumenical Council, under penalty of penance and
anathema.
To all the genuine Christian children of the
Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ of the East
residing in Trigovysti and throughout the world, be grace and
peace and mercy from God Almighty.
No small turbulence overtook that ancient
Ark, when, violently beset by billows, it floated upon the
surface of the waters, and had not the Lord God remembered Noah
and seen fit to still the water, there would have been no hope
for it at all. Thus also in regard to the New Ark of our Church,
against which misbelievers have launched an implacable war upon
us, by means of these presents we have decided to leave a note
that you may have in what is herein written the means of
upholding and defending your Orthodoxy against such enemies more
safely and surely. But, lest the composition as a whole be weary
to the simpler folks, we have decided to embody the matter in
common language, wording it as follows (in Common Language):
From old Rome have come certain persons who
learned there to wear Latin habits. The worst of it is how, from
being Romans of Rumelia bred and born, they not only have
changed their faith, but they even wage war upon the Orthodox
dogmas and truths of the Eastern Church which have been
delivered to us by Christ and the divine Apostles and the Holy
Councils of the Holy Fathers. Therefore, cutting off these
persons as rotten members, we command:
1) That whoever does not confess with heart
and mouth that he is a child of the Eastern Church baptized in
Orthodox style, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds out of only
the Father, essentially and hypostatically, as Christ says in
the Gospel, shall be outside of our Church and shall be
anathematized.
2) That whoever does not confess that at the
Mystery of the Holy Communion the laity must also partake of
both kinds, of the Precious Body and Blood, but instead says
that he will partake only of the body, and that that is
sufficient because therein is both flesh and blood, when as a
matter of fact Christ died and administered each separately, and
they who fail to keep such customs, let all such persons be
anathematized.
3) That whoever says that our Lord Jesus
Christ at the Mystic Supper had unleavened bread (made without
yeast), like that of the Jews, and not leavened bread, that is
to say, bread raised with yeast, let him depart far away from us
and let him be anathema as one having Jewish views and those of
Apollinarius and bringing dogmas of the Armenians into the
Church, on which account let him be doubly anathema.
4) Whoever says that our Christ and God, when
he comes to judge us, does not come to judge souls together with
bodies, or embodied souls, but instead comes to sentence only
bodies, let him be anathema.
5) Whoever says that the souls of Christians
who repented while in the world but failed to perform their
penance go to a purgatory of fire when they die, where there is
flame and punishment, and are purified, which is simply an
ancient Greek myth, and those who, like Origen, think that hell
is not everlasting, and thereby afford or offer the liberty or
incentive to sin, let him and all such persons be anathema.
6) That whoever says that the Pope is the
head of the Church, and not Christ, and that he has authority to
admit persons to Paradise with his letters of indulgence or
other passports, and can forgive sins as many as a person may
commit if such person pay money to receive from him indulgences,
i.e. licenses to sin, let every such person be anathema.
7) That whoever does not follow the customs
of the Church as the Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils decreed, and
Holy Pascha, and the Menologion with which they did well in
making it a law that we should follow it, and wishes to follow
the newly-invented Paschalion and the New Menologion of the
atheist astronomers of the Pope, and opposes all those things
and wishes to overthrow and destroy the dogmas and customs of
the Church which have been handed down by our fathers, let him
suffer anathema and be put out of the Church of Christ and out
of the Congregation of the Faithful.
8) That ye pious and Orthodox Christians
remain faithful in what ye have been taught and have been born
and brought up in, and when the time calls for it and there be
need, that your very blood be shed in order to safeguard the
Faith handed down by our Fathers and your confession: and that
ye beware of such persons as have been described or referred to
in the foregoing paragraphs, in order that our Lord Jesus Christ
may help you and at the same time may the prayer of our
mediocrity be with all of you: amen.
Done in the year of the God-man 1583 (MDLXXXIII),
year of indiction 12, November 20.
+ Jeremiah of Constantinople
+ Sylvester of Alexandria
+ Sophronius of Jerusalem
In the presence of the rest of the prelates
at the Council.
In February of 1593, however, as we have said,
Patriarch Jeremiah convoked a second great Council in the Church
of the Comforting Theotokos (called in Greek "Theotokos
Paramythia," with the accent on the penult, which is
pronounced "-theeah"). This Council was comprised of the
patriarchs Jeremiah, Meletius Pegas of Alexandria, Joachim of
Antioch, and Sophronius of Jerusalem, and other outstanding
dignitaries of the Church. This Council too condemned the
Gregorian calendar, on the ground that it conflicts with the Canon
of the First Ecumenical Council, which prescribes that Easter be
celebrated in the interval between March 22nd and April 25th,
inclusive, and that it disrupts the unity of the Church. It was
for the sake of this unity that the First Ecumenical Council
ordained that Easter be celebrated by all Christian churches on
the same day and within the interval above defined. The eight
Canon of this Council is headed: "For exclusion of the new
calendar--that is to say, the innovation of the Latins in regard
to Easter." It begins as follows: "It is our will that
the disposition made by the Fathers in regard to Holy and Salutary
Easter remain unchanged as it is." This Canon decrees that
"all those who dare to disturb the rules of the great and
holy Ecumenical Council of Nicea, as held in the presence of the
pious and most God-beloved King Constantine in regard to the holy
feast of man-saving Easter, be excommunicated and excluded from
the Church," etc.
The
Institution of the Calendar by God
With respect to the calendar, Holy Scripture,
the infallible word of eternal God, teaches us the following: God
Himself had taught His faithful servant Moses legal worship and
the other ordinances, and through him had given to the sons of
Israel an INFALLIBLE CALENDAR, wherein He defined the first day of
the month of Nisan, or March, and the cycle of the year. "And
the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be
the first month of the year to you. Speak unto all the
congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth day of this month let
them each take a sheep... and let it be kept by you until the
fourteenth day of this month" (Exodus 12:1-6). This shows
that God Himself, the Creator of the whole universe, laid down to
Moses the beginning of the first month Abib, later called Nisan,
or March, named through him the fourteenth day, and defined the
seasons and the cycle of the year to the sons of Israel. And in
another passage God Himself says: Observe the month of Abib, and
keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God; for in the month of Abib
though camest forth out of Egypt by night" (Deuteronomy 16:1,
cf. Numbers 9:2).
On the basis of this calendar the Jews
calculate the fourteenth day of the month of March, so as to be
able to celebrate the legal Passover in remembrance of their exit
from Egypt; and the Jews have remained to this day true to that
same divine and infallible calendar of God, and infallible with
respect to the equinox (for they never celebrate Passover before
the vernal equinox) as well as in discerning the first month,
which is the first moon. That legal worship was sanctioned by the
Seventh Apostolic Canon and the definition laid down by the First
Nicene Ecumenical Council. Accordingly, the One, Holy, Catholic,
Orthodox Church has been given through the Spirit-bearing and
God-enlightened Holy Fathers an infallible calendar, not only as
regards the feast of Easter, but also as regards the feasts of the
Annunciation of the Holy Virgin and the Nativity of Christ the
Savior; and, in fact, all the events of Christianity are connected
with the Jewish calendar still in effect. This calendar, with the
additional day interpolated in leap year in accordance with the
Julian correction made by the astronomers Sosigenes in the year 48
B.C., has been followed by the entire Orthodox Church down to the
present.
The seventh Canon of the Holy Apostles says:
"If any bishop, or elder, or deacon celebrate the holy day of
Easter before the vernal equinox with the Jews, let him be deposed
from office." The first Canon of the Council of Antioch says
likewise. This agrees with the words of the Evangelist John, who
says: "Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas into the hall of
judgment. And it was early; and they themselves went not into the
judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might
eat the Passover" (John 1:27-28). This shows that the Jewish
Passover preceded and the Christian followed. This historical
order was imposed by law upon all the Church throughout the world
by the First Ecumenical Council.
The
New Calendar In the Realm of Orthodoxy
The adoption of the Gregorian calendar by the
Pope attacked the unity of the Church, and contradicted the Bible
and the Councils. In the realm of Orthodoxy it vitiates the
standard ecclesiastical Menologion of the Orthodox Church. Thus
"one woe is followed by countless others," to borrow a
Greek proverb. For example:
The Church of Greece as an innovation has
adopted the Gregorian calendar by force, but in order to avoid
transgressing the Canon of the First Ecumenical Council, it still
celebrates Easter with the Julian calendar. This it has two
calendars, resulting in violation of the Canons and in scandals
that disrupt the Church.
The feast of the Holy Apostles [Peter and Paul]
falls, as is well known, on the 29th of June. But as a result of
the change in the calendar, a curtailment of this fast is brought
about which involves a loss of 13 days, because the Sunday of All
Saints after the change comes near the 29th of June. In
consequence of this anomaly, when the year happens to be one in
which the date of Easter is far advanced (e.g., April 22), as in
1929, 1932, 1947, and 1956 [the most recent occurrence being
2002--Ed., OrthodoxFaith.com], we are forced to witness the
following comical situation. The feast of the Holy Apostles
precedes and the fast ordained for their feast follows! An
absurdity greater than which it would be hard to conceive! For the
Sunday of All Saints in the year 1929, for example, fell after
the 29th of June. This the fast of the Holy Apostles was suspended
by the votaries of the new calendar in the Church of Greece;
accordingly, the archbishop of Greece was compelled to proceed
absurdly in the year and arbitrarily to transpose the fast of the
Holy Apostles, and worst of all, to days on which fasting was not
permissible--that is to say, in the week of Pentecost. This was
necessary because of the fact that the feast of the Holy Apostles
(June 29th) came first, and after it was past then arrived the
regular day of the canonical date of the beginning of the fast for
this feast! Like putting the cart before the horse! In view of the
foregoing facts are we not justified in asking: Does not this
suspension of Sunday services and of the fast of the Holy Apostles
amount to a repudiation and overthrow of the standard
ecclesiastical Menologion? Is it not forbidden by the Canons of
the church and by the traditions of the Church? If we are to be
permitted and even allowed to modernize as we please and can rule
out Gospel passages from the ritual of the Church and abolish a
fast without having it called a reversal of all ecclesiastical
order and an abrogation of ecclesiastical traditions and canons,
and suffering the scandal of having votaries of the new calendar
standing apart from the majority of Orthodox autocephalous
churches, then what is the order which we ought to observe, what
are the traditions, what are the Canons, what is the Orthodox
procedure that we ought to follow?
During a year in which Easter falls on the 19th
day of April [2nd of May according to the new calendar--Ed., Orthodoxfaith.com],
as it did in 1926, as well as 1937, the feast of St. George (which
is April 23rd) falls on the same day as that of Lazarus. According
to the rules of the Church, on th efeast of St. George (which
according to the old calendar always falls after Easter, or, on
rare occasions, on the same day as Easter) troparia are chanted
which are connected with the preceding feast of Easter. Thus for
instance, the following troparion is chanted on the feast day of
St. George: "The splendid and divine resurrection of our Lord
hath shone forth to us as springtide... With it shines forth also
the radiant memory of the all-glorious martyr George."
Likewise on the same day the following troparion is chanted:
"Come, all of us, after celebrating the universal feast of
the cheerful and glorious resurrection, let us again celebrate the
cheerful feast of George the martyr..." Likewise it should be
borne in mind that various other resurrection troparia are
standard in the liturgy of the Orthodox Church. Now let us imagine
to ourselves the ridiculous aspect of the matter of having the
foregoing troparia chanted, and many others like them, long before
the resurrection--for they will be chanted on the day of Lazarus.
In order to prevent such a ludicrous situation, either all the
foregoing will be wiped out and replaced by )who knows what?)
makeshift troparia, or the feast itself will be transposed to
another day far later than Easter. But both these remedies are
arbitrary and anticanonical. For no one has the right to
manufacture a new liturgy or liturgical order not prescribed by
the ritual of the Orthodox Church. Would it or would it not be an
overthrow of the existing ecclesiastical edifice to do so? Would
it or would it not amount to rebellion or insurrection and to the
destruction or downfall of the ecclesiastical polity? How, then,
can it be maintained that a change of calendar in the Church,
because not involving a displacement of the feast of Easter, does
not cause disorder in the Easter Canon observances and does not
conflict with any tradition? That would be a falsehood. For it
both conflicts with the tradition of the Church and also
overthrows her entire edifice.
Easter is not a mere feast like so many other
feasts that have no effect upon other feasts. Easter is the basis
of the calendar of movable feasts of the Church called the
Heortologion. It is, in fact, the most important feast both
because it is the feast of the Resurrection and because it is the
origin, or starting-point, of the Great Paschal Cycle, otherwise
known as the Dionysian period, which was arrived at with so much
study and care by the Church in accordance with ecclesiastical
canons and ecclesiastical tradition. The entire Menologion of the
church is determined by the feast of Easter. This if the feast of
Easter remain, as it has remained unchanged, being celebrated in
agreement with the Julian calendar and in accordance with the
decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, but the rest of the Menologion
is changed, a general displacement of the adoption formalities of
the Church will result, at least as regards all those which have
been fixed upon the basis of the feast of Easter. Through a change
in the ecclesiastical calendar and its adjustment to the civil
calendar, even if the position of Easter is not changed, the
entire Paschal Cycle will nevertheless be disturbed.
Thus, according to the prevailing Paschalion
the fifty-one Sundays (excluding Easter) are all subject to the
Paschalion Cycle--that is to say, in other words, they are movable
feasts depending upon the date that Easter falls on. According to
the regulations decreed by the Church, from Easter to the Triodion
definite passage from the Gospels and from the Acts of the
Apostles are read on particular Sundays in Church. Thence to All
Saints' Day (which is the seventh Sunday after the Sunday of
Easter) are read passages from the Gospel of John. From All
Saints' Day to the Sunday preceding the Exaltation of the Cross
are read passages from the Gospel of Matthew. Likewise from the
Sunday following the Exultation of the Cross until the Sunday
preceding Christmas definite passages and excerpts from the Gospel
of Luke are read in Church, and so on.
But inasmuch as the date of the feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross, fixed on the 14th day of September, is
changed according to the new calendar and displaced 13 days away
from where it has always stood in the calendar year, the
consequence is that the number of Sundays from All Saints' Day to
the Sunday preceding the Exaltation of the Cross is two less.
Owing to this curtailment of the number of Sundays by omission of
two Sundays, the Gospel passages belongign to these two Sundays,
and the exceprts from the Acts of the Apsotles connected therwith,
as well asthe corresponding Tones (i.e., Tunes, or, as they are
ccalled in Greek, Echoi) of the ecclesiastical Hymns and even the
Troparia are stricken out. On the othe rhand, there is a
corresponding increase in the number of Sundays from the Sunday
preceding Christmas to the superventing Triodion by reason of the
addition of thirteen days. Accordingly, we are encumbered with a
Sunday that is not even accounted for in the ecclesiastical
Paschalion. Thus there are cogent reasons which make it imperative
for the free and responsible ego of every member of the Orthodox
Church to boserve the Julian calendar. For a full discussion in
extenso of this intricate question see all the sermons and
opiniosn of the numerous Fathers of the Church justifying the
observance of the Julian calendar, collected and published in the
book entitled "The Real Truth concerning the Ecclesiastical
Calendar," originally published as a series of studies on the
subject in the newspaper "Skrip" of Athens, Greece, and
reprinted in 1929 (in Athens, as a book of 224 pages anonymously)
[and again in 2000 by the Holy Metropolis of Mesogaea and
Laureotike--Ed., OrthdooxFaith.com].
Why
the Julian (Old) Calendar Is Preferable
The calendar provided by the Fathers of the
Church is consequently preferable because:
1. With great exactitude it conforms with the
rule of the First Nicene Ecumenical Council word for word, just as
it is recorded in the minutes of the Council--which relates, that
is to say, the manner in which the one Church of Christ can each
year ascertain and celebrate the day of His resurrection, in order
that it may be simultaneously celebrated on earth by the Church
Militant of Christ and in heaven by the Church of the first-born,
on one and the same day of each year.
2. It conforms likewise with exactitude to the
seventh Canon of the Apostles: "For you brethren, it is
necessary to make all the dates of Easter with the greatest
possible diligence and carefulness fall after the equinoctial
traverse, lest twice in the same year ye commemorate one and the
same event, but so that ye fail not to celebrate once a year the
resurrection of one who died but once."
3. Christian Easter is never celebrated before
Legal Passover, but always after the Passover of the Jews/ This is
done in order to have the TYPE precede the ANTI-TYPE--that is to
say, more explicitly speaking, to have the slaughter of the lamb
come first, and afterwards that which it typifies, to wit, the
death of the Lord and His resurrection.
4. The Church thereby avoids celebrating the
feast together with the Jews who crucified the Lord of glory.
5. It always observes the rule pertaining to
the fixing of the date "with the first vernal full
moon."
6. It observes exactly everything that God said
to His servant Moses concerning the Legal Passover (see Exodus,
ch. 12).
The rule of operation covering the right to
bind and to loose which Christ gave to the Church consists in the
law of God--"Though I, or an angel from heaven, should teach
otherwise than I have taught you, let him be anathema"
(Galatians 1:8).
God is one: the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit (otherwise known as Mind, Logos and Spirit). His
legislation is one also. Therefore Christians, too, ought to be
one in the matter of faith. If they fail to unite in the ONE
FAITH, as required by Christ, it is impossible for them to be
loved. The general interest and the need of Christians demands the
return of heresiarchs and heretics to the ONE FAITH OF THE
SCRIPTURES AND OF THE SEVEN ECUMENICAL COUNCILS of the united
Church... Accordingly he that hath ears let him hear.
These matters are inviolable, and all these
matters are observed with great exactitude by [the Orthodox]
Church, whereas, by following the new calendar, the Roman Catholic
Church of the Papists violates them, for, among other violations,
it often celebrates Easter before the Jews, which is strictly
forbidden for the reasons we have stated hereinabove. Besides, you
can see for yourself by inspecting the Paschalia (i.e., Easter
calendars) of years past and to come and observing and convincing
yourself that the Latins have celebrated Easter and will continue
to celebrate their own Easter ahead of the Jews, or sometimes, and
quite frequently, together with the Jews--a custom which is
prohibited according to the Rule of the First Nicene Ecumenical
Council and according to the seventh Canon of the Apostles, and
according to the rest of the ordinances and regulations pertaining
thereto. Consequently, the new calendar, as violating or
transgressing all the rules and regulations respecting Easter, is
erroneous, anticanonical and rejectable. The only time it provides
for canonical celebration of Easter is when it happens to
celebrate it on the same day as we do according to [the Orthodox]
calendar, which, being and having been given of God through Moses,
cannot possibly fail to observe yearly the divine words in all
respects, which is to say: With the first full moon in spring;
subsequently to the tropical equinox; not celebrating before; and
not celebrating with the Jews.
