The Fast of the Feast of the Virgin
The Fast of the Virgin Mary is the fast most beloved by all the faithful in the Christian East, which the holy Virgin has favoured with her many successive apparitions.
An overview of its history, origins and roots:
The Fast of the Virgin Mary is linked to one of her feasts, which comes right after the fast: the commemoration of her being taken up bodily into heaven on 15 August. It is worth noting that this feast is far older than the fast, which was attached to it several centuries later.
The first mention of it in the Church is found in Saint Severus, bishop of al-Ashmunein, in his book The Lamp of the Intellect, where he says: “The fast kept by the people of the East, which we call the Fast of the Virgin Mary, is on the fourteenth of August…”
Although this is a vague reference, it makes clear that the fast was known in the Christian East; but it seems that Saint Severus is speaking here of a one-day fast on 14 August, followed by the feast of the Virgin on 15 August.
In the twelfth century the Fast of the Virgin is mentioned explicitly in Egypt for the first time, lasting three weeks; at first, however, it was kept only by virgins. We read this in the book of Sheikh Abu al-Makarim Saadallah ibn Girgis ibn Masoud (1209): “The Fast of the Virgins in Egypt, from the first of August to the twenty-first, followed by their feast of breaking the fast on the twenty-second.”
Within half a century this fast became more widespread among the people, but it was still mostly kept by ascetics and nuns. Ibn al-Assal (1260) writes of this fast in his book al-Majmu’ al-Safawi: “The Fast of the Virgin Mary, kept mostly by ascetics and nuns; it begins on the first of August, and the feast of the Virgin is its breaking of the fast…”
By the fourteenth century this fast had become common among all the people, because Ibn Kabar (1324), in the eighteenth chapter of his book The Lamp of Darkness and the Explanation of the Service, repeats what Ibn al-Assal wrote but leaves out the words “kept mostly by ascetics and nuns”.
To this day, the Fast of the Virgin Mary remains the fast most beloved by all the faithful in the Christian East, which the holy Virgin has favoured with her many successive apparitions.
Among the Byzantine-rite Orthodox the Fast of the Virgin lasts fourteen days (1 to 14 August), and fifteen days in the Coptic Church; among the Syriac Orthodox and the Armenian Orthodox it lasts five days. Among the Greek Catholics it is kept on the two Fridays before 15 August, and the Chaldeans keep it for one day.
