Cheesefare Saturday

Cheesefare Saturday sits within the framework of the Triodion, whose four fixed pre-Lenten Sundays — the Publican and the Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, the Sunday of Judgment (Meatfare), and the Sunday of Forgiveness (Cheesefare) — began to take form in the sixth century. The Triodion draws its name from the Greek for 'three odes,' since many of its canons carry three odes rather than the usual nine. Cosmas of Maiuma is credited with composing three odes in the image of the Trinity, and later writers, including Theodore and Joseph of the Studite Monastery, expanded the liturgical framework of the season.

The shaping of the pre-Lenten period was bound up with disputes over the length and beginning of the Fast. Dorotheos of Gaza (c. 505–565) recorded that the holy Apostles had originally established seven weeks of fasting before Pascha, and that later fathers added an eighth week so as to train and better prepare themselves for the labor of fasting and to honor the forty-day fast of the Lord. The term 'meatfare' (Greek apokreas) first appears during the reign of the Emperor Justinian (527–565). According to the Chronicle of Theophanes, disagreement arose in 545/6 among the churches of Alexandria, Constantinople, and throughout the East over when Great Lent should begin; the emperor authorized an additional week in which meat could still be sold, though few ate it, and thereby the eight-week fasting structure was established.

The commemoration on Cheesefare Saturday of all who shone forth in the ascetic life is an ancient one, uniting the memory of a great multitude of saints from different lands. Placed on the day before Forgiveness Sunday, it falls fifty days before Pascha and forms part of the Church's gradual approach to the Fast: with the two weeks of Meatfare and Cheesefare the faithful are eased from a full diet toward the strict fasting that begins on Clean Monday.

Through this commemoration the Church holds up the venerable Fathers and Mothers as living examples on the eve of the Fast. The Synaxarion likens the observance to an army roused by the recollection of soldiers who have fought bravely: as generals recount the heroic deeds of excellent men to encourage their troops, so the Church recounts the struggles of the ascetics that the faithful might imitate them in contending courageously against the passions and accomplishing the virtues.

The lives of the ascetics teach that fasting is not merely abstinence from food. It also means bridling the tongue, the heart, and the eyes, and refraining from inappropriate speech and unseemly actions. The holy ascetics are set forth as virtuous men and women who contended against the devil and against their own passions, and from examining their lives and victories the faithful are meant to take courage.

Because these saints share the same human nature as those who venerate them, their example stands as an encouragement rather than an impossible ideal. A life of fasting is understood as a synonym for the monastic life, yet in this life of fasting all the faithful — not only monastics, but laypeople and married clergy — are called to imitate the monastic virtue. The Church sets before the faithful those who, through the labor of fasting, entered the Paradise of delight and now share in the Heavenly Kingdom, as instruction before they walk through the season of Lent.

The service of Cheesefare Saturday follows the Triodion and blends the commemoration of the ascetic saints with the traditional elements of a feast, holding together both penitential and celebratory dimensions appropriate to the pre-Lenten period. Vespers on the Friday evening carries six commemorative hymns of the Fathers, with scriptural readings drawn from the Triodion, Aposticha combining ascetic and martyrological themes, and Troparia in Tone 4 that retain resurrectional elements.

The hymns praise monastic figures such as Anthony and Euthymius, dwelling on their struggles against temptation and asking their intercession for salvation. The venerable Fathers and Mothers are celebrated as models of spiritual excellence who lived on earth the life of angels, and who through abstinence and discipline held the body subject to the spirit. They are described as luminaries of the world who, through their ascetic contests, have become intercessors for our souls, and are joined in the hymnody with the martyrs and hierarchs as those who denied the world and took up the cross.

Cheesefare Saturday falls within Cheesefare Week, the last week before Great Lent, in which meat is already set aside — the week functions as a meat-fast — while dairy foods, eggs, and cheese remain permitted. The Church's practice during this week already anticipates Lent: the services mirror those of the Fast, though they are shorter, the Prayer of Saint Ephraim is introduced, and the full Divine Liturgy is not served on the Wednesday and Friday.

The two transitional weeks of Meatfare and Cheesefare are the means by which the Church gradually eases the faithful into the full fasting that begins on Clean Monday. The week concludes with Forgiveness Sunday, on which the people ask forgiveness of one another before Great Lent begins.

Cheesefare Week is known in Slavic tradition as Maslenitsa, Butter Week, or Pancake Week; in Eastern Slavic practice its characteristic dish is bliny (pancakes) made from the rich foods still allowed — butter, eggs, and milk.

The week closes with Forgiveness Sunday, when all the faithful ask forgiveness of one another, and thus Great Lent begins.

• Galatians — Pauline exhortation on Christian conduct, paired in the day's readings with the Gospel teaching on humility.