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On Fasting

Chapter X.--Of Stations, and of the Hours of Prayer.

In like manner they censure on the count of novelty our Stations as being enjoined; some, moreover, (censure them) too as being prolonged habitually too late, saying that this duty also ought to be observed of free choice, and not continued beyond the ninth hour,--(deriving their rule), of course, from their own practice. Well: as to that which pertains to the question of injunction, I will once for all give a reply to suit all causes. Now, (turning) to the point which is proper to this particular cause--concerning the limit of time, I mean--I must first demand from themselves whence they derive this prescriptive law for concluding Stations at the ninth hour. If it is from the fact that we read that Peter and he who was with him entered the temple "at the ninth (hour), the hour of prayer," who will prove to me that they had that day been performing a Station, so as to interpret the ninth hour as the hour for the conclusion and discharge of the Station? Nay, but you would more easily find that Peter at the sixth hour had, for the sake of taking food, gone up first on the roof to pray; ¹ so that the sixth hour of the day may the rather be made the limit to this duty, which (in Peter's case) was apparently to finish that duty, after prayer. Further: since in the self-same commentary of Luke the third hour is demonstrated as an hour of prayer, about which hour it was that they who had received the initiatory gift of the Holy Spirit were held for drunkards; ² and the sixth, at which Peter went up on the roof; and the ninth, at which they entered the temple: why should we not understand that, with absolutely perfect indifference, we must pray ³ always, and everywhere, and at every time; yet still that these three hours, as being more marked in things human--(hours) which divide the day, which distinguish businesses, which re-echo in the public ear--have likewise ever been of special solemnity in divine prayers? A persuasion which is sanctioned also by the corroborative fact of Daniel praying thrice in the day; ⁴ of course, through exception of certain stated hours, no other, moreover, than the more marked and subsequently apostolic (hours)--the third, the sixth, the ninth. And hence, accordingly, I shall affirm that Peter too had been led rather by ancient usage to the observance of the ninth hour, praying at the third specific interval, (the interval) of final prayer.

These (arguments), moreover, (we have advanced) for their sakes who think that they are acting in conformity with Peter's model, (a model) of which they are ignorant: not as if we slighted the ninth hour, (an hour) which, on the fourth and sixth days of the week, we most highly honour; but because, of those things which are observed on the ground of tradition, we are bound to adduce so much the more worthy reason, that they lack the authority of Scripture, until by some signal celestial gift they be either confirmed or else corrected. "And if," says (the apostle), "there are matters which ye are ignorant about, the Lord will reveal to you." ⁵ Accordingly, setting out of the question the confirmer of all such things, the Paraclete, the guide of universal truth, ⁶ inquire whether there be not a worthier reason adduced among us for the observing of the ninth hour; so that this reason (of ours) must be attributed even to Peter if he observed a Station at the time in question. For (the practice) comes from the death of the Lord; which death albeit it behoves to be commemorated always, without difference of hours; yet are we at that time more impressively commended to its commemoration, according to the actual (meaning of the) name of Station. For even soldiers, though never unmindful of their military oath, yet pay a greater deference to Stations. And so the "pressure" must be maintained up to that hour in which the orb--involved from the sixth hour in a general darkness--performed for its dead Lord a sorrowful act of duty; so that we too may then return to enjoyment when the universe regained its sunshine. ⁷ If this savours more of the spirit of Christian religion, while it celebrates more the glory of Christ, I am equally able, from the self-same order of events, to fix the condition of late protraction of the Station; (namely), that we are to fast till a late hour, awaiting the time of the Lord's sepulture, when Joseph took down and entombed the body which he had requested. Thence (it follows) that it is even irreligious for the flesh of the servants to take refreshment before their Lord did.

But let it suffice to have thus far joined issue on the argumentative challenge; rebutting, as I have done, conjectures by conjectures, and yet (as I think) by conjectures more worthy of a believer. Let us see whether any such (principle) drawn from the ancient times takes us under its patronage.

In Exodus, was not that position of Moses, battling against Amalek by prayers, maintained as it was perseveringly even till "sunset," a "late Station?" ⁸ Think we that Joshua the son of Nun, when warring down the Amorites, had breakfasted on that day on which he ordered the very elements to keep a Station? ⁹ The sun "stood" in Gibeon, and the moon in Ajalon; the sun and the moon "stood in station until the People was avenged of his enemies, and the sun stood in the mid heaven." When, moreover, (the sun) did draw toward his setting and the end of the one day, there was no such day beforetime and in the latest time (of course, (no day) so long), "that God," says (the writer), "should hear a man"--(a man,) to be sure, the sun's peer, so long persistent in his duty--a Station longer even than late.

At all events, Saul himself, when engaged in battle, manifestly enjoined this duty: "Cursed (be) the man who shall have eaten bread until evening, until I avenge me on mine enemy;" and his whole people tasted not (food), and (yet) the whole earth was breakfasting! So solemn a sanction, moreover, did God confer on the edict which enjoined that Station, that Jonathan the son of Saul, although it had been in ignorance of the fast having been appointed till a late hour that he had allowed himself a taste of honey, was both presently convicted, by lot, of sin, and with difficulty exempted from punishment through the prayer of the People: ¹⁰ for he had been convicted of gluttony, although of a simple kind. But withal Daniel, in the first year of King Darius, when, fasting in sackcloth and ashes, he was doing exomologesis to God, said: "And while I was still speaking in prayer, behold, the man whom I had seen in dreams at the beginning, swiftly flying, approached me, as it were, at the hour of the evening sacrifice." ¹¹ This will be a "late" Station which, fasting until the evening, sacrifices a fatter (victim of) prayer to God! ¹²

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De ieiunio adversus Psychicos

X.

1. Aeque stationes nostras ut indictas, quasdam uero et in serum constitutas nouitatis nomine incusant, hoc quoque munus et ex arbitrio obeundum esse dicentes et non ultra nonam detinendum, de suo scilicet more. Sed quod pertineat ad indictionis quaestionem, semel pro omnibus causis respondebo. Nunc ad proprium huius speciei articulum, de modo temporis dico, de ipsis prius expostulandum, unde hanc formam nona dirimendis stationibus praescribant. 2. Si, qua Petrus et qui cum eo ad horam nonam orationis templum introgressi leguntur, quis mihi probabit illos ea die statione functos, ut horam nonam ad clausulam et expunctionem stationis interpretetur? Atqui facilius inuenias Petrum hora sexta capiendi cibi causa prius in superiora ad orandum ascendisse, quo magis sexta diei finiri officio huic possit, quae illud absolutura post orationem uidebatur. 3. Porro cum in eodem commentario Lucae et tertia hora orationis demonstretur, sub qua spiritu sancto initiati pro ebriis habebantur, et sexta, qua Petrus ascendit in superiora, et nona, qua templum sunt introgressi, cur non intellegamus salua plane indifferentia semper et ubique et omni tempore orandi tamen tres istas horas ut insigniores in rebus humanis, quam diem distribuunt, quae negotia distinguunt, quae publice resonant, ita et sollemniores fuisse in orationibus diuinis? 4. Quod etiam suadet Danielis quoque argumentum ter die orantis, utique per aliquarum horarum exceptionem, non aliarum autem quam insigniorum, exinde apostolicarum, tertiae, sextae, nonae. Hinc itaque et Petrum dicam ex uetere potius usu nonam obseruasse tertio orantem supremae orationis munere. 5. Haec autem propter illos qui se putant ex forma Petri agere, quam ignorant; non quasi respuamus nonam, cui et quarta sabbati et sexta plurimum fungimur, sed quia eorum quae ex traditione obseruantur tanto magis dignam rationem adferre debemus, quanto carent scripturae auctoritate, donec aliquo caelesti charismate aut confirmentur aut corrigantur. Et si qua, inquit, ignoratis, dominus uobis reuelabit. 6. Itaque seposito confirmatore omnium istorum paracleto, duce uniuersae ueritatis, an dignior apud nos ratio adferatur nonam obseruandi require, ut etiam Petro ea ratio deputanda sit, si statione tunc functus est. Venit enim de exitu domini, quem etsi semper commemorari oportet sine differentia horarum, impressius tamen tum ei secundum ipsum stationis uocabulum addicimur. 7. Nam et milites numquam immemores sacramenti magis stationibus parent. Itaque in eam usque horam celebranda pressura est, in qua a sexta contenebratus orbis defuncto domino lugubre fecit officium, ut tunc et nos reuertamur ad iucunditatem, cum et mundus recepit claritatem. 8. Hoc si magis ad religionem sapit Christianam, dum magis Christi gloriam celebrat, possum aeque serae stationis ex eodem rei ordine statum figere, ut ieiunemus ad serum expectantes tempus dominicae sepulturae, cum Ioseph postulatum detulit corpus et condidit. Inde et irreligiosum est ante famulorum carnem refrigerari quam domini. 9. Sed hactenus haec ex argumentationum prouocatione commiserim coniecturas coniecturis et tamen puto fidelioribus repercutiens. Videamus, an aliquid tale nobis de uetustatibus quoque patrocinetur. In Exodo habitus ille Moysis aduersus Amalech orationibus proeliantis usque in occasum perseuerans nonne statio fuit sera? 10. Iesum Naue debellantem Amorrhaeos prandisse illa die existimamus qua ipsis elementis stationem imperauit? Stetit sol in Gabaon et luna in Aialon, stetit sol et luna in statione, donec ultus est populus de inimicis suis, et stetit sol medio caelo. Vt autem accedebat in occasum et finem diei unius, non fuit dies talis retro et in nouissimo, utique tam prolixus, ut, inquit, exaudiret deus hominem, parem scilicet solis, instantem tam diu in officio, stationem et sera longiorem. 11. Certe Saul et ipse in proelio constitutus manifeste munus istud indixit: maledictus homo, qui ederit panem ad uesperam usque, dum ulciscar de inimico meo, et non gustauit totus populus eius, et tota terra prandebat. 12. Tantam autem deus praestitit auctoritatem edicto stationis illius, ut Ionathan, filius Saulis, quamquam ignarus ieiunationis in serum definitae gustum mellis admiserat, et forte mox de delicto sit traductus et uix per precem populi periculo exemptus. Gulae enim licet simplicis reus fuerat. 13. Sed et Daniel anno primo regis Darii, cum ieiunus in sacco et cinere exomologesin deo ageret, et adhuc, inquit, loquente me in oratione, ecce uir, quem uideram in somnis initio, uelociter uolans appropinquauit mihi quasi hora uespertini sacrificii. Haec erit statio sera quae ad uesperam ieiunans pinguiorem orationem deo immolat.