Library › Canons of the Apostles and the Fathers › Canonical Epistles of the Fathers
Canonical Epistles of the Fathers
Canons of the Apostles and the Fathers, NPNF II.14
d2
I
Dionysius to my beloved son, and brother, and fellow minister in holy things, Basilides faithful to God, salutation in the Lord.
Canon I2
When the Paschal fast is to be broken depends on the precise hour of our Saviour’s resurrection, and this was not certainly to be known from the Four Evangelists; therefore they who have not fasted the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday before Easter, do no great thing if they fast the Friday and Saturday, and so till past three on Easter morning. But they who have fasted the whole six days, are not to be blamed if they break their fast after midnight. Some do not fast any of these days.
Canon II
Menstruous women ought not to come to the Holy Table, or touch the Holy of Holies,3 nor to the churches, but pray elsewhere.
Canon III
They that can contain and are aged ought to judge for themselves. They have heard St. Paul say; that they should “for a time give themselves to prayer, and then come together again.”
Canon IV
They who have had involuntary nocturnal pollutions be at their own discretion [whether to communicate or not].
Notes
- I have followed in the captions to all these non-conciliar canons the Greek text of Beveridge in his Synodicon (Tom. II.).
- I have here placed Johnson’s epitome of these canons; the Ancient Epitome is lacking.
- In the Greek “the body and blood of Christ.”