Apostles' Fast

What it is

The Apostles' Fast is one of four fasting seasons in the church year of many eastern Christians. It sits between the end of the Easter season and the summer feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and it is far gentler than Great Lent. The name points to the apostles, whose preaching the fast honours. Different churches begin it on different days, so its length changes from place to place as well as from year to year. In some years, communities that follow the newer calendar may not keep it at all.

Origins and history

The fast is traced to the apostles themselves. After fifty days of celebrating the Resurrection, they are said to have prepared for the journeys that would take them away from Jerusalem, praying and going without food so that God would steady them for the work ahead. This account rests on Sacred Tradition rather than on a fixed historical record. A passage in the Synoptic Gospels is often read as its scriptural root: when critics asked why the apostles did not fast, Jesus answered that the days for fasting would come once the bridegroom was taken from them. Believers keep the season in gratitude for what the apostles endured.

How it is kept

Rules for the fast are milder than those of Great Lent or the Dormition Fast. Fish, oil, wine, eggs and dairy are set aside, along with red meat, poultry and meat products, though many Orthodox allow fish, wine and oil on most days except Wednesday and Friday. Some churches, including the Antiochian tradition, keep stricter rules and permit fish only on certain weekends. The pattern resembles the Nativity Fast. Where a great feast falls inside the season, as the Nativity of St. John the Baptist does on 24 June, it is kept with joy. Weekday services in some places take the Lenten form, and Russian-tradition churches and monasteries may use them at least on the opening day.

Length and dates

The season has no fixed number of days, because everything hangs on the date of Pascha. The Sunday of All Saints falls eight weeks after Pascha, and in Byzantine use the fast opens the next day. It closes on 29 June. In practice it may start anywhere between 18 May and 21 June and last between eight and forty-two days. Orthodox churches on the Revised Julian calendar can have a season of up to twenty-nine days, and in some years none at all, since the Byzantine start can land on or after 29 June. Those on the older calendar always keep it; for them 29 June arrives on 12 July by the Gregorian reckoning.

In the eastern churches

Coptic Orthodox Christians begin on the Monday after Pentecost and fast until the fourth day of Epip in their own calendar, with the apostles' feast following. The Syriac Orthodox Church once followed the same start and ended on 29 June, until the Council of Homs in 1946 moved the beginning to 26 June. Maronite practice grew shorter over the centuries: a synod in 1598 set fourteen days from 15 June, a synod in 1644 confirmed it, and a Lebanese council in 1736 cut it to four days from 25 June. Maronites gave up all animal foods, fish and seafood included, and wine, but kept oil. Melkite Greek Catholics have also moved the start later: Byzantine Daily Worship gives 17 June, while eparchy calendars in New Zealand, Australia and the United States give 19 June.

How Apostles' Fast is kept

Communities enter the fast the day after the Sunday of All Saints, or in Coptic and old Syriac use on the Monday after Pentecost. Believers set aside meat and poultry, eggs and dairy, fish, oil and wine for the weeks that follow, with fish, wine and oil allowed on many days and withheld on Wednesdays and Fridays. Prayer and church services accompany the fasting, and in Russian-tradition houses of worship Lenten services may be used on the first day. The season closes with the feast of Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June.

When and where

The fast is tied to Pascha, so its dates move each year. It runs until 29 June. It opens on the Monday after Pentecost in Coptic and old Syriac use, or on the Monday after All Saints in Byzantine use. It can begin as early as 18 May or as late as 21 June and last from eight to forty-two days.

The fast belongs to eastern Christian churches across the Middle East, eastern Europe and wherever their communities have settled. It is kept in the Byzantine and Oriental Orthodox traditions, among eastern Catholics and eastern Protestants, and in Syriac, Maronite, Coptic and Melkite churches. Russian-tradition monasteries keep it too, and Melkite eparchies in the United States, Australia and New Zealand publish its start dates.

What Apostles' Fast means

Going without rich food is understood as an offering of thanks. The weeks recall the apostles' willingness to leave Jerusalem and face hardship so that others would hear the Gospel, and those who keep the fast join their own small discipline to that memory. There is also a note of readiness: the season trains attention on prayer before the church turns to the mission the apostles began. Where a great feast falls inside the fast, the joy of the feast and the restraint of the fast are held together.

Days Apostles' Fast is marked

Questions people ask about Apostles' Fast

See also

Good FridayA solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ.Holy WeekThe solemn seven days leading to Easter, recalling the final week and Passion of JesusHoly SaturdayThe closing day of Holy Week, a Saturday of waiting, fasting and vigil before EasterKol NidreAn Aramaic declaration of vow annulment that opens the Yom Kippur evening service in Jewish synagogues.

Good reading and sources

• Apostles' Fast on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-12.