The Fast of the Fourth Month

by Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG

As readers of the Missive may recall, previous articles discussed the Autumn and Winter Ember Fasts, those of the Seventh Month/September and of the Tenth Month/December/Advent respectively.  In these articles, it was related that, the keeping of the Ember Days (Latin Quatuor Tempora, “four times”) is one of the most ancient practices of Christianity as practiced in the city of Rome.  According to the old Catholic Encyclopedia, “the ‘Liber Pontificalis’ ascribes to Pope Callistus (217-222) a law ordering the fast, but probably it is older.  Pope St. Leo the Great (440-461) considers it an Apostolic institution.”¹

For those who may be unfamiliar, the Ember Days are four sets of three days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) somewhat evenly spaced throughout the year which are kept as days of penance.  With respect to their origin, the Ember Days seem to be a christianization of Roman agricultural celebrations with the December Ember Days, falling yearly in the Third Week of Advent, being the christianization of the feriæ sementivæ (“for the seeding”), the Summer Ember Days, falling yearly during the Octave of Pentecost, of the feriæ messis (“for a bountiful harvest”), and the Autumn Ember Days, falling yearly in the third liturgical week of September, of the feriæ vindimiales (“for a rich vintage”).²  The Spring Ember Days, falling yearly in the week following the First Sunday of Lent, which seem to be without an agricultural precedent, were added, presumably, to balance out the year.  The Autumn and Winter Ember Days are also called, as was noted, the Fast of the Seventh Month and Fast of the Tenth Month, respectively.  Lest there be any confusion regarding calling the September Ember Days the Fast of the Seventh, and not the Ninth, Month and the December Ember Days the Fast of the Tenth, and not the Twelfth, Month, it is important to note that the Roman calendar, prior to the reform under Julius Caesar (d. 44 B.C.), originally marked the beginning of the year in the spring with March being the first month,³ thus making September the seventh and December the tenth, hence their names (septem, “seven”; decem, “ten”).⁴  So while September and December were not the seventh and tenth calendar months at the dawn of Roman Christianity, they were still the seventh and tenth months by name.

As was stated, the Ember Days were historically and traditionally kept as days of penance, particularly as days of fasting and abstinence.  In the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the Ember Days were to be kept as days of fasting and abstinence, with no exception for those which corresponded with the Octave of Pentecost (the Ember Days, it should be noted, predate this Octave) (canon 1252.2).  By 1962, the abstinence on Ember Wednesdays and Saturdays was reduced to partial.  These sets of days are observed, as they correspond, some better than others, with the changes of natural seasons, as a way to give thanks to God for the blessings of the previous season and to ask His blessing on the one beginning.  As ordinations at Rome historically occurred on Ember Saturdays, these days were also days of preparation for this event.  Uniquely, the Ember Days of Pentecost also served as the reintroduction of the practice of keeping days of fasting, which practice had, according to ancient observance, been suspended since the Feast of the Resurrection.⁵

Some authors, such as Servant of God Dom Prosper Guéranger,⁶ attempt to justify the keeping of the Ember Day fasts by invoking the Prophet Zacharias (8:19): “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Juda, joy, and gladness, and great solemnities: only love ye truth and peace.”  The Fasts of the Seventh Month and of the Tenth Month mentioned by the Prophet, then, would correspond with the September and December Ember Days.  The Fast of the Fourth Month would correspond with the Ember Days following the Feast of Pentecost which can fall between 20 May (the third month) and 13 June (the fourth month).  Indeed, “for a time in the Carolingian period, Gallican canonists placed the [Ember] fasts in the first week of the first month [those of March], the second week of the fourth month [of June], the third week of the seventh month [of September], and the fourth week of the tenth month [of December].”⁷  If one were to assign a correspondence in the Roman liturgical calendar for the Fast of the Fifth Month, the fasts before the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and before the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, both celebrated in late June, close to July, the original fifth Roman month, serve as possible candidates.  It is not by coincidence, then, such authors would argue, that this passage of the Prophet is read as part of the Fourth Lesson on September’s Ember Saturday (Zach 8:14-19).  Rather, it is the Church’s liturgy itself giving witness to the origin of these fasts.

It is clear, however, that there is not a perfect correspondence between the passage from Zacharias and the Roman liturgical calendar.  This is most likely due to the Prophet being invoked as a justification for a practice which was already being kept rather than the passage serving as the inspiration of the practice.  As was said above, the origin of the Ember Days is more likely a christianization of Roman agricultural celebrations at a very early date rather than the application of the writings of an Old Testament Prophet to the Christian liturgical year, although the Scripture text may have inspired the names of these christianized observances.  Dom Guéranger himself notes that “in the early writers” there is mention “of the three times [of fasting] and not the four,”⁸ but argues this is because the Ember Days of Lent add nothing to the Lenten fast already being observed.  Again, it seems more likely that the Spring Ember Days were added later, but by the time of Pope Gelasius (A.D. 492-496), to balance out the calendar.

As was explained above, the Summer/Pentecost Ember Days seem to be a christianization of Roman agricultural celebrations of the feriæ messis (“for a bountiful harvest”).  This is, perhaps, reflected in the choice of the Epistle for the Ember Friday of Pentecost (Joel 2:23-24; 26-27) as well as the Second (Lev 23:9-11; 15-17, 21), Third, (Deu 26:1-3; 7-11), and Fourth (Deu 26:1-3; 7-11) Lessons for the Ember Saturday of Pentecost which all refer to harvests and other agricultural work.  The Second and Third Lessons of Ember Saturday are doing double-duty in that, not only do they treat of agricultural work and harvests which can be seen as associated with the summer Roman harvest celebration, they relate specifically to the offering of the first fruits of the barley harvest associated with the Israelite Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Lev 23:9-14) and the offering of the first fruits of the wheat harvest associated with the Israelite Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks (see Exo 23:16), elevations into Israelite worship of post-fall agricultural festivals.  The Israelite Passover was, of course, elevated into the Christian Pasch (Easter), and the Israelite Pentecost into the Christian Pentecost, so it is fitting that the account from Leviticus in the Second Lesson, recounting the institution of the Israelite Pentecost, is read during the Christian Pentecost Octave.⁹

As was also related in the previously mentioned articles, on Sundays related to the Autumn and Winter Ember Days, prior to the changes made to the Breviary under Pope John XXIII (d. A.D. 1963),¹⁰ the readings for the second nocturns in the Office of Matins related to the ancient Ember fasts.  Knowing this, it would be expected that something similar would occur on the Sundays associated with the Summer Ember Fasts.  But, unfortunately, this is not the case.  Traditionally, mirroring Easter and its Octave, Matins during Pentecost and its Octave only has one nocturn daily with its three lessons being of the patristic commentary on the Gospel of the day.  As such, there is no room on Pentecost or during its Octave in Matins for a patristic sermon on the Summer Ember Fast.  It is worth noting at this point that, in the whole liturgical year, only these two great feasts and their octaves have Matins with just three psalms and three lessons consisting of patristic commentary on the Gospel of the day.

The lack of a patristic sermon on the Summer Ember Fast in the Divine Office, of course, does not mean such sermons do not exist.  Therefore, to assist our readers to enter into the spirit of these Pentecost Ember Days, here is provided the First Sermon on the Whitsuntide Fast of Pope St. Leo the Great whose sermons on the Fasts of the Seventh and Tenth Months are read at their appropriate times by the Church in the Divine Office:

Today’s festival, dearly-beloved, hallowed by the descent of the Holy Ghost, is followed, as you know by a solemn fast, which being a salutary institution for the healing of soul and body, we must keep with devout observance.  For when the Apostles had been filled with the promised power, and the Spirit of Truth had entered their hearts, we doubt not that among the other mysteries of heavenly doctrine this discipline of spiritual self-restraint was first thought of at the prompting of the Paraclete in order that minds sanctified by fasting might be fitter for the chrism to be bestowed on them.  The disciples of Christ had the protection of the Almighty aid, and the chiefs of the infant Church were guarded by the whole Godhead of the Father and the Son through the presence of the Holy Ghost.  But against the threatened attacks of persecutors, against the terrifying shouts of the ungodly, they could not fight with bodily strength or pampered flesh, since that which delights the outer does most harm to the inner man, and the more one’s fleshly substance is kept in subjection, the more purified is the reasoning soul.

And so those teachers, who have instructed all the Church’s sons by their examples and their traditions, began the rudiments of the Christian warfare with holy fasts, that, having to fight against spiritual wickednesses, they might take the armour of abstinence, wherewith to slay the incentives to vice.  For invisible foes and incorporeal enemies will have no strength against us, if we be not entangled in any lusts of the flesh.  The desire to hurt us is indeed ever active in the tempter, but he will be disarmed and powerless, if he find no vantage ground within us from which to attack us.  But who, encompassed with this frail flesh, and placed in this body of death, even one who has made much decided progress, can be so sure of his safety now, as to believe himself free from the peril of all allurements?  Although Divine Grace gives daily victory to His saints, yet He does not remove the occasion for fighting, because this very fact is part of our Protector’s Mercy, Who has always designed that something should remain for our ever-changing nature to win, lest it should boast itself on the ending of the battle.

Therefore, after the days of holy gladness, which we have devoted to the honour of the Lord rising from the dead and then ascending into heaven, and after receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, a fast is ordained as a wholesome and needful practice, so that, if perchance through neglect or disorder even amid the joys of the festival any undue licence has broken out, it may be corrected by the remedy of strict abstinence, which must be the more scrupulously carried out in order that what was on this day Divinely bestowed on the Church may abide in us.  For being made the Temple of the Holy Ghost, and watered with a greater supply than ever of the Divine Stream, we ought not to be conquered by any lusts nor held in possession by any vices in order that the habitation of Divine power may be stained with no pollution.

And this assuredly it is possible for all to obtain, God helping and guiding us, if by the purification of fasting and by merciful liberality, we take pains to be set free from the filth of sins, and to be rich in the fruits of love.  For whatever is spent in feeding the poor, in healing the sick, in ransoming prisoners, or in any other deeds of piety, is not lessened but increased, nor will that ever be lost in the sight of God which the loving-kindness of the faithful has expended, seeing that whatever a man gives in relief, he lays up for his own reward.  For blessed are the merciful, since God shall have mercy on them (Matthew 5:7); nor will shortcomings be remembered, where the presence of true religion has been attested.  On Wednesday and Friday, therefore, let us fast, and on Saturday let us keep vigil in the presence of the most blessed Apostle, Peter, by whose prayers we surely trust to be set free both from spiritual foes and bodily enemies; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.¹¹

Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG was ordained in the fall of 2019 and was invested as an Ecclesiastical Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George in the summer of 2025.  He currently resides at the FSSP Canonical House of St. Casimir in Nashua, NH, and ministers at St. Stanislaus parish.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. The old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Ember Days.”
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., s.v. “New Year’s Day.”
4. Whitaker’s Words, s.vv. “Septem” and “Decem.”
5. Talley, T. J. The Origins of the Liturgical Year.  (New York: Pueblo Books, 1986), pp. 66-67, 68-69, 147-148.  See also: New Liturgical Movement: Fifty Days of Easter?  As witnessed to by the 1917 Code of Canon Law, canon 1252.2, and, more importantly, by “the Sacramentary of St. Leo I” (no later than ~A.D. 540), the Vigil of Pentecost began to kept at some point as a day of fasting and abstinence, a slight deviation from the practice of no days of fast during the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, but one made somewhat early on.  This deviation in the observance of the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost arguably arose from the keeping of the Vigil of Pentecost, like the Vigil of Easter, in the Roman tradition, as a time for the solemn celebration of Baptism and also the ancient discipline which directed that those who were to receive Baptism and those baptizing should do so fasting (e.g.: The Didache [first-second century A.D.]: “But before the baptism let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whatever others can; but you shall order the baptized to fast one or two days before.” [7, 4]).  By 1962, the Vigil of Pentecost was kept as a day of fasting and partial abstinence.
6. Guéranger, Prosper. The Liturgical Year, vol. 1 (Advent). Trans. Shepherd, Laurence. (Fitzwilliam: Loreto Publications, 2000), pp. 218-221.
7. Talley, p. 148.  See also: New Liturgical Movement: The Feast and Fast of Pentecost.
8. Guéranger, p. 219.
9. More information about the Mass readings of Ember Saturday during the Octave of Pentecost, see New Liturgical Movement: The Ancient Character of Pentecost in the Roman Rite (Part 2).
10. In the changes made by Pope John XXIII in 1960, Sunday Matins was reduced to one nocturn and the readings of the second nocturns omitted.  With respect to the matter at hand, it seems to be a great loss that the Autumn and Winter Ember Day, which testify to their antiquity, are no longer part of the Church’s official liturgy.
11. Translated by Charles Lett Feltoe. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/360378.htm>.  Pope Leo also makes reference to the keeping of the Pentecost Ember Days in his first On Whitsuntide sermon at the conclusion: “On Wednesday and Friday, therefore, let us fast, and on Saturday let us keep vigil in the presence of the most blessed Apostle, Peter, by whose prayers we surely trust to be set free both from spiritual foes and bodily enemies; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.”