Demanding a Strict Fast On Saturdays Is the First Heresy of the Papists

DEMANDING A STRICT FAST ON SATURDAYS
IS THE FIRST HERESY OF THE PAPISTS
In his two letters to Fr. Pedro, in several other writings on the internet,
as well as through his verbal discussions, Bp. Kirykos presents the idea that a
Christian is forbidden to ever commune on a Sunday, except by “economia,”
and that if per chance a Christian is granted this “economia,” he would
nevertheless be compelled to fast strictly without oil on the Saturday, that is,
the day prior to receiving Holy Communion.

For instance, outside of fasting periods, Bp. Kirykos, his sister,
Vincentia, and the “theologian” Mr. Eleutherios Gkoutzidis insist that laymen
must fast for seven days without meat, five days without dairy, three days
without oil, and one day without even olives or sesame pulp, for fear of these
things containing oil. If someone prepares to commune on a Sunday, this
means that from the previous Sunday he cannot eat meat. From the Tuesday
onwards he cannot eat dairy either. On the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
he cannot partake of oil or wine. While on the Saturday he must perform a
xerophagy in which he cannot have any processed foods, and not even olives
or sesame pulp. This means that the strictest fast will be performed on the
Saturday, in violation of the Canons. This also means that for a layman to ever
be able to commune every Sunday, he would need to fast for his entire life
long. Yet, Bp. Kirykos and his priests exempt themselves from this rule, and
are allowed to partake of any foods all week long except for Wednesday and
Friday. They can even partake of all foods as late as midnight on Saturday
night, and commune on Sunday morning without feeling the least bit
“unworthy.” But should a layman dare to partake of oil even once on a
Saturday, he is brushed off as “unworthy” for Communion on Sunday.

Meanwhile during fasting periods such as Great Lent, since Monday to
Friday is without oil anyway, Bp. Kirykos, Sister Vincentia and Mr.
Gkoutzidis believe that laymen should also fast on Saturday without oil, and
even without olives and sesame pulp, in order for such laymen to be able to
commune on Sunday. Thus again they require a layman to violate Apostolic,
Ecumenical, Local and Patristic Canons, and even fall under the penalty of
excommunication (according to these same canons) in order to be “worthy” of
communion. What an absurdity! What a monstrosity! A layman must become
worthy of excommunication in order to become “worthy” of Communion!

The 9th Canon of the Holy Apostles advises: “If any clergyman be found
fasting on Sunday, or on Saturday (except for one only), let him be deposed from
office. If, however, he is a layman, let him be excommunicated.” The term “fasting”

refers to the strict form of fasting, not permitting oil or wine. The term “except
for one” refers to Holy and Great Saturday, the only day of the year upon
which fasting without oil and wine is expected.

But it was not only the Holy Apostles who commanded against this
Pharisaic Sabbatian practice of fasting on Saturdays. But this issue was also
addressed by the Quintisext Council (Πενδέκτη Σύνοδος = Fifth‐and‐Sixth
Council), which was convened for the purpose of setting Ecclesiastical
Canons, since the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils had not provided any.
The reason why this Holy Ecumenical Council addressed this issue is because
the Church of Old Rome had slowly been influenced by the Arian Visigoths
and Ostrogoths who invaded from the north, by the Manicheans who
migrated from Africa and from the East through the Balkans, as well as by the
Jews and Judaizers, who had also migrated to the West from various parts of
the East, seeking asylum in Western lands that were no longer under Roman
(Byzantine) rule. Thus there arose in the West a most Judaizing practice of
clergy forcing the laymen to fast from oil and wine on every Saturday during
Great Lent, instead of permitting this only on Holy and Great Saturday.

Thus, in the 55th Canon of the Fifth‐and‐Sixth Ecumenical Council, we
read: “Since we have learned that those in the city of the Romans during the holy
fast of Lent are fasting on the Saturdays thereof, contrary to the ecclesiastical
practice handed down, it has seemed best to the Holy Council for the Church of the
Romans to hold rigorously the Canon saying: If any clergyman be found fasting on
Sunday, or on Saturday, with the exception of one only, let him be deposed from
office. If, however, a layman, let him be excommunicated.” Thus the Westerners
were admonished by the Holy Ecumenical Council, and requested to refrain
from this unorthodox practice of demanding a strict fast on Saturdays.

Now, just in case anyone thinks that a different kind of fast was
observed on the Saturdays by the Romans, by Divine Economy, the very next
canon admonishes the Armenians for not fasting properly on Saturdays
during Great Lent. Thus the 56th Canon of the Fifth‐and‐Sixth Council reads:
“Likewise we have learned that in the country of the Armenians and in other regions
on the Saturdays and on the Sundays of Holy Lent some persons eat eggs and
cheese. It has therefore seemed best to decree also this, that the Church of God
throughout the inhabited earth, carefully following a single procedure, shall
carry out fasting, and abstain, precisely as from every kind of thing
sacrificed, so and especially from eggs and cheese, which are fruit and
produce from which we have to abstain. As for those who fail to observe this rule,
if they are clergymen, let them be deposed from office; but if they are laymen, let them
be excommunicated.” Thus, just as the Roman Church was admonished for

fasting strictly on the Saturdays within Great Lent, the Armenian Church is
equally admonished for overly relaxing the fast of Saturdays in Great Lent.

Here the Holy Fifth‐and‐Sixth Ecumenical Council clearly gives us the
exact definition of what the Holy Fathers deem fit for consumption on
Saturdays during Great Lent. For if this canon forbids the Armenians to
consume eggs and cheese on the Saturdays of Great Lent, whereas the
previous canon forbids the Westerners to fast on the Saturdays of Great Lent,
it means that the midway between these two extremes is the Orthodox
definition of fasting on Saturdays of Great Lent. The Orthodox definition is
clearly marked in the Typicon as well as most calendar almanacs produced by
the various Local Orthodox Churches, including the very almanac as well as
the wall calendar published yearly by Bp. Kirykos himself. These all mark
that oil, wine and various forms of seafood are to be consumed on Saturdays
during Great Lent, except of course for Holy and Great Saturday which is
marked as a strict fast without oil, in keeping with the Apostolic Canon.

Now, if one is to assume that partaking of oil, wine and various
seafood on the Saturdays of Great Lent is only for those who are not planning
to commune on the Sundays of Great Lent, may he consider the following.
The very meaning of the term “excommunicate” is to forbid a layman to
receive Holy Communion. So then, if people who partake of oil, wine and
various permissible seafood on Saturdays during Great Lent are supposedly
forbidden to commune on the Sundays of Great Lent, then this means that the
55th Canon of the Fifth‐and‐Sixth Council would be entirely without purpose.
For if those who do partake of such foods on Saturdays are supposedly
disqualified from communion on Sundays, then what is the purpose of also
disqualifying those who do not partake of oil on Saturdays from being able to
commune on Sundays, since this canon requires their excommunication? In
other words, such a faulty interpretation of the canons by anyone bearing
such a notion would need to call the Holy Fathers hypocrites. They would
need to consider that the Holy Fathers in their Canon Law operated with a
system whereby “you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t!”

Thus, according to this faulty interpretation, if you do partake of oil
and wine on Saturdays of Great lent, you are disqualified from communion
due to your consumption of those foods. But if you do not partake of these
foods on Saturday you are also disqualified from communion on Sunday, for
this canon demands your excommunication. In other words, whatever you do
you cannot win! Fast without oil or fast with oil, you are still disqualified the
next day. So how does Bp. Kirykos interpret this Canon in order to keep his
Pharisaical custom? He declares that “all Christians” are excommunicated
from ever being able to commune on a Sunday! He demands that only by

extreme economy can Christians commune on Sunday, and that they are to
only commune on Saturdays, declaring this the day “all Christians” ought to
“know” to be their day of receiving Holy Communion! Thus the very trap
that Bp. Kirykos has dug for himself is based entirely on his inability to
interpret the canons correctly. Yet hypocritically, in his second letter to Fr.
Pedro he condemns others of supposedly “not interpreting the canons
correctly,” simply because they disagree with his Pharisaical Sabbatianism!

But the hypocrisies continue. Bp. Kirykos continuously parades himself
in his printed periodicals, on his websites, and on his various online blogs, as
some kind of “confessor” of Orthodoxy against Papism and Ecumenism. He
even dares to openly call himself a “confessor” on Facebook, where he spends
several hours per day in gossip and idletalk as can be seen by his frequent
status updates and constant chatting. This kind of pastime is clearly
unbecoming for an Orthodox Christian, let alone a hierarch who claims to be
“Genuine Orthodox” and a “confessor.” So great is his “confession,” that
when the entire Kiousis Synod, representatives from the Makarian Synod, the
Abbot of Esphigmenou, members from all other Old Calendarist Synods in
Greece, as well as members of the State Hierarchy, had gathered in Athens
forming crowds of clergy and thousands of laity, to protest against the Greek
Government’s antagonism towards Greek culture and religion, our wonderful
“confessor” Bp. Kirykos was spending that whole day chatting on Facebook.
The people present at the protest made a joke about Bp. Kirykos’s absence by
writing the following remark on an empty seat: “Bp. Kirykos, too busy being
an online confessor to bother taking part in a real life confession.” When
various monastics and laymen of Bp. Kirykos’s own metropolis informed him
that he should have been there, he yelled at them and told them “This is all
rubbish, I don’t care about these issues, the only real issue is the cheirothesia
of 1971.” How lovely. Greece is on the verge of geopolitical and economical
self‐destruction, and Bp. Kirykos’s only care is for his own personal issue that
he has repeated time and time again for three decades, boring us to death.

But what does Bp. Kirykos claim to “confess” against, really? He claims
he confesses against “Papo‐Ecumenism.” In other words, he views himself as
a fighter against the idea of the Orthodox Church entering into a syncretistic
and ecumenistic union with Papism. Yet Bp. Kirykos does not realize that he
has already fallen into what St. Photius the Great has called “the first heresy
of the Westerners!” For as indicated above, in the 55th Canon of the Fifth‐and‐
Sixth Ecumenical Council, it was the “Church of the Romans” (that is what
became the Papists) that fell into the unorthodox practice of demanding
laymen to fast strictly on Saturdays during Great Lent, as a prerequisite to
receiving Holy Communion on the Sundays of Great Lent. This indeed was
the first error of the Papists. It arrived at the same time the filioque also

arrived, to wit, during the 6th and 7th centuries. This is why St. Photius the
Great, who was a real confessor against Papism, calls the error of enforced
fasting without oil on Saturdays “the first heresy of the Westerners.” Thus, let
us depart from the hypocrisies of Bp. Kirykos and listen to the voice of a real
confessor against Papism. Let us read the opinion of St. Photius the Great, that
glorious champion and Pillar of Orthodoxy!

In his Encyclical to the Eastern Patriarchs (written in 866), our Holy
Father, St. Photius the Great (+6 February, 893), Archbishop of the Imperial
City of Constantinople New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch, writes:

St. Photius the Great: Encyclical to the Eastern Patriarchs (866)
Countless have been the evils devised by the cunning devil against the race of
men, from the beginning up to the coming of the Lord. But even afterwards, he has
not ceased through errors and heresies to beguile and deceive those who listen to him.
Before our times, the Church, witnessed variously the godless errors of Arius,
Macedonius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Discorus, and a foul host of others, against which
the holy Ecumenical Synods were convened, and against which our Holy and God‐
bearing Fathers battled with the sword of the Holy Spirit. Yet, even after these
heresies had been overcome and peace reigned, and from the Imperial Capital the
streams of Orthodoxy flowed throughout the world; after some people who had been
afflicted by the Monophysite heresy returned to the True Faith because of your holy
prayers; and after other barbarian peoples, such as the Bulgarians, had turned from
idolatry to the knowledge of God and the Christian Faith: then was the cunning devil
stirred up because of his envy.
For the Bulgarians had not been baptised even two years when dishonourable
men emerged out of the darkness (that is, the West), and poured down like hail or,
better, charged like wild boars upon the newly‐planted vineyard of the Lord,
destroying it with hoof and tusk, which is to say, by their shameful lives and
corrupted dogmas. For the papal missionaries and clergy wanted these Orthodox
Christians to depart from the correct and pure dogmas of our irreproachable Faith.
The first error of the Westerners was to compel the faithful to fast on
Saturdays. I mention this seemingly small point because the least departure
from Tradition can lead to a scorning of every dogma of our Faith. Next, they
convinced the faithful to despise the marriage of priests, thereby sowing in their souls
the seeds of the Manichean heresy. Likewise, they persuaded them that all who had
been chrismated by priests had to be anointed again by bishops. In this way, they
hoped to show that Chrismation by priests had no value, thereby ridiculing this divine
and supernatural Christian Mystery. From whence comes this law forbidding priests

to anoint with Holy Chrism? From what lawgiver, Apostle, Father, or Synod? For, if
a priest cannot chrismate the newly‐baptised, then surely neither can he baptise. Or,
how can a priest consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord in the Divine
Liturgy if, at the same time, he cannot chrismate with Holy Chrism? If this grace
then, is taken from the priests, the episcopal rank is diminished, for the bishop stands
at the head of the choir of priests. But the impious Westerners did not stop their
lawlessness even here.
They attempted by their false opinions and distorted words to ruin the holy
and sacred Nicene Symbol of Faith — which by both synodal and universal decisions
possesses invincible power — by adding to it that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only
from the Father, as the Symbol declares, but from the Son also. Until now, no one has
ever heard even a heretic pronounce such a teaching. What Christian can accept the
introduction of two sources into the Holy Trinity; that is, that the Father is one
source of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that the Son is another source of the Holy
Spirit, thereby transforming the monarchy of the Holy Trinity into a dual divinity?...
Having here explained the Latin understanding only briefly, I will leave its
detailed presentation and refutation until we are assembled together in council. These
so‐called bishops thus introduced this foul teaching, together with other
impermissible innovations, among the simple and newly‐baptised Bulgarian
people. This news cut us to the heart. How can we not grieve when we see before our
eyes the fruit of our womb, the child to whom we gave birth through the Gospel of
Christ, being rent asunder by beasts? He who by his sweat and suffering raised them
and perfected them in the Faith, suffers the greatest pain and sorrow upon the
destruction of his children. Therefore, we mourn for our spiritual children, and we
will not cease from mourning. For we will not give sleep to our eyes until, to the
extent that lies in our power, we return them to the House of the Lord.
Now, concerning these forerunners of apostasy, common pests and
servants of the enemy, we, by divine and synodal decree, condemn them as
impostors and enemies of God. It is not as though we were just now
pronouncing judgement upon them, but rather, we now declare openly the
condemnation ordained by the ancient synods and Apostolic Canons. If they
stubbornly persist in their error, we will exclude them from the communion of
all Christians. They introduced fasting on Saturdays, although that is
prohibited by the 64th Apostolic Canon which states: If some cleric is found
fasting on Sundays or Saturdays except the one Great Saturday before
Pascha, let him be removed from the ranks of the clergy, and if he be a
layman, let him be excommunicated. Similarly, by the 56th canon of the holy
Fourth Ecumenical Synod which states: Since we have learnt that in the city
of Old Rome some, during the Great Fast, in opposition to the ecclesiastical
order handed down to us, keep the fast even on Saturdays, the holy

Ecumenical Synod orders that in the Church of Old Rome the Apostolic
Canon which prohibits fasting on Saturdays and Sundays is to be followed
exactly.
Similarly, there is a canon of the regional synod of Gangra which
anathematises those who do not recognise married priests. This was confirmed by the
holy Sixth Ecumenical Synod, which condemned those who require that priests and
deacons cease to cohabit with their lawful wives after their ordination. Such a custom
was being introduced even then by the Church of Old Rome. That Synod reminded
the Church of Old Rome of the evangelical teaching and of the canon and
polity of the Apostles, and ordered it not to insult the holy institution of Christian
marriage established by God Himself. But even if we did not cite all these and other
innovations of the Latins, the mere citing of their addition of the Filioque phrase to
the Nicene Symbol of Faith would be sufficient to subject them to a thousand
anathemas. For that innovation blasphemes the Holy Spirit, or more correctly, the
entire Holy Trinity.
Having presented this matter before our brotherhood in the Lord, according to
the ancient custom of the Church, we invite and ask you to come and join in council
with us, for the purpose of condemning these foul and Godless teachings. Do not
abandon the order established by the Holy Fathers which they, by their acts
and deeds, handed down to us as a legacy to preserve. Rather, straightway send
your representatives and deputies, adorned with piety and the priestly rank and by
the goodness of their life and words, and by common synodal decree this new rot of
evil belief will be excised from the Church. Once we have rooted out this
godlessness, we can hope the newly‐baptised Bulgarian people will return to the
Faith they first accepted. And not only the Bulgarian people, but also all of the
formerly terrible people, the so‐called Rus, for even now they are abandoning their
heathen faith and are converting to Christianity, receiving from us bishops and
pastors as well as all Christian customs. Consequently, if you now move to help
erase this newly begun evil, then the flock of Christ will yet more increase
and the Apostolic learning will reach the ends of the world. With this purpose,
then, send your representatives and deputies equipped with the authority of the
Apostolic thrones which you inherited by the Holy Spirit, so that these and all other
matters may be brought to judgement by lawful authority.
From the Italian region, we have received a synodal letter citing many grave
matters against the bishop of Old Rome. Accordingly, the Orthodox there ask us to
free them from his great tyranny, for in that area sacred law is being scorned and
Church order trampled. We were told this earlier by monks who came to us from
there, and now we have received many letters stating frightening news about that
region and asking us to relay their message to all the bishops and to the Apostolic
Patriarchs as well. For that reason, I communicate to you their request by way of this

epistle. Once a holy and ecumenical Christian synod has been assembled, it will fall
upon us together to resolve all these matters with the help of God and
according to the rules of previous Synods, that in so doing, a deep peace may
again prevail in the Church of Christ.
Moreover, it is necessary to confirm the holy Seventh Ecumenical Synod, to
the end that all the faithful in the Church everywhere reckon and include that Synod
as Ecumenical together with the other six. For we have heard that in some places it is
not yet so counted, although its decisions are accepted and honoured. This was the
Synod that overcame and destroyed the great heretical godlessness of iconoclasm.
Representatives of the other four patriarchates attended its sessions. After they were
all assembled, together with our uncle, the most all‐holy Tarasius, Archbishop of New
Rome, this great and ecumenical synod crushed the antichristʹs blasphemous heresy.
Therefore, this Synod must be declared and numbered with the six preceding ones, so
as to show the union of Christʹs Church and deny the godless iconoclasts of the claim
that their heresy was condemned by only one throne.
Thus do we seek and propose as brother to brethren, and we dutifully beseech
your Holinesses and also ask that you remember our humble self in your prayers.
+ PHOTIUS, by the mercy of God, Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and
Ecumenical Patriarch
[Signatures of other prelates of the Patriarchal Council of Constantinople New Rome]
In the above Encyclical it is plain for all to see, beyond a doubt, that the
theories of Bp. Kirykos Kontogiannis contradict the teachings of St. Photius
the Great. Plainly, the “first error of the Westerners,” as St. Photius has put it,
clearly and equally applies to Bp. Kirykos and whoever else agrees with his
blasphemies and continues to follow him. For although Bp. Kirykos
hypocritically claims to be some kind of “confessor” against Papism and
Ecumenism, he is actually the preacher and dogmatizer of the very first
heresy of Papism itself, namely, the unorthodox, unapostolic and unpatristic
demand for laymen to fast from oil on Saturdays in order to commune on
Sundays, or that they are to refrain from communing on Sundays all together
and commune on Saturdays instead.
Either way, Bp. Kirykos and all those who embrace his unorthodox
requests fall into contradiction with the 9th Canon of the Holy Apostles, the
55th Canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, the 8th Canon of the Seventh
Ecumenical Council, the 2nd Canon of Gangra, the 3rd Canon of St. Timothy of
Alexandria, and even of this very “Encyclical to the Eastern Patriarchs,”

written by St. Photius the Great, who was a true Confessor of Orthodoxy in
mind, word and deed. May his prayers be with us all. Amen.

Demanding a Strict Fast On Saturdays Is the First Heresy of the Papists

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Demanding a Strict Fast On Saturdays Is the First Heresy of the Papists