The Confession of the Holy Hierarch Glycherie the Confessor Against the Calendar Innovation (1926)

A Testimony for Our Times

 

 

Introduction

In 1924 the Romanian Orthodox Church adopted the new (Gregorian) calendar, causing widespread confusion and scandal among clergy and faithful who wished to remain faithful to the Julian calendar—the calendar of the Holy Fathers, established at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea for the measurement of liturgical time, not merely astronomical time.

Glicherie Tănase, abbot of Pocrov Skete and later Confessor and Archbishop of the True Orthodox Church, became one of the most courageous defenders of the traditional Orthodox calendar and order.

The following is his full letter from 1926, addressed to Bishop Nicodim Munteanu. It remains one of the clearest patristic explanations of why the calendar change is not merely an administrative alteration but a violation of dogmatic, canonical, and liturgical order.

For clarity, the original content is preserved in full.

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The Letter of the Then Abbot Glycherie to Bishop Nicodim (1926)

 

Most Reverend Master,

The discussions that took place at Neamț Monastery have troubled both me and all those who were there.

Many monks and brothers in the monastery have likewise heard that what you have done by changing the calendar is an error.

Here at Pocrov Skete, I have not presented the change of our church calendar as something that advances the Church, as Your Grace did at Neamț, but as something that harms our Church and which, if it is not corrected, will lead to ruin and spiritual desolation.

The fact that both calendars use formally the same units of measurement—hours, days, weeks, months, and years—does not mean that they measure the same thing.

Our Orthodox Julian calendar measures liturgical time, as it was established by our Holy Fathers at the First Council of Nicea.

Since then, it is known that liturgical time is measured by units such as the day (the cycle of the day), the week (the weekly cycle), the month (the menologion cycle of the month), and the year (the cycle of the year).

The liturgical day is divided into the four services of the hours, and into vespers, matins, and the Divine Liturgy. To these services may be added the compline (Great or Small) and the Midnight Office.

The liturgical day is divided into four watches of the night (from sunset to sunrise) and four watches of the day (from sunrise to sunset).

And it is not at all accidental that the services begin their reckoning with the evening, and not with midnight or with the morning.

Evening symbolizes in Orthodoxy the existence of the world from its creation until the Incarnation of the Savior, while matins and the liturgy proclaim precisely the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of the Lord.

The liturgical week begins not with Monday, as we are used to according to the worldly calendar, but with Sunday — the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The liturgical week is divided into seven liturgical days, each with its own meaning, which gives each day a distinct liturgical character. Thus:

Monday – dedicated to the Heavenly Powers;

Tuesday – dedicated to St. John the Baptist;

Wednesday – dedicated to the Holy Cross of the Lord and to His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver;

Thursday – dedicated to the Holy Apostles and St. Nicholas;

Friday – dedicated to the Passion of the Savior and His bodily death;

Saturday – dedicated to all the Saints of God.

The cycle of the year is divided into three unequal periods, unlike the Western calendar which divides the year into four quarters or two semesters of equal length.

In our ecclesiastical calendar, the first period is called the Triodion. It begins with the three Sundays before the start of Great Lent and ends on Holy Saturday. The second period of the liturgical year is called the Pentecostarion. It begins with the Sunday of Pascha and ends with the Sunday of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, lasting 50 days. The third period of the liturgical year is called the Oktoechos. It begins the day after the Sunday of Pentecost and ends on the Saturday before the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (with which the Triodion begins).

Since the date of Pascha changes from year to year, the starting dates and ending dates of these three periods which make up the liturgical year also change.

Thus, while the first two periods — the Triodion and the Pentecostarion — have fixed lengths,
the Oktoechos may vary from 26 to 34 weeks.

In addition, the year also contains another subdivision which does not form a cycle, namely the Menaia — the monthly Menaion. Each day of the year is assigned to a monthly menaion. The Menaia contain the services dedicated to the Saints, as well as to the Mother of God, the Savior, the Archangels, etc. Thus, the Menaia contain the feasts with fixed dates, meaning those feasts that fall on the same day of the month every year.

This ordering of liturgical time was established at the First Council of Nicea, and added to by other Councils. But this order of liturgical service has never been changed until now, when we are struck by the chaotic arrangement of the new Western calendar, which destroys this order, measuring only astronomical time and not liturgical time.

If the synod of our Church keeps pace with the modernizations proposed by Archbishop Meletios Metaxakis of Constantinople, then this means that we voluntarily become enemies of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I do not accept them, and I advise all Christians and ministers of Christ’s Church not to accept them, since all of this seeks to break down the dogmatic and canonical wall of the Orthodox Church. Our duty is to guard the decisions of Orthodoxy, lest the enemies of Christ break down the wall of the Church, after which we will become enslaved in soul.

What do we need an astronomical calendar for, if we have the calendar of the Holy Fathers? For the astronomical calendar of the Pope of Rome has many shortcomings.

What shall we do with the Fast of the Holy Apostles if we permanently adopt the new calendar?
Have you ever thought about the fact that the new calendar can no longer regulate the rhythm of liturgical time, nor the proper order of this fast, of which I now speak?

The new calendar shifts the fixed-date feasts by 13 days compared to those in the Orthodox calendar followed by the Holy Fathers — that is, the Julian Calendar. Thus, after some years with the astronomical new calendar, we will lose — if not entirely, then at least partially — the Fast of the Holy Apostles. For the beginning of this fast is determined by a movable feast, Pascha, and its end by a fixed feast — June 29, the feast of the Holy Apostles.

We know that the Sunday after Pentecost is All Saints Sunday. We also know that Pascha can fall only between March 21 and April 25 — according to the Old Calendar — (or, if you prefer, according to the new calendar between April 3 and May 8). According to these dates, Pascha is considered “early” or “late.” If Pascha falls “early,” the Apostles’ Fast is longer. If Pascha falls “late,” the Apostles’ Fast is shorter.

What many do not know is that this fast has a particular importance, and its alteration contradicts holy tradition and the holy canons.

What happens if Pascha were to fall on May 8 according to the new calendar? Then All Saints Sunday would have to be celebrated after the feast of the Holy Apostles — which is completely wrong.

It would also mean that the feast of the Holy Apostles would fall on the Wednesday after Pentecost — leaving only two days of fasting, and this during a period in which the holy canons forbid fasting.

What happens when two calendars are used in the Church?

The Divine Liturgy is a work of the whole Church, taking place throughout its entire extent, representing a unity of the two worlds — heaven and earth — when time is united with eternity.

With the adoption of the new calendar, the harmony in which the local Orthodox Churches celebrated their feasts has been broken.

Thus, in time, the Russian Church, the Serbian Church, together with the Holy Mountain and the Church of Jerusalem, sing: “Today the Virgin gives birth to the One who is above all being…,” while the new-calendarists sing: “When You were baptized in the Jordan, O Lord…”

While the Churches faithful to patristic tradition sing the Troparion of the Baptism of the Lord, the new-calendar Churches sing the Troparion of St. Macarius the Great.

Even if you say that Pascha will continue to follow the Old Calendar of the Holy Fathers, this in itself is a scandal — that in one Orthodox Church its helm should follow sometimes the new calendar, and sometimes the old.

And, as we see, one thing you promised and another thing you did.

Great was the scandal among Christians when the Synod of the Orthodox Church ordered that Pascha be celebrated this year, 1926, according to the new calendar, so that it would fall on the same day as the heretical Catholics of the West.

How will you justify yourselves, when at Constantinople in 1583 the Holy Fathers decreed:

Thus:

“All who would dare to break the decree of the holy Ecumenical Great Council which was first at Nicea, in the presence of the God-loving Emperor Constantine — a decree which concerns the holy celebration of the saving Pascha — let them have no communion with the Church, and let them be cast out from her, if they stubbornly oppose that which has been well and rightly ordered and commanded. And this is said for the laity.

But if any of the priests of the Church — bishop or presbyter or deacon — after this decree would dare, for the revolt of peoples and the troubling of the Churches, to separate and celebrate the holy Pascha together with the Jews, such a one the Holy Council has condemned to be cut off from the Church.”

As you know, here at Pocrov we have never obeyed the orders of this now-schismatic synod when it issued decisions against the holy canons, no matter the threats you made to me many times. And never will we celebrate the Pascha of God on the same day as the Catholics, but only together with the Pravoslavnic Church.

If, as you command, we observe the Lord’s Pascha on a date set by heretics and schismatics, will we not fall under the anathema of the Holy Fathers? Even if this anathema is not recorded anywhere, the angels of God will write it in their books.

And I believe there is no need for this anathema to be spoken aloud against wrongdoers, since the Holy Fathers have already anathematized those who break the right law of the Church of Christ, especially concerning what has been commanded to us about the Resurrection of the Lord.

What other anathemas or curses would be needed for those who break this law, since they are already condemned by the Holy Fathers?

All Christians know about the descent of the Holy Fire, on Holy Saturday, in the Church of the Lord’s Tomb in Jerusalem. The light comes only according to the calendar of the Holy Fathers. Do you think the Holy Light will come twice this year?

Once on the day when you want to celebrate Pascha according to the new calendar, and once again for the Churches which have not abandoned the Orthodox calendar of the Holy Fathers? Why is it that all the miracles performed every year in the Holy Places — the Holy Light, the Cloud of Tabor, the Reversal of the Jordan — occur only on the fixed date of the liturgical calendar of the Church, that is, the Julian Calendar of the Holy Fathers, and never according to the astronomical calendar? Do you not understand any of these miracles, or do you want to hide the truth of God from the people? What shall we answer before God, who will judge us according to our deeds, if we are ashamed to confess the truth of the Orthodox faith?

You know very well that many ministers of the Church, upon leaving the meeting to which you summoned us at Neamț Monastery, rejected what you proposed we do. And before the icon of our Holy Mother, we vowed not to accept those anti-canonical innovations of the new calendar. As I have taken the monastic vows before our Lady, the Mother of God, so I have vowed to reject your episcopal synod entirely if it does not turn back from its corrupt and fallen roots and counsels, estranged from the grace of God.

If you want the new calendar, let it be only for the secular world, as it has been since 1919, but do not bring it into the Church of Christ, where everything is measured by the liturgical calendar of the Holy Fathers, through which the Militant Church on earth is united in heavenly concord with the Triumphant Church already in Heaven, in the Kingdom of God.

For this reason, what is done on earth is also done in heaven, and when something is celebrated on earth it is celebrated in heaven. This means concord between the two Churches. And the astronomical calendar is far from accomplishing this concord.

Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other.” We cannot serve both God and mammon.

For this reason, for almost two years I have waited for the Synod of the Orthodox Church to correct its decisions concerning the canons of the Holy Fathers. But I see that not only has it not corrected them, but it advances further toward destruction.

For this reason, I have not accepted to serve together with Your Graces since 1924 at Neamț Monastery, for the canons of the Church forbid me to concelebrate with schismatics.

During this time, as everyone knows, from Neamț Diocese to us at Pocrov, the order of services has followed only the Old Calendar. Throughout this time, you have tried to persuade me toward your new calendar, as you did when you summoned me personally to the episcopate. In these attempts I also recall the enticements you set before me with the abbacy of Vovidenia Skete, or the gossip that I was not obedient to the Synod, etc.

Added to this is the decision this year, 1926, to celebrate Pascha together with the Catholics.

All of this obliges me to separate myself completely from your schismatic synod and to follow the path of wandering in the wilderness of these mountains. If any of my disciples wish to follow me into the wilderness for the Name of God, I will take him with me. But as I see, only one of them — Deacon Father David — is ready to sacrifice himself for Christ.

Even if you accuse us of religious fanaticism, as you have until now, we know that “He who is faithful in little is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust in little is unjust also in much.”

I am fully convinced that the Pope’s calendar cannot be more “correct” or more “exact” than the calendar of the Holy Fathers.

From now on I give my disciples the greeting of farewell, and to Your Grace these lines written in the Spirit of God’s Law, through which I inform you that I, Hieromonk Glicherie Tănase, Abbot of Pocrov Skete, resign from the leadership of the skete because of the fall of the Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church into the schism of the new calendar.

Together with Hierodeacon David we will try to live in solitude, not knowing where, but under the protection of Our Lady the Theotokos, and for the preservation of the Orthodox faith of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils.

I ask you to appoint another abbot for this skete, since I will leave here forever!

Servant of Christ,

Glicherie Tănase

 

Source (slight typos corrected): https://trueorthodox.eu/the-confession-of-the-holy-hierarch-glycherie-the-confessor-against-the-calendar-innovation-1926/