Tobias Straney | February 4, 2026
Defrocked nun Barbara Larin
denounced Orthodox fasting traditions as rooted in bigotry and identity
politics, arguing they demean other religious practices and clash with modern
multicultural and ecumenical ideals.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA — Barbara
Larin, the defrocked ROCOR nun formerly known as Sister Vassa, published a
Facebook post criticizing the Orthodox Church's fasting cycle as "super
not PC," based on "bigoted rationale," and contrary to
multiculturalism. [See post below.]
She notes the common view that
avoiding the fast after the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee humbles
believers, preventing them from boasting like the Pharisee who fasted twice a
week (Lk 18:9-14).
However, Larin points to the
Slavonic Typikon, which states the reason is "because there are heterodox
or 'other-minded people' who fast this week… So, we don't fast, 'disrupting
their commandment of such a heresy'." She identifies this as the three-day
Fast of the Ninevites, observed by some Oriental Orthodox traditions three
weeks before Great Lent.
In her view, this non-fasting
serves as "an identity-building sort of exercise. 'We' affirm, by keeping
a different fasting-schedule from 'them,' that 'we' are not 'them.' One might
feel, in our age of embracing multiculturalism and in light of ecumenical
dialog with Oriental Orthodox churches, that fasting or not fasting as a
demonstration of being different from 'them' or even demeaning 'their'
traditions (as the Typikon explicitly does) is, to say the least, distasteful.
To say more, it might make us like the Pharisee, who boasted, 'I am not like
other people.'"
Larin also argues that the
Wednesday and Friday fasts exclude Jewish practices, citing the
late-first-century Didache: "let not your fasts be with the hypocrites . .
. for they fast on Monday and Thursday."
She refers throughout to
"the bigoted rationale of the Typikon and Didache as quoted above."
Previously, the UOJ reported that
the ROCOR[-MP] Synod stripped Larin of the monastic tonsure.
Source:
Why is this Wednesday & Friday
Fast-Free?
(Wednesday, February
4)
Vassa Larin
This week after the Sunday of the
Publican & Pharisee, Orthodox Christians don’t fast the usual fast of
Wednesday and Friday. The reason for this is commonly presumed to be our
humbling ourselves, so as not to be like the Pharisee in the parable (Lk 18:9-14),
who boasted in his prayer, saying, “God, I thank you that I am not like other
people..., I fast two times a week...” (which meant on Mondays and Thursdays).
But the reason given in the Slavonic Typikon, the book that governs the
order of liturgical services and fasting-rules of the church year, is not that.
We don’t fast this week, says the Typikon, because there are heterodox
or “other-minded people” who fast this week (в сей седмице иномудрствующии
содержат пост). So, we don’t fast, “disrupting their commandment of such a
heresy” (развращающе онех веление толикия ереси). The “heretical” fast
to which the Typikon refers is the three-day “Fast of the Ninevites,”
commemorating the repentance of Nineveh and Jonah’s three days in the belly of
the fish, observed three weeks before Great Lent in several Oriental Orthodox
church-traditions.
The commonly-presumed reason for
not fasting this week (to be not like the Pharisee) and the Typikon’s
reason (to be not like the heterodox), are similar in the sense that, in
both cases, our not-fasting is an identity-building sort of exercise. “We”
affirm, by keeping a different fasting-schedule from “them,” that “we” are not “them.”
One might feel, in our age of embracing multiculturalism and in light of
ecumenical dialog with Oriental Orthodox churches, that fasting or not fasting
as a demonstration of being different from “them” or even demeaning “their”
traditions (as the Typikon explicitly does) is, to say the least,
distasteful. To say more, it might make us like the Pharisee, who boasted, “I
am not like other people.”
But here’s the thing about
fasting-traditions or food-related traditions in general: Whether we look at
biblical prohibitions of certain foods in Judaism, or Ramadan in Islam, or the
Ash Wednesday fast in Western Christian churches, or the central sacrament of
Christians of eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Christ, or even the
tradition of eating turkey on Thanksgiving in the U.S., all these traditions
have always had identity-building functions, reminding the people who adhere to
them of who “they” are. In Christian tradition, the first mention of the
Wednesday and Friday fast that we find in the late-first-century “Didache” explicitly
says that “we” fast on Wednesday and Friday, so as not to fast on Monday and
Thursday as one did in Judaism: “let not your fasts be with the hypocrites,” is
the super not-pc way the Didache puts it, “for they fast on Monday and
Thursday.”
Having said all that, today I
don’t think we are bothered by the fact that this year, the first day of
Ramadan will coincide with Ash Wednesday (February 18), the first day of Lent
for Western Christians. And, although most Orthodox churches will begin Lent on
the following Monday, our fasting period will overlap with the fasting period
both of the Muslims and of not-Orthodox Christians, which also doesn’t bother
anyone, including the Typikon. This tells us that the principle of not
fasting with “the others” has not been consistently upheld throughout the
development of our tradition(s), even while we have quite different
fasting-rules among our different church-cultures.
Conclusions: 1. Our resolve
either to avoid or demean “other” traditions as far as coinciding with their
fasting-periods go has weakened, by our time; but 2. The identity-building
function of our fasts (and feasts) has not gone anywhere, which I don’t think
is a bad thing in our age of “fluidity,” aside from the bigoted rationale of
the Typikon and Didache as quoted above. We fast or don’t fast
communally, not because we are better or worse than “others,” but according to
the traditions of our own culture or church-community. It reminds us of who “we”
are, warts and all, in community.
Source:
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