Church Fathers on Vegetarianism and Meat Eating

And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: - Genesis 1:29

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them. The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain, for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea. - Isaiah 11:6-9

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Disclosure: I am not completely vegetarian, although I am a lapsed vegetarian, and very sympathetic towards vegetarianism.

I do not, however, eat red meat, or "quadrapeds," as the Rule of St. Benedict has it in its prohibition against meat. Traditionally, monks of both the East and West have been vegetarians, and most Eastern Orthodox monks today are vegetarians.

Orthodox Christians are vegan much of the year, abstaining from meat and dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays through out the year, and also during the following seasons:

• Christmas Lent (St. Phillip's Fast leading up to the Nativity)
• Great Lent leading up to Pashca
• The Apostle's fast (the two weeks leading up to June 29th's feast of St. Peter and Paul)
• The Dormition Fast, August 1-14, leading up to the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (with the except of August 6th Feast day of the Transfiguration).

We all have read about and know the impacts of eating meat on human health, the environment, and world hunger; we know about the cruelty and inhumane conditions of factoring farming; we all know that beef cows are fed corn instead of grass, and injected with anti-biotics.

The original Divine Intention was for plants to be our food (Genesis 1:29). The Messianic Kingdom will abolish the predator relationship and create harmony between all creatures (Isaiah 11). Giving up meat is an act of compassion toward our fellow creatures. It is good discipline for us and healthy for our bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit. Eating lower on the food chain lessens our carbon footprint. It is a compassionate, holy, healthy and environmentally friendly way to live.

What is a charitable heart?—it is a heart which is burning With charity for the whole of creation, for men, for the birds, for the beasts, for the demons-for all creatures. He who has such a heart cannot see or call to mind a creature without his eyes becoming filled with tears by reason of the immense compassion which seizes his heart; a heart which is softened and can no longer bear to see or learn from others of any suffering, even the smallest pain, being inflicted upon a creature. This is why such a man never ceases to pray also for the animals, for the enemies of Truth, and for those who do him evil, that they may be preserved and purified. He will pray even for the reptiles, moved by the infinite pity which reigns in the hearts of those who are becoming united to God. - St. Isaac the Syrian

As God-ordained priests, our vocation is to offer up the Creation as a Sacrament back to God in thanksgiving. Perhaps it is time to take another look at what the Fathers of the Church say about eating meat.

- Lance, a.k.a., Byzantine Christian

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It is far better to be happy than to have your bodies act as grave yards for animals.

- Clement of Alexandria


Sacrifices were invented by men to be a pretext for eating flesh.

- Clement of Alexandria


Those who use the most frugal fare are the strongest, the healthiest and the noblest...We must guard against those sorts of food which persuade us to eat when we are not hungry, bewitching the appetite...is there not within a temperate simplicity, a wholesome variety of eatables—vegetables, roots, olives, herbs, milk, cheese, fruits...?...But those who bend around inflammatory tables, nourishing their own diseases, are ruled by a most licentious disease which I shall venture to call the demon of the belly: the worst and most vile of demons. It is far better to be happy than to have a devil dwelling in us, for happiness is found only in the practice of virtue. Accordingly the apostle Matthew lived upon seeds, fruits, grains and nuts and vegetables, without the use of flesh.

- Clement of Alexandria


How unworthily, too, do you press the example of Christ as having come ‘eating and drinking’ into the service of your lusts: He who pronounced not the full but the hungry and thirsty ‘blessed,’ who professed His work to be the completion of His Father’s will, was wont to abstain—instructing them to labor for that ‘meat’ which lasts to eternal life, and enjoining in their common prayers petition not for gross food but for bread only.

-Tertullian


I ever recognize Esau, the hunter, as a man of taste and as his were, so are your whole skill and interest given to hunting and trapping...It is in the cooking pots that your love is inflamed—it is in the kitchen that your faith grows fervid—it is in the flesh dishes that all your hopes lie hid...Consistently do you men of the flesh reject the things of the Spirit. But if your prophets are complacent towards such persons, they are not my prophets...Let us openly and boldly vindicate our teaching. We are sure that they who are in the flesh cannot please God...a grossly-feeding Christian is akin to lions and wolves rather than God. Our Lord Jesus called Himself Truth and not habit.

-Tertullian


When we do abstain (from eating meat), we do so because ‘we keep under our body and bring it into subjection’ (I Corinthians 9:27), and desire ‘to mortify our members that are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence’ (Colossians 3:5); and we use every effort to ‘mortify the deeds of the flesh.’ (Romans 8:13)

- Origen


The steam of meat darkens the light of the spirit. One can hardly have virtue if one enjoys meat meals and feasts.

- St.Basil the Great


With simple living, well being increases in the household, animals are in safety, there is no shedding of blood, nor putting animals to death. The knife of the cook is needless, for the table is spread only with the fruits that nature gives, and with them they are content.

- St. Basil the Great


We, the Christian leaders, practice abstinence from the flesh of animalsto subdue our bodies.

- St. John Chrysostom


The eating of meat was unknown up to the big flood, but since the floodthey have the strings and stinking juices of animal meat into ourmouths, just as they threw in front of the grumbling sensual people inthe desert. Jesus Christ, who appeared when the time had been fulfilled,has again joined the end with the beginning, so that it is no longerallowed for us to eat animal meat.

- Saint Jerome

An Ignorance Greater Than All Knowledge

“The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.”

- Tao Te Ching, Chapter 1



“One can only have a simple knowledge of God, beyond all words, ideas, colors, pictures, or names. This ignorance is greater than all knowledge.”

- St. Isaac the Syrian



“Those who know don't have the words to tell
And the ones with the words don't know too well”

- from the Song, the Angel/Beast, by Bruce Cockburn

Fathers of the Revolution Part 10: The Face of Jesus in Face of the Suffering, the Oppressed, the Poor

Finally- and this is the beginning and the end- the face of the Lord, the face of Jesus, is seen is the face of the suffering, the oppressed, the poor. It is the face of all humanity. It is the face of any human person.


For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

- Matthew 25:42-45

EMMAUS

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus…While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him…When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ …They [spoke about] what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

- Luke 24


THE BREAD IS RISING!

Fathers of the Revolution Part 9: The Willingness to Die for the Cause

I die for Christ because I choose to, unless you keep me back. Please, do not show me the wrong sort of compassion. Let them give me to the wild beasts- through them I can draw closer to God! I am God's wheat: I am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, to be manifest as pure bread!

- St. Ignatius of Antioch

Fathers of the Revolution Part 8: Those Who Follow the Way of Christ are the Soul of the World.

Christians are, in the world, what the soul is to the body. The soul exists in every part of the body, and there are Christians in every part of the world...The soul loves the body, even though the body hates it; Christians love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they are the preservers of the world.

- The Epistle to Diognetus

Fathers of the Revolution Part 7: Christianity Transcends the Christian Church

When the world as we know it has passed away, and man, renewed, is ready for immortality...then will be "the new heaven and the new earth." They will be new, and man will live in them, always new, in fellowship with God.

- St Irenaeus



We are taught that Christ is God's firstborn; we have said that He is the Word- that is, the Reason- in Whom the whole human race shares. Those who have lived in Reason are Christians, even though they were called atheists. This is true among the Greeks, for instance, of Socrates and Heracletus; and among the non-Greeks, of Abraham.

- St. Justin Martyr



Where the Church is, the Spirit of God is. And where the Spirit of God is, the Church is, with every grace. The Spirit of God is truth.

- St. Irenaeus

St. Cyprian on Almsgiving

The remedies for propitiating God are given in the words of God Himself; the divine instructions have taught what sinners ought to do, that by works of righteousness God is satisfied, that with the deserts of mercy sins are cleansed. And in Solomon we read, Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, and these shall intercede for you from all evil. Sirach 22:12 And again: Whoever stops his ears that he may not hear the weak, he also shall call upon God, and there will be none to hear him. Proverbs 21:13 For he shall not be able to deserve the mercy of the Lord, who himself shall not have been merciful; nor shall he obtain anything from the divine pity in his prayers, who shall not have been humane towards the poor man's prayer. And this also the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, and proves, saying, Blessed is he that considers of the poor and needy; the Lord will deliver him in the evil day. Remembering which precepts, Daniel, when king Nebuchodonosor was in anxiety, being frightened by an adverse dream, gave him, for the turning away of evils, a remedy to obtain the divine help, saying, Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you; and redeem your sins by almsgivings, and your unrighteousness by mercies to the poor, and God will be patient to your sins. Daniel 4:27 And as the king did not obey him, he underwent the misfortunes and mischiefs which he had seen, and which he might have escaped and avoided had he redeemed his sins by almsgiving. Raphael the angel also witnesses the like, and exhorts that alms should be freely and liberally bestowed, saying, Prayer is good, with fasting and alms; because alms does deliver from death, and it purges away sins. Tobit 12:8-9 He shows that our prayers and fastings are of less avail, unless they are aided by almsgiving; that entreaties alone are of little force to obtain what they seek, unless they be made sufficient by the addition of deeds and good works. The angel reveals, and manifests, and certifies that our petitions become efficacious by almsgiving, that life is redeemed from dangers by almsgiving, that souls are delivered from death by almsgiving.

Fathers of the Revolution Part 6: God and the Church

One can only have a simple knowledge of God, beyond all words, ideas, colors, pictures, or names. This ignorance is greater than all knowledge.

- St. Isaac the Syrian


All the power of the evil one was torn away in the presence of the Spirit.

- St. Basil the Great


He is the Spirit of God...Christ's mind, the Spirit of truth and freedom. He is the creative Spirit, Who makes all things new. He knows all and teaches; He goes where He wishes...He reveals, illuminates, gives life its impulse, and deifies man...He makes prophets, apostles and teachers.

- St. Basil the Great


The Holy Spirit is present completely in every human person. He is everywhere whole, and shared without being divided. According to what He can give us as human beings, we participate in the Spirit.

- St. Basil the Great


On the Lord's day, gather in community to break bread and offer thanks. But confess your sins first, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. No one who has a quarrel with a brother may join your gathering; not until they are reconciled. Your sacrifice must not be made unholy.

- The Didache


Christians love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If man has something, he gives freely to the man who has nothing. If they see a stranger, they take him home and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don't consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God. And if they hear that one of them is in jail, or persecuted for professing the name of their redeemer, they give him all that he needs. If it is possible, they bail him out. If one of them is poor, and there is not enough food to go around, they fast several days to give him the food he needs...This is really a new kind of person. There is something divine in them.

- Aristides, a non-Christian, defending the Christians before the Roman Emperor Hadrian


Wherever there are three persons, even though they are laymen, there is the Church. Every man lives by his own faith; and God does not distinguish between classes. If, in cases of necessity, you have the right to act as a priest, then you must also accept priestly discipline...It is God's will that all of us should be in the right state, at any time or place, to administer His sacraments.

- Tertullian


God is not part of existence; men take part in God.

- Origen


Fellowship with God is light and life...to be separated from God is death.

- St. Irenaeus


Man must first come into being, and then progress; by progressing, he comes to manhood; growing, he goes forward- he goes forward to his glory, and the sight of God. God's will is that he should be seen; and to see God is to have everlasting life, and it is everlasting life which brings man close to God.

- St. Irenaeus


I have heard some say, "I will not believe it unless I can find the good news in Scripture." And when I answered, "it IS in Scripture," they answer, "You'll have to prove that." But for me Jesus IS Scripture. The scriptures which cannot be overcome are his cross, death, and resurrection, and faith through him.

- St. Irenaeus


"See," they say, "how Christians love on another." They themselves hate one another. "See how willing they are to die for one another," they say; because they will kill one another without qualms. They criticize us because we call each other "Brother." The reason they do so is, I am sure, that the name of any human relationship is simple affectation with them...

- Tertullian


I will show you several things; but I do not wish to do this as a teacher- rather, as one of you, loving each one of you separately and all of you together, more than my own life. I really want to write, not as a teacher, but as your slave, who loves you.

- The Epistle of Barnabas


For your sake I am a bishop. Together with you, I am a Christian; and I am a sinner, with you, and together with you I am a disciple and hear the good news.

- St. Augustine


I do not decide things using my own judgment; not without the approval of the people.

- St. Cyprian


We should not be set apart from others by our dress, but by our conversation and the style of our life.

- Pope Celestine I

Even in the celebration of the liturgy the Bishop merely wore clean clothes. A special dress for clergy was not introduced until the 5th century.


If a prophet stays too long he is a false prophet. When the apostle leaves, let him only have enough bread to take him to his next stop. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet...not everyone whose speech is ecstatic and spiritual is a prophet; he is a true prophet only if his ways are the Lord's ways. The false and the true prophets are known by the ways they live...If a prophet tells you the truth but does not live up to his own teaching, he is a false prophet.

- The Didache


Choose for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, humble men who do not want wealth, men who are sincere and approved. They serve you as prophets and teachers: do not look down on them.

- The Didache


Make sure your Eucharist is one. There is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to make us one in His blood.

- St. Ignatius of Antioch

This is the first recorded use of the word "Eucharist"- that is, "thanksgiving"- for the sacrament of unity. It refers to the Agape (a word that signifies the love that descends from God), the common meal shared by Christians in Apostolic times, in which the Eucharist was embedded.

Fathers of the Revolution Part 5: Non-Violence and the State

If a murder is committed privately, it is considered a crime. But if it happens with the authority of the state, they call it courage!

- St. Cyprian



If anyone studying to be a Christian, or any one of the faithful, wants to become a soldier, let him be turned away….Christian soldiers are not to kill, even if commanded to….Christians are not to become soldiers voluntarily….He who carries a sword must be sure that he does not shed blood. If he does shed blood, he must not participate in the sacraments.

- From the canonical decrees compiled by St. Hyppolitus



We Christians do not bear arms against any country; we do not make war anymore. We have become children of peace, and Jesus is our leader.

- Origen



In times past, heathens and barbarians made war….but when they received Christ’s teaching (this is truly admirable) they were wise enough to end the violent slaughter. Now they do not care for war. They have at heart only constant peace and friendliness.

- St. Athanasius


He asks soldiers of the peaceful King of kings to renounce all arms….He insists: “Those who seek peace must not use the sword or any weapons.”

- Clement of Alexandria



Why is there strife, anger, lack of unity, and war among you? Don’t we have one God, one Christ? Isn’t one Holy Spirit given to all of us? We are called to the unity of Christ. Why do members of Christ tear one another this way- are we mad, rebelling against our own body? Have we forgotten that we are all members of each one another?

- Pope St. Clement I



Even if others make war against us, it is right for us to remain in peace.

- St. John Chrysostom



It is certainly a greater and more wonderful work to change the minds of enemies, bringing about a change in soul, than to kill them.

- St. John Chrysostom

Fathers of the Revolution Part 4: The Church is the Church of the Poor

The Lord ate from a common bowl, and asked his disciples to sit on the grass. He washed their feet with a towel wrapped around his waist- He, who is the Lord of the universe! He drank water from a jar of earthenware, with the Samaritan woman. Christ made use his aim, not extravagance.

- St. Clement


When the Son of Man comes in majesty, when he sits on the throne of glory, when all people are gathered and he divides the good from the bad, what praise will he give those on his right hand? He will praise them only for works of kindness and charity; he will hold them as done for himself. For the One who made our nature his own did not hold himself back in any way from the most simple human thing. And what curse will there be for those on his left hand? Only that they neglected love; that they were inhumanly harsh and denied mercy to the oppressed. It is though there were no other virtues with the first group, and as though there were no other sins than those of the other.

- Pope St. Leo the Great


Let us abandon luxury, we will not regret it.

- Tertullian


The price of the Kingdom is the food you give to those who need it.

- Pope St. Leo the Great


Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead.

- St. John Chrysostom


We are not to throw away things that can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good. They are instruments of good in the hands of those who use them properly.

- St. Clement


Houses of hospitality must be built for the poor in every city of every diocese.

- The Council of Nicea


Every family should have a room where Christ is welcome in the person of the hungry and thirsty stranger.

- St. John Chrysostom