(3) Holy and Great Week, preceded by the Saturday of Lazarus and

Palm Sunday.

The rule of xerophagy is relaxed on the following days:

( 1) On Saturdays and Sundays in Lent, with the exception of Holy

mid-day and in the evening, with wine and olive o il; but meat, animal products and fish are not allowed. ( 2 ) On the Feast of the Annunciation (25· March) and Palm Sunday, fish is permitted as well as wine and oil, but meat and animal pro42 The early sources are not agreed concerning the application of the rule of xero­ phagy. The Council of I.aodicea, Canon £0, and Theodore the Studiue, Doctrina Chronica, 9 (P .G . xeix, 1700B), prescribe xerophagy on all weekdays in Lent; but John of Damascus, On the Holy Fasts, ς (P .G . xcv, 6$ d ), and Theodore Balsamon (Rallis-Potlis, Syntagma, vol. iii, p. 2 1 7 ) seem to envisage a less strict observance.

ducts are not allowed. If the Feast of the Annunciation falls on the first four days of Holy Week, wine and oil are permitted but not fish. If it falls on Great Friday or Holy Saturday, wine is permitted, but not fish or oil.

(3) Wine and oil are permitted on the following days, if they fall

on a weekday in the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth week: First and Second Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist (24 February) Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (9 March) Forefeast of the Annunciation (24 March) Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel (26 March) Patronal festival of the Church or Monastery

first five days of Lent, Saturday and Sunday are kept as feasts of joyful thanksgiving. On Saturday we commemorate the Great Martyr Theodore Tyron or Tiro, ‘ the Recruit’ , a Roman soldier in Asia Minor, martyred in the early fourth century under the Emperor Maximian (286-30^). Here may be seen at work a rule applied by

the Church since the fourth century: as the full Liturgy cannot be

offered on weekdays in Lent, saints’ memorials which in the fixed calendar occur during the week are transferred to Saturday or