Canonical Questions Answered under Patriarch Nicholas

Direct English translation

Question: Ought a monk to enter the holy sanctuary? For Canon 33 of the holy Council in Trullo forbids this, and it also does not permit anyone who has not received the seal, or any monk, to chant or read from the ambo; likewise Canon 15 and Canon 21 of Laodicea, and Canon 14 of the Second Council at Nicaea. Answer: A monk is forbidden, without the laying on of hands, to perform a reader's services from the ambo as a reader. But I do not think that one who has incurred no accusation ought to be forbidden to enter the sanctuary in order to light a candle or lamp, on account of the dignity of the monastic habit.

Direct English translation

Question: Ought one not to bend the knee on the Sabbath, just as one does not on the Lord's Day or during Pentecost? Answer: It is not forbidden by the canon; but because the Sabbath is not followed by fasting, most people do not bend the knee on it either.

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Question: Ought the fast in August to be observed? Answer: The fast formerly occurred at this season, but it was moved so that it would not coincide with the pagan fasts held at this time. Nevertheless, even now many people observe this fast.

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Question: Ought a demoniac to partake of the holy things? For Saint Timothy, in the questions addressed to him, spoke in one way, the Holy Apostles in another, and later authorities in another. Answer: If someone is troubled by black bile so that he appears to be possessed, he is not to be barred. But if he is truly possessed by a demon, he is by no means to be deemed worthy of the holy things, for light has no communion with darkness.

Direct English translation

Question: Ought a priest to consume without distinction the things offered in church, such as prosphora and wine, and in whatever manner he wishes? Ought he to eat them as common bread? And if many such things are collected, what ought to be done with them? Answer: Not so with the fragments of the elevated offering; these are to be eaten only in the church until all have been consumed. But the surplus of the other offerings is not to be eaten with milk, cheese, eggs, or fish, but separately and by itself.

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Question: If a monk, wherever he was tonsured, suffers some spiritual harm because of a circumstance there and, wishing to depart, is bound by his superior, what shall he do? Shall he disregard the harm or the bond? Answer: He ought to tell the superior the reason for which he is being harmed; and if there is manifest danger from it, he is to depart from there and pay no heed to the bond.

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Question: An abbot, when dying, left another in his place and bound him not to depart; but the latter, recognizing his own weakness, departed. What, then, ought to be done concerning the bond? Answer: The bond is unreasonable and therefore without force; the one bound shall be released by approaching the hierarch and reporting his circumstances.

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Question: Ought a priest who was deposed for an offence, or who voluntarily abandoned the priesthood after condemning himself, to intone 'Blessed is God,' 'May God have mercy on us,' and 'Christ our true God'; or to offer incense with a censer; or to partake within the sanctuary? Answer: No, for he is to be assigned to the place of the laity.

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Question: What is meant by Saint Basil's statement among the minor penances, 'Let him be excluded from the blessing in proportion to the offence'? Answer: It means that one is deprived of the blessing distributed in the church.

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Question: Ought those who are barred from the holy Gift to eat elevated prosphora? Answer: We find in the Life of Saint Theodore of Sykeon that such persons are forbidden to do so.

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Question: Ought persons to be placed under penance according to the Canonicon of the Faster? Answer: That Canonicon, by employing much condescension, has destroyed many. Therefore those who know what is good and yet err by following it are to be corrected.