Dr Augustin Sokolovski
The Apostles' Fast begins on the Monday following All Saints' Day. It lasts until the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, which, according to the Calendar of the Holy Fathers—also known as the Julian calendar or the Old-Style calendar—is celebrated in our Church on July 12. The Apostles' Fast is a very pious observance.
Among the Great Fathers of the Church, Saint Leo of Rome (+461) mentions this Apostles’ Fast, testifying that in his time, the fast in honor of the Apostles was already being observed in the Churches of Italy in order to worthily honor the Apostles Peter and Paul, whose common feast day had been celebrated since very ancient times as part of the early Christian tradition.
The Fast of the Holy Apostles is a time of quiet and summer repose, a time for reflection on God, and a period of spiritual edification during which all Orthodox Christians are called upon to refrain from both idleness and making abrupt, stubborn, or hasty decisions, and to literally enter into a summertime sadness while they await the approaching Feast of the Apostles.
‘Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares for you,’ writes the Apostle Peter, in his First Epistle (1 Peter 5:7). ‘Obey your leaders and submit to them,’ echoes the Apostle Paul (Hebrews 13:17). It is in honour of Peter and Paul, in the joy of their teachings and in obedience to their words, that we are called to fast.
On the feast days of certain saints, during the Apostolic Fast, the faithful are permitted to eat fish. Unlike during Great Lent, the Divine Liturgy may be celebrated in the church every day. Therefore, one can and should partake of the sacraments of the Church and Holy Communion as often as possible.