The Apostolic Orthodox Tradition of “Sarandismos” (The Service of 40th Day
Blessing of birth givers) is a special 40 Day period of a new mother’s
self-enclosure in her home after child-birth. This is an Ancient
Liturgical Act of our Holy Orthodox Church and traces back to Mosaic
Law, practiced in imitation and special honour of the Holy Mother of
God, the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. Even she
herself, after giving birth to Christ, remained enclosed for 40 Days and
only after that period was completed, she brought the Divine Infant to
the Holy Temple and placed Him at the Hands of the Holy Priest St
Symeon. This event was rightfully elevated to a Great Theomitoric Feast
of the “Ypapandi” = The Annunciation of Christ, which in all accuracy
consists of the True Orthodox ‘Mother’s Day’. It portrays the perfect
example of a Sacred Image of the Most Holy Mother which brings her Child
to the Temple and dedicates it to God in all gratefulness that children
are not really ours but God’s. Thus, the Tradition of Sarandismos is an
exceptional tribute to Motherhood.The ancient medical term for
Sarandismos is “loheia” and a woman during medical confinement of her
bed is called “lehona”. In the science of medicine ‘Loheia’ is the 40
day period during which the female organism attempts to reinstate itself
to the condition that it was prior to pregnancy.
The
very first thing that we must point out is that these Orthodox
Traditions are not "man-made" or "human teachings" as heretics accuse
us. Holy Scripture commands us to "stand fast, and hold the traditions which
you have been taught, whether by word or letter." (2Thess. 2, 15) These
are sacred traditions initially practiced by very sacred people under
divine inspiration. "Holy men of God spoke just as they were moved by
the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1, 21) It is God the Holy Spirit that guides
the Church to all Truth (John 16, 13) These sanctified persons found
great favour by God, received holy information and confirmed that it is
in fact pleasing to God.
It
is therefore a very daring and anti-Christian stance to oppose these
traditions, to attack believers and degrade their faith and adherence.
It is far better, fairer and safer for someone to say: "Since it is
recorded in the history of the First Apostolic Church, I do accept it,
but I myself cannot practice this" or "I don't have the strength, the
capacity, the ability or the intention to follow such thing" instead of
cunningly devising evil excuses saying that it is supposedly "not
Scriptural or not important for God or man-made". The truth is that Holy
Scripture abundantly denotes the importance of motherhood, childbirth
(and the sacred traditions surrounding it) are heavily important not
only for her spiritual growth, but her very salvation: “A woman will be
saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and
holiness, with modesty”. (1 Tim. 2, 15) Sarandismos is a gracious part
and extension of these saving virtues.
During
the 40 day period of Sarandismos, the mother remains enclosed in her
home with special dedication and focus on her child as well as on God
Who gifted her that child. No visiting by family, relatives or friends
is allowed and the mother is not blessed to exit her home at all, unless
there is a serious medical issue or a life-threatening need. All other
contemporary forms of communication are not forbidden, such as telephone
calls, emails etc, as long as they are done within the need of human
support and comfort, not chit-chatting, gossiping and trivial spreading
of rumours, scandals and slander.
The
mother devotes to prayer and chants joyful Orthodox Psalms with her
infant in her arms and tries to follow the fasting, (on the normal
fasting days Wednesdays & Fridays) only with the blessing of her
spiritual father, as she must be assured that fasting does not affect
breast-feeding in any way as there are many non-dairy foods which
highly assist in breast-feeding (the mother is very highly recommended
if possible to keep breast-feeding for as long as she can –even if it is
for one year- and not rush to replace it with formula milk if there is
no need). She also takes the chance to read various spiritual books
(especially Christian Orthodox material) on how to raise children with
the fear of God and how both parents can come closer to Christ & His
Church. There is no such thing as Half Sarandismos, (20 days) but only
the full 40 day period.
Sarandismos
is entirely an issue of Faith and forms a special aspect of Spiritual
Life. Although it is evidently God’s will, our Mother Church does not
strictly or forcefully impose this. Our Holy Orthodox Church leaves this
to the good will, the level of faith and strength of determination of
each individual mother. Rest assured that any woman who willingly and
gladly follows this, has immense special blessings to gain for herself,
her infant and her husband too. Therefore our criteria of wanting to
follow such practice are critically important as there should be
no trivial or just customary purposes behind this very important
implementation. Also, there should be no intentions of wanting "to show
off our spirituality" or promote one’s self as a “good Christian” or
keeper of traditions. A spirit of humbleness and a pure love for God are
the only blessed, praiseworthy and exemplary motives.
The
Actual Service of the “First Church Attendance”= “Protos Ecclisiasmos”
in the “Efholoyion” (Book of Priest’s Prayers & Services) states
that the Mother (always accompanied by her husband of course) attends
Church for the first time “to be cleansed from every sin and every
defilement of the servant of God” (Leviticus 15, 22-33) where she brings
the infant to Church for the first time and dedicates it to the Holy
Temple of God for the glory of God, as a sacrifice that is pleasing to
God. It is important and proper that both parents specifically attend
this service and not just the mother alone, as wrongly practiced today.
There, the mother obtains the blessing to receive Holy Communion once
again, but only her, not the child yet. The infant can only receive Holy
Communion once it is Baptised and Baptism is strongly urged by our Holy
Fathers to take place, no longer than 6 months, but as soon as possible
immediately after the Baptism (we do not “Christen”, the term
“Christening” is a Western Papal erroneous term. We Orthodox exclusively
use the term “Baptism” which is an Early Christian Scriptural term
maintained by Christ and The Apostles, from the Greek verb “vaptizo”
which means “to fully immerse someone in water”)
The
very first question, in all good intention, that may naturally arise,
is “why and how can the woman be considered “unclean” since the
menstrual flow and childbirth are a natural process by God’s will”?
Although
the question is logical and the mindset valid, it is deeply sad to hear
this when it sometimes unfortunately comes from some ‘academic’
theologians, uneducated priests or Ecumenist Modern Bishops or
Archbishops, especially when they make unacceptable inaccuracies by
public statements that “any prayers and references to a woman being
‘unclean’ should be totally removed from our Church books and services”
and other disturbing statements such as “our Liturgical Texts and
Sacraments should be “corrected”... How profoundly deplorable...
We
must clarify and underline in advance that we are not promoting any
disrespect to our highly respectful Clergy and consciously avoid falling
in to the cursed sin of “ierokatigoria” = speaking against priests. The
above references to Bishops are only made because these statements were
made in public, at very large scale. It is imperative that we must be
very discerning in what we sometimes hear and always get an opinion from
an experienced Holy Elder, just as the “Yerontikon” sternly recommends
us. Leaders themselves must be very cautious when making such public
statements, because the scandal could be so great that it becomes
extremely difficult to restore and re-gather those confused souls that
are later “snatched” by heretical wolves at the first given chance. Our
responsibility is immense with devastating consequences. Orthodoxy is
not a system of false, fabricated traditions nor is our Faith subject to
the pseudo-piety and barren ethics of any (rare) Ecclesiastical
Leaders.
Now to the answer:
This “uncleanness” or “contamination” is not of an ethical or sinful nature. God and His Church are not considering
the woman sinful or shameful, therefore she should feel no guilt about
it at all. Saint John Chrysostom precisely exclaims: “There is nothing
unclean within any natural process!” In his Hermeneutic Commentaries on
Leviticus, he strongly opposes the notion of ethical uncleanness in a
very apologetic way and not only underlines the preventing aspects of
infections but also implies and condemns the defilement of adultery
which was often committed under the pretext of men supposedly wanting to
refrain from any contagiousness and cunningly resorting to sin.
Our
Holy Orthodox Faith is a living revelation of Truth and Exposition of
Sacred Tradition that is feasible and fair. According to the Old
Testament (Gen. 3, 16, Leviticus 15, 22-33) which was not cancelled but
completed and is still the Word of God and valid Part of Holy
Scripture, and according to the All-Wise Holy Fathers, God allowed the
menstrual flow as well as the birth-pains to take place after the fall
of man, as a consequence of their disobedience towards their Creator,
along with many other serious distortions of nature that tragically
eventuated as a spiritual chastisement. After childbirth, the woman’s
body experiences some unpleasant changes, human nature undergoes some
form of corruption, defilement and distortion, especially with all the
excessive blood flow, internal and external, liquids, infections,
chemicals and pharmaceuticals used etc.. Her mental and psychological
state also endures some radical changes and both parents, both “Syzigi”
(an ancient Greek Biblical Greek term which means “co-bearers” of the
same load and “Syzigia” to carry a burden together) share the load of
these life-changing occurrences as well as the load of various other
good and bad experiences during and after birth. Not only the Holy
Fathers, but even doctors themselves globally testify that a woman is
not yet clean straight after child-birth, that is why they even suggest
that the couple refrains from coming together at least for a couple of
weeks in order for genital sterilisation to be completed.
The
Pioneering Book called “The Holy Rudder” = “To Ieron Pedalion” (a
Complete Collection of all Decisions by All Ecumenical and Local
Councils) is of paramount importance and vast validity for the Orthodox
Church. There, Saint Nicodemus of Holy Mountain mentions these truths,
and in rhetoric form asks the same question himself: “Why does God call a
woman in her monthly, ‘unclean’? It seems that the blood flow itself,
being a natural procedure, is not really a sin or (ethical)
uncleanness”. It is an educational, biological and physical uncleanness
to avoid contamination and prevent any possible infection. Saint
Isidoros Pilusiotis makes special interpretation of these spiritual
measures and restrictions, and clearly defines them as “educational
measures of catharsis and sanctification”. Also in a very Early
Christian Book of the 1st Century, “The Apostolic Orders” we
find: “Not even the lawful marital relationships or the Wed-Bed nor the
‘flowing of blood’ can defile human nature and separate man from the
Holy Spirit apart from evil, sin, impiety and ungodliness”. Yet, no
Saint, Holy Father or Ecclesiastical Write ever opposed the order of
Sarandismos, but they all firmly urged the faithful to safe keep it and
thus it has been preserved till today. Other Great Saints such as St
Dionysios Archbishop of Alexandria-the Confessor (Canon B’ 260AD), St
John the Nisteftis, St Timotheos Archbishop of Alexandria, even the
recent great Saints such as Saint Kosmas the Aitolean, St Nektarios, the
Holy Elders St Porphyrios, St Paisios, along with all the Great Ascetic
Women Saints of our times, all gave the same non-conflicting,
harmonious sacred guidelines to women that sought their valuable advice
and most valuable blessing.
I
was very moved and taken by awe to personally witness a lady who once
asked the former Holy Bishop of Florina, Augoustinos Kantiotis, if she
was allowed to enter the Church whilst on her monthly, and he replied in
his characteristic loving austerity: “My child, you are not even
allowed to kiss my hand, not that I am anything special, we are unworthy
servants but it’s the Priesthood that we have, you understand? Not only
you cannot light a candle, kiss an icon or receive the ‘Antidoron”, but
strictly speaking, you are not allowed to even come to the temple. We
don’t say these things to degrade you women or throw you in despair,
this ‘uncleanness’ is of a legal, educational nature, not ethical, you
understand?”
The
whole 40 day process of Sarandismos is an extended “askisis”= an
extremely beneficial spiritual exercise of ascetic silence and
rejuvenating stillness, a good form of experiencing “monastic”
isolation, a very blessed chance of remoteness, a trial of patience, a
test of ego and an assessment of obedience. It is not an easy thing, but
not impossible. For those who truly believe, “with God's help
everything is possible” (Mark 10, 27). Sarandismos is a pure test of
faith. We eagerly submit and happily obey God’s will in order to oppose
and “correct” the former disobedience by Eve. We accept this “penance”
without evil objection or worldly suspicion, trusting in God’s wisdom
and with steadfast hope in His great mercy. After the 40 day period of
preparation, the mother re-enters the Church and restores that
distortion, approaching the Sacramental Communion of the Church of God
in all blessing and readiness.
Our
very own Orthodox grandmothers and ancestors (which some modern
theologians are very sarcastic of) have never had any issue with
observing these matters and would never take any offense to these
“prohibitions”. Although they were illiterate and had no theological
knowledge, yet, throughout the ages, they would very humbly, remarkably
and impressively express that “we really like to keep our sacred
traditions, we just love to do the right thing by God! We have never
thought or imagined or even intended to ever change the Gospel of
Christ! That’s why we see no insult to be excluded from priesthood. We
are already ‘priestesses’ and ‘Deaconesses’ in act, in sacrifice, within
our blessed Home-Church, the ‘Kat’ Oikon Ecclesia!”
I think this is a very good powerful lesson for all of us, including males, monks, priests and Bishops. Rejoice. Hairete.
Monk Nicodemus
Antiheretical Manual
July 8, 2011
