Editing Great Lent (section)

==History==
The pattern of fasting and praying for 40 days is seen in the [[Christian Bible]], on which basis the liturgical season of Lent was established.<ref name="Hynes1993">{{cite book |last1=Hynes |first1=Mary Ellen |title=Companion to the Calendar: A Guide to the Saints and Mysteries of the Christian Calendar |date=1993 |publisher=Liturgy Training Publications |isbn=978-1-56854-011-5 |page=12 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Conte2001"/> In the [[Old Testament]], the prophet [[Moses]] went into the mountains for 40 days and 40 nights to pray and fast "without eating bread or drinking water" before receiving the [[Ten Commandments]] (cf. {{Bibleverse|Exodus|34:28|KJV}}).<ref name="Conte2001">{{cite book |last1=Conte |first1=Jeanne |title=Lenten Reflections |date=2001 |publisher=Nova Publishers |isbn=978-1-56072-737-8 |pages=4–5 |language=en}}</ref> Likewise, the prophet [[Elijah]] went into the mountains for 40 days and nights to fast and pray "until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God" when "the word of the Lord came to him" (cf. {{Bibleverse|1 Kings|19:8-9|NRSV}}).<ref name="Conte2001"/> The early Christian bishop [[Maximus of Turin]] wrote that as Elijah by "fasting continuously for a period of forty days and forty nights...merited to extinguish the prolonged and severe dryness of the whole world, doing so with a stream of rain and steeping the earth's dryness with the bounty of water from heaven", in the Christian tradition, this is interpreted as being "a figure of ourselves so that we, also fasting a total of forty days, might merit the spiritual rain of baptism...[and] a shower from heaven might pour down upon the dry earth of the whole world, and the abundant waters of the saving bath might saturate the lengthy drought of the Gentiles."<ref name="Johnson2017">{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Lawrence J. |title=Worship in the Early Church: Volume 3: An Anthology of Historical Sources |date=14 July 2017 |publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=978-0-8146-6328-8 |language=en}}</ref> In the [[New Testament]], [[Jesus]] went into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days and 40 nights; it was during this time that [[Satan]] tried to [[Temptation of Christ|tempt him]] (cf. {{Bibleverse|Matthew|4:1-3|NRSV}}).<ref name="Conte2001"/> The 40-day and night fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus prepared them for their work.<ref name="Hynes1993"/>

[[Early Christianity]] records the tradition of the Black Fast before Easter; for the meal of the day consumed after sunset (when the fast is broken), the [[Apostolic Constitutions]] permit the consumption of "bread, vegetables, salt and water, in Lent" with "flesh and wine being forbidden."<ref name="Kellner1908">{{cite book |last1=Kellner |first1=Karl Adam Heinrich |title=Heortology: A History of the Christian Festivals from Their Origin to the Present Day |date=1908 |publisher=K. Paul |page=99 |language=English}}</ref> The [[Canons of Hippolytus]] authorize only bread and salt to be consumed during [[Holy Week]].<ref name="Kellner1908"/> The practice of fasting and abstaining from alcohol, meat and [[lacticinia]] during Lent thus became established in the Church.<ref name="Kellner1908"/>