Forgive me but I must mention this...
Canon 69 of the Holy Apostles designates that any hierarch or priest or deacon or subdeacon or reader or chanter who does not fast during Great Lent and Wednesday and Friday is to be deposed. If a layperson does not fast during these times (unless he cannot fast on account of bodily illness), he is to be excommunicated.... Let us therefore stop insensibly thinking that the fast of Wednesday and Friday is not an Apostolic directive, for behold, the Apostles in their Canons number this fast with that of Great Lent, and in the Apostolic Constitutions they number it together with the fast of Holy Week saying: \"One must fast during Holy Week and Wednesday and Friday.\" But why should I say that this regulation is only of the Apostles? It is a regulation of Christ Himself, for this is what the Apostles say in the Book V, ch. 14 of the Constitutions: \"He (that is Christ) commanded us to fast on Wednesday and Friday.
taken from the Exomologetaion: A manual of Confession by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, pgs. 270-271.
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