Fasting on Wednesdays

[Leopardz]

I couldn’t find any answer online so I thought I might get an answer here. Did Catholics used to fast on Wednesdays at one point in the history? If yes, when was this rule “abolished”? I’m not talking about Ash Wednesday, I’m talking about Wednesdays (plural).

 

[xcbaz]

Hey,

Doesn’t seem like this has been the practice for a while. This site has a lot of information on fasting and abstinence: fisheaters.com/fasting.html

It doesn’t appear that the Wednesday fast has been common for a while, quoted from the site:
“In the time of Christ’s Incarnation, practitioners of the Old Testament religion fasted or abstained on Mondays and Thursdays, but Christians opted to take Wednesdays (the day Our Lord was betrayed) and Fridays (the day Our Lord was crucified) as their penitential days.”

But it says that Orthodox churches do observe the Wednesday and Friday fasts, so perhaps this continued up until at least the Schism??

 

[1ke]

Yes. The Didache has such an instruction.

 

[Leopardz]

So when does this rule become not common for the Catholics? Before of after the schism?
Or in what Council?

 

[StrawberryJam]

So when does this rule become not common for the Catholics? Before of after the schism?
Or in what Council?

My guess is that it was Bishops simply relaxing the rules.
What have you found out?

 

[DavidFilmer]

So when does this rule become not common for the Catholics? Before of after the schism?

This is a very good question.

I have found an Eastern website with a good bit of information about the history of the Wednesday fast (the day that Judas was paid to betray Jesus). The content of the site is attributed to the Orthodox St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, who is a rather modern Saint of the Orthodox Church (died 1809, recognized as Saint in 1955). Nikodemos obviously lived after the Schism, but he is citing sources which clearly pre-date it.

But I can find no information on whether this rule was widely practiced, or when (or if) it was abolished.