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Ember Days

Four seasons of the year, four times to fast and pray with the turning earth

Ember Days are four sets of three days of fasting and prayer spread across the four seasons, marking the year with penance and petition. Pope Leo I preached on these seasonal fasts, and the practice belonged to the Western or Roman tradition, kept by Catholics and historically by Anglicans but not observed in the East. Their use has differed over time and became largely disused after the Second Vatican Council.

How it traveled

  1. The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great
    Rome · 461
    applies