03 — The Paschalion

Pascha is not looked up; it is computed. This section sets out the Alexandrian computus that the Orthodox Church still uses — its nineteen-year lunar cycle, its ecclesiastical equinox, and the two accumulated errors that make it run late — and then states, with the sources, what the First Ecumenical Council actually settled about the date of Pascha, and what it did not.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
how-pascha-is-reckoned.md The three-clause rule, and the “after Passover” clause that is not part of it; the nineteen-year cycle, the golden number, and the 532-year Great Indiction; the solar and lunar errors; why the two Easters differ by nothing, one, four, or five weeks and never two or three; Finland; the Chambésy and Aleppo reform proposals
nicaea-and-the-independence-of-the-christian-reckoning.md The Quartodeciman and Protopaschite disputes; where the Nicene decision is actually preserved, since it is in none of the twenty canons; Antioch 341 canon 1 and Apostolic Canon 7 as the enforcement; and the four things Nicaea did not do — including prescribing the Julian calendar

The Correction This Section Exists to Make

Two claims about Nicaea are repeated constantly and neither survives contact with the sources.

That the council promulgated the computus: it did not, and the proof is that the Churches went on keeping Easter on different Sundays for three centuries afterwards.

That the council prescribed the Julian calendar: there is no such canon and no such synodal act. The Julian calendar was the civil calendar of the empire, and the Church used it because everyone did.

This library keeps the Julian calendar and argues for it. It therefore has a particular obligation to get this right, and the argument of section 06 is deliberately built without either claim.

Reading Order

nicaea-and-the-independence-of-the-christian-reckoning.md can be read first if the historical question is what interests you; how-pascha-is-reckoned.md first if the mechanics are.

See Also