Why the Fast Is Called the Forty Days

But further, as human carelessness lost sight of the reason for it, this season, in which, as I said, the tithes of the year are offered by fasting for thirty-six and a half days, came to be called Quadragesima, “the Fortieth.” Perhaps they thought it ought to be given this name because Moses and Elijah, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself, are said to have fasted for forty days. To the mystery of this number are fittingly applied the forty years in which Israel lived in the wilderness, and likewise the forty stations through which they are said to have passed, with a hidden meaning. Or perhaps the tithe was properly given the name Quadragesima from the usage of the customs house. For that is the common name of the state tax by which the same proportion of the increase is set aside for the king’s use; and so this is the lawful tribute of Quadragesima, which the King of all the ages requires of us for the use of our life. [a]

At any rate, although it has nothing to do with the question you raised, I think I ought not to leave out this fact. Our elders very often testified that on these days especially the whole body of monks was attacked, after the ancient manner of the people opposed to them, and was more fiercely urged to forsake their dwellings. The reason is that, in keeping with this figure, just as the Egyptians once oppressed the children of Israel with grievous afflictions, so now the spiritual Egyptians try to bow down the true Israel, that is, the monastic people, with hard and degrading tasks. They do it so that we may not, through the peace that is dear to God, leave the land of Egypt and cross over for our good to the desert of the virtues. So Pharaoh rages against us and says: “They are idle, and that is why they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ Let them be oppressed with labors and harassed in their works, and they will not be troubled by empty words.” For their folly certainly imagines that the holy sacrifice of the Lord, which is offered only in the desert of a pure heart, is the height of folly, for “religion is an abomination to a sinner.”