|
Question:
I've contributed now
and again to the Eastern Catholic board at www.east2west.org. A
question has come up there as to whether entry into church in
bare feet is (or ever has been) a custom of the Ukrainian
Church.
I'm a Latin-rite Catholic from Ireland, and I know that there
was a tradition here many years ago of walking barefoot to
chapel, and many pilgrims still walk up Ireland's holy mountain,
Croagh Patrick, in bare feet as a penance.
I hope you can help us out!
|
|
Answer:
Dr. Alexander Roman
alex@unicorne.org
The practice of standing with bare feet
comes originally from the Hebrew tradition, as we know, and the classic
example is Moses before the Burning Bush where God commands Moses to take
off his sandals.
The ancient Eastern tradition has always been the opposite to that of the
West in this respect. In the West, one shows respect by removing one's
head covering and by having shoes on one's feet. In the East, the opposite
is true, one covers one's head and removes one's shoes.
Among the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Christians, one removes one's shoes
upon entering the Church and in the Coptic, Egyptian Church, one takes off
one's shoes to receive Holy Communion etc. Slippers and sandals are
permitted, as well as heavy socks.
I once visited an Ethiopian Orthodox priest and we were in stocking feet
even at his home. He told me that he feels "most free" without his shoes
on (and who can argue with that?). The Ethiopians also do liturgical
dance, as did King David before the Ark of the Covenant, and this also
allows for more flexibility of movement.
Eastern Orthodox monastics will also have various head coverings and will
wear sandals/slippers.
Feet have a great religious significance. They symbolize not only the
power to be mobile but also the idea of "solid foundation" upon which one
stands. One stands on one's feet also as a symbol of the Resurrection. One
showed one's respect for another in the Middle East by washing the feet of
a visitor or friend. Christ commanded His disciples to "shake the dust off
their feet" before towns and cities that would not receive the Gospel
message.
Christ Himself washed the feet of His disciples at the Mystical Supper as
an example of humble service and love, and the rite of foot-washing is
often held in Eastern Churches on Holy Thursday. Twelve parishioners are
selected and sit in a row as the priest or bishop ritually washes their
feet in imitation of the Divine Saviour's example.
Coupled with this is the veneration noted in the Psalms especially for the
"Foot-stool" of God. This was the earth itself, but this has been
transformed by the Church to mean also the foot-stool of the Cross, the
special wooden bar to which the Feet of Christ were nailed.
In the Orthodox Byzantine Churches, this foot-stool has come to mean a
kind of spiritual "weigh-scale" and is slanted with the left side
(Christ's Right) pointing upwards, toward the Good Thief. Liturgical
prayers refer the Psalmic verses regarding the foot-stool of God to that
of the Cross. (It ultimately means that Christ's Grace has conquered sin -
the Good Thief was brought "up" to Heaven for his faith and the other was
brought down because of his refusal to believe).
Later Byzantine iconographers also used the symbolism of Roman imperial
dress to communicate symbolic meanings. For example, the Mother of God is
often depicted with red shoes or slippers - the symbol of imperial
royalty.
And St Paul also refers to sandals on one's feet as having a symbolic
meaning having to do with readiness to follow Christ's precepts and this
is included in the rite of monastic tonsure.
Later Christians also went on pilgrimage in bare feet as a form of penance
where one would deliberately experience cuts and bruises and other
discomforts connected to walking barefoot on one's way to a pilgrimage
site. Monastics also walked barefoot as an expression of voluntary
poverty.
When the English King Henry II was excommunicated by the pope of Rome for
his complicity in the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, St Thomas
Beckett, the king walked barefoot to a monastery in repentance where he
also received a lash across the back from each of the resident monks
there!
Celtic monastics, especially the Celi De or "Friends of God," as you know,
were second to none in their imitation of the Coptic monastic disciplines
that they inherited directly from the Thebaid, including going about
barefoot whether on pilgrimage or otherwise. St Patrick would put his feet
in cold water as he read the Psalms so as to prevent becoming drowsy. St
John Cassian wrote of the Coptic ascetical disciplines in his works and
many Celtic monks, including the great St Patrick, learned of them in
places like the Lerins monastery on the Isle of St Honoratus off the coast
of France.
It was the great Saint John Maximovych of Shanghai and San Francisco (a
Ukrainian from Poltava and a descendant of the Siberian missionary, St
John Maximovych, his namesake) who walked barefoot in the streets of Paris
and was called, by French Roman Catholics, "Saint Jean nus pieds."
The people you saw at the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Paris could have
been on pilgrimage or may have otherwise been making a spiritual
statement. Traditionally, it is NOT the practice of the Ukrainian churches
to have people go barefoot in church. One would have to find out from the
parish priest if these people had his blessing to do this or whether it
was of their own accord and he knew about it and didn't mind etc.
Had I been there (and I was just in Paris in May), I would have have gone
"toe to toe" with them to find out what that was all about. Perhaps they
confused "soul" with "sole?" It is not a tradition or convention of the
Ukrainian Churches, Orthodox or Catholic, although nothing should really
surprise us nowadays!
|
