communities in Palestine.22 Wednesday and Friday have special significance in this calendar. Christians appropriated these days and later added a new meaning to them—as commemorations of the days of Christ’s betrayal and His death.23 These days were described as days of fasting or station days, and this raises the question of the meaning of fasting and its relationship to the Eucharist. The evidence which has come down to us is, outwardly, conflicting. Thus, according to St Basil the Great,24 the