When they embraced Christianity, they feared that giving up meat would betray their identity, so they instituted a fast for themselves and observed the fasts of the Nativity and of the Apostles. As the years passed and they were brought up with this practice, they later resumed eating meat. The Nestorians, Jacobites, and Maronites followed their lead, and the custom won the approval of the Melkites as well—especially those residing in Muslim lands.
As for the Greeks (Romans), they never refrained from meat during the days of the Nativity fast or the Apostles’ fast—days that many mistakenly suppose to be part of the Great Fast. Therefore, whoever wishes to fast the Nativity, the Apostles, and the Lady and to abstain from meat is under no obligation to do so, for no one may abstain from meat during the year except during the Holy Forty-Day Fast alone. Whoever behaves otherwise is deviating, returning to the adherents of divergent opinions.
He said: In the eighth year of the reign of Theodosius, the young men who had fled from King Decius and hidden themselves in the cave reappeared.