OCU cleric again calls to eat sausage during the fast

OCU "priest" and popular blogger Oleksiy Filiuk on August 5, 2026, published a video on his YouTube channel in which he once again called on believers not to attach importance to the canonical fasting restrictions. He recorded the video before breakfast with boiled sausage — in the middle of the Dormition Fast, which in the OCU according to the New Julian Calendar runs from August 1 to 14.

In terms of strictness, the church typikon equates the Dormition Fast with Great Lent: fish is permitted only once — on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Moreover, Wednesday, on which Filiuk recorded his video, is prescribed by the typikon as a day of dry eating.

According to the OCU cleric, those who reproach him for breaking the fast should remember prayer and works of mercy.

"They tell me about sausage during the fast… Fasting is prayer, it is works of mercy, not boiled sausage that contains nothing but soy. Look at all these fasters, fasters have appeared everywhere," said Filiuk.

As an argument in his favor, he referred to the military.

"And the defenders — does anyone even know if they have breakfast. And if they are on combat positions, they may go two or three days without eating. Maybe for them that is also a fast. Everyone must eat," the blogger stated.

Concluding the video, Filiuk repeated his appeal once more.

"Have breakfast, eat boiled sausage. Don't eat each other's livers," said the OCU cleric.

As a reminder, Filiuk previously called the canonical restrictions of the Nativity Fast an invention of the Russians, whom he refers to as "Mokshanites," and called on believers to drink milk during the fast.

The Union of Orthodox Journalists previously reported that Filiuk had already permitted eating sausage during Great Lent, urging believers "not to engage in fanaticism."

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