Concerning the Tradition of Long Hair and Beards

The question of the appropriateness of long hair and beards is frequentlyput to traditional Orthodox clergy. A comprehensive article appeared in Orthodox Life concerning clergy dress in the J./F. 1991 issue. At this time we would like to address the topic of clergy appearance, i.e. hair andbeards. Anyone looking at photographs and portraits of clergy in Greece, Russia,Rumania, and other Orthodox countries taken in the early twentieth centurywill notice that almost without exception both the monastic and marriedclergy, priests and deacons, wore untrimmed beards and hair. Only after theFirst World War do we observe a new, modern look, cropped hair and beardlessclergy. This fashion has been continued among some of the clergy to our ownday. If one were to investigate this phenomenon in terms of a singleclergyman whose life spanned the greater part of our century one wouldprobably notice his style modernize from the first photographs up throughthe last. There are two reasons given as an explanation for this change: it is said,"One must conform with fashion, we cannot look like peasants!" Or even moreabsurd, "My wife will not allow it!". Such reasoning is the "dogmatic" lineof modernists who either desire to imitate contemporary fashion (if beardsare "in," they wear beards, if beards are "out," they shave), or areecumenically minded, not wanting to offend clergy in denominations outsidethe Orthodox Church. The other reason is based on a passage of HolyScripture where Saint Paul states, Both not even nature itself teach you,that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? (I Cor. 11:14) Inanswer to the first justification, Orthodox tradition directly condemnsModernism and Ecumenism. It is necessary however to deal in more detail withthe argument that bases its premise on Holy Scripture. Orthodox Christian piety begins in the Holy Tradition of the Old Testament.Our relationship to the Lord God, holiness, worship, and morality was formedin the ancient times of the Bible. At the time of the foundation of thepriesthood the Lord gave the following commandments to the priests duringperiods of mourning, And ye shall not shave your head for the dead [a paganpractice] with a baldness on the top; and they shall not shave theirbeard... (Lev. 21:5), and to all men in general, Ye shall not make a roundcutting of the hair of your head, nor disfigure your beard (Lev. 19:27). Thesignificance of these commandments is to illustrate that the clergy are todevote themselves completely to serving the Lord. Laymen as well are calledto a similar service though without the priestly functions. This out wardappearance as a commandment was repeated in the law given to the Nazarene, arazor shall not come upon his head, until the days be fulfilled which hevowed to the Lord: he shall be holy, cherishing the long hair of the headall the days of his vow to the Lord... (Numbers 6:5-6). The significance of the Nazarene vow was a sign of God's power resting onthe person who made it. To cut off the hair meant to cut off God's power asin the example of Samson (see Judges 16:17-19). The strength of these piousobservances, transmitted to the New Testament Church, were observed withoutquestion till our present times of willfulness and the apostasy resultingfrom it. Why, one might ask, do those Orthodox clergymen, while rejectingthe above pious ordinances about hair, continue to observe the custom ofgranting various head coverings to clergy, a practice which also has itsroots in the ancient ordinances of the Old Testament (cf. Ex. 24:4-6) andthe tradition of the early Church (see Fusebius and Epiphanius of Cyprusconcerning the miters worn by the Apostles John and James)? The Apostle Paul himself wore his hair long as we can conclude from thefollowing passage where it is mentioned that "head bands," [Webmaster note:he then cites the Slavonic word using a special font. Consult the originalarticle if needed.], and "towels" touched to his body were placed on thesick to heal them. The "head bands" indicate the length of his hair (inaccor dance with pious custom) which had to be tied back in order to keep itin place (cf. Acts 19:12). The historian Egezit writes that the ApostleJames, the head of the church in Jerusalem, never cut his hair (ChristianReading, Feb. 1898, p.142, [in Russian]). If the pious practice among clergy and laity in the Christian community wasto follow the example of the Old Testament, how then are we to understandthe words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians cited earlier (I Cor. 11:14)?Saint Paul in the cited passage is addressing men and woman who are praying(cf. I Cor. 11:3-4). His words in the above passages, as well as in otherpassages concerning head coverings (cf. I Cor. 11: 4-7), are directed tolaymen, not clergy. In other passages Saint Paul makes an obviousdistinction between the clerical and lay rank (cf. I Cor. 4:1, I Tim. 4:6,Col. 1:7, and others). He did not oppose the Old Testament ordinance inregard to hair and beards since, as we have noted above, he himself observedit, as did Our Lord Himself, Who is depicted on all occasions with long hairand beard as the Great High Priest of the new Christian priest hood. In our passage noted previously, Both not even nature itself teach you,that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? (I Cor. 11:14) SaintPaul uses the Greek word for "hair." This particular word for hairdesignates hair as an a ornament (the notion of length being only secondaryand suggested), differing from [Gr.] thrix (the anatomical or physical termfor hair). [1] Saint Paul's selection of words emphasizes his criticism oflaymen wearing their hair in a stylized fashion, which was contrary to piousJewish and Christian love of modesty. We note the same approach to hair asthat of Saint Paul in the 96th canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council whereit states: "Those therefore who adorn and arrange their hair to the detriment of those who see them, that is by cunningly devised intertwinings, andby this means put a bait in the way of unstable souls." [2] In another source, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, we read the follow ingconcerning the Old Testament practice: "To an extent, hair style was amatter of fashion, at least among the upper classes, who were particularlyopen to foreign [pagan] influence. Nevertheless, long hair appears to havebeen the rule among the Hebrews (cf. Ezek. 8:3), both men and women" [3](cf. Cant 4:1; 7:5). Thus we observe that cropped or stylized hair was thefashion among the pagans and not acceptable, especially among the Christianclergy from most ancient times up to our contemporary break with HolyTradition. It is interesting to note that the fashion of cropped or stylizedhair and shaved beards found its way into the Roman Catholic and Protestantworlds. So important had this pagan custom be come for Roman clergy by the11th Century that it was listed among the reasons for the Anathemapronounced by Cardinal Humbert on July 15, 1054 against Patriarch Michael inConstantinople which precipitated the Western Church's final falling awayfrom the Orthodox Church: "While wearing beards and long hair you [EasternOrthodox] reject the bond of brotherhood with the Roman clergy, since theyshave and cut their hair." [!] [4] Igumen LukeEndnotes * Webmaster note: In the original article footnotes 2 and 3 were reversed inthe text and footnotes. 1) Joseph Thayer D. D., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p.354. 2) The Rudder, trans. by D. Cummings, p. 403. 3) A. C. Myers ed., The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, p.455 4) N. N. Voekov, The Church, Russia, and Rome, (in Russian), p. 98. From Orthodox Life, Vol. 45, No. 5 (Sept-Oct 1995), pp. 41-43.+ + +Uncut Hair and Beards of the Clergy You often state that clergy must not cut their hair and beards. There arechurch canons to support this and certainly it is part of church tradition.But you also know that St. Paul says that men should not have long hair andthat certain church canons even allow for a monk with hair that is too longto cut it, as well as to cut his hair when he is away from the monastery. Iwould like your guidance on this apparent contradiction in tradition. (Fr.J.K., MA) Your comments are intelligently stated and do not, as is often the case,seek to dispense with a difficult discipline‹the uncut hair and beard ofOrthodox clergy‹by posing false contradictions in practice. The tradition ofmaintaining uncut hair and beard among the monastic and married clergy nodoubt traces back to the ascetics of the desert. Just as monastic practicehas influenced parish worship, so monastic dress and grooming have played anobservable role in establishing the standard for clerical dress amongmarried Priests. Except among "Westernized" Orthodox, with theiranti-monastic bias, this influence by the barometer of spiritual life, themonastic estate, on the so-called "secular" clergy has always been thoughtpositive. Since an ascetic monastic foregoes the cutting of his hair and beard inorder to avoid vanity, this custom has a practical purpose. Thus, it isobvious that a monastic would also avoid looking effeminate or styling hishair. It is for this reason that, if his hair gets too long, such that itresembles that of a woman, a monastic may ask his superior to cut it. Whenhe goes out into the world, too, he should, in such circumstances, trim hishair and keep it tied up in back, as is the custom in the Greek and someSlavic Churches. This is in keeping with the spirit of St. Paul's admonitionagainst men having long hair like that of women, when this admonition isread in context. What we must understand, here, is that the cutting of hair in all of theseinstances means nothing more than trimming off hair that falls below themiddle of the back. We are not talking about the modern haircut, which is,in fact, the equivalent of the desecration of the head that led to Samson'sloss of strength and power. Clergymen are, therefore, unjustified in cuttingtheir hair in the modern style, which is almost unknown in Christianhistory, until recent centuries. With regard to shaving, the Old Testament,the Church Fathers, and the Canons forbid a clergyman to cut his beard. Oneof the observations made by the Orthodox against the Popes during the unioncouncils (and repeated by a number of Orthodox Fathers in modern times) wasthat, as they began to deviate from the Apostolic Faith, they also, oddlyenough, began to shave off their beards. Moreover, not only should clergymennot shave, according to various Church authorities, but many holy men, suchas St. Kosmas Aitolos, hold that laymen should let their beards, or least amoustache, grow naturally. All of this does not, of course, mean that an Orthodox clergyman should notbe clean and well groomed. The Canons allow for the trimming of themoustache (primarily for the purpose of insuring care in taking HolyCommunion), and certainly by economy a Priest can trim his beard slightly,if he has to hold a secular job. Long hair should also be tied up in back ortucked under the collar, for which reason it rarely presents a problem for aworking Priest who truly wishes to abide by canonical exactitude. (And byPriest, here, we mean, of course, both the Presbyter and the Deacon.) Norwould we argue that a beard and uncut hair are the sure signs of a goodPriest. They are, as Bishop Chrysostomos of Etna always tells us, no more orless important to a Priest than "feathers are to a bird." Finally, in anticipation of those who oppose the canonical disciplinesplaced on Orthodox clergy, let us acknowledge that some monks, in thehistory of the Church, maintained a tonsure which involved cutting hair fromthe top of the head. This was one of many customs which did not last, and isnot an argument against the living tradition of the Church as it hassurvived today, which assigns to monastics and "secular" clergy alike thediscipline of leaving the hair and beard uncut, This discipline, combinedwith adherence to the canonical dress of the clergy (in Church, on thestreet, and at home), is a powerful deterrent against improper behavior onthe part of Priests, who should be moral exemplars for the people, andprovides a vivid witness of the peculiar nature to the people of God, theChristians.St. Tikhon and Clerical Appearance When Patriarch St. Tikhon was Bishop in America early this century, heordered his clergy to shave and wear Western clerical dress. What does thissay of your "traditional" dress? (J.K., NJ) We have seen only one directive attributed to St. Tikhon on this subject,and it by no means "orders" clergy in America under his jurisdiction toabandon traditional Orthodox dress and grooming. It is also well known thatthe late Father Georges Florovsky disputed the authenticity of thisdirective. Whatever the case, St. Tikhon did openly speak of a distinctionbetween the "essentials" and "accidentals" of the Faith, allowing for anumber of innovations, including some in clerical appearance. A distinctionof the kind made by the Saint is atypical in Orthodoxy, wherein "externals"(matters of apparent accident) are thought to reflect and to be inseparablefrom an "internal" (or essential) reality. St. Tikhon of course embracedthis principle, and his deviation from it merely entailed practicalaccommodations necessitated by difficulties facing the early Orthodoximmigration to America. It is both dishonest and an insult to the Saint'smemory that his use of justifiable oikonomia in what was then a relativelynew mission is now invoked as a standard of Orthodox practice in a localChurch that is more than two centuries old. From Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XII, No. 3, pp. 19-21.+ + +St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite's Comments on Canon 96 of the Sixth OecumenicalSynod Those too incur the excommunication of this Canon, according to Zonaras, whodo not put a razor to their head at all, nor cut the hair of their head, butlet it grow long enough to reach to the belt like that of women, and thosewho bleach their hair so as to make it blond or golden, or who twist it upand tie it on spills in order to make it curly; or who put wigs or ³rats² ontheir head. This excommunication is incurred also by those who shave offtheir beard in order to make their face smooth and handsome after suchtreatment, and not to have it curly, or in order to appear at all times likebeardless young men; and those who singe the hair of their beard with aredhot tile so as to remove any that is longer than the rest, or morecrooked; or who use tweezers to pluck out the superfluous hairs on theirface, in order to become tender and appear handsome; or who dye their beard,in order not to appear to be old men. This same excommunication is incurredalso by those women who use rouge and paint on their face, in order to lookpretty, and in this way to attract men beholding them to their Satanic love.Oh, and how the miserable women have the hardihood to dishonor the imagewhich God gave them with their wicked beautifications! Ah! how is God torecognize them and tell whether they are His own creatures and images, at atime when they are wearing another face which is devilish, and anotherimage, which is that of Satan? Hence it is that St. Gregory the Theologiansays the following in his epic verses: ³Build yourselves not towers of spurious tresses on your head, women,While petting soft necks of rocks invisible;Nor apply shameful paint to forms of God¹s,So as to be wearing masks, and not faces.Lest God requite you for such things when He has come to resent them.Who? Whence is the Creator? Avaunt, get thee away from me, strangefemale!I did not paint thee a bitch, but created an image of myself.How is it that I have an idol, a specter instead of a friend?² And the poor wretches do not know that by what they are doing they aremanaging only to make themselves like that hag and whore called Jezebel (IIKings 9:30), and are themselves becoming new and second Jezebels, becauseshe too used to paint her face in order to please the eyes of men, just asis written: ³And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of him; andshe painted her face, and attired her head, and peeped through the window²(ibid.). So all men and all women who do such things are all excommunicatedby the present Ecumenical Council. And is these things are forbidden to bedone by the laity in general, how much more they are forbidden to clericsand those in holy orders, who ought by their speech and by their conduct,and by the outward decency and plainness of their garments, and of theirhair, and of their beard, to teach the laity not to be body-lovers andexquisites, but soul-lovers and virtue- lovers. Note that the present Canoncensures the priests of the Latins who shave off their moustache and theirbeard and who look like very young men and handsome bridegrooms and have theface of women. For God forbids men of the laity in general to shave theirbeard, by saying: ³Ye shall not mar the appearance of your bearded chin²(Lev. 19:27). But He specially forbids those in holy orders to shave theirbeard, by saying to Moses to tell the sons of Aaron, or, in other words, thepriests, not to shave the skin of their bearded chin (Lev. 21:5). Not onlydid He forbid this in words, but He even appeared to Daniel with whiskersand beard as the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9); and the Son of God wore a beardwhile he was alive in the flesh. And our Forefathers and Patriarchs andProphets and Apostles all wore beards, as is plainly evident from the mostancient pictures of them wherein they are painted with beards. But, more tothe point, even the saints in Italy, like St. Ambrose, the father of monksBenedict, Gregory Dialogus, and the rest, all had beards, as they appear intheir pictures painted in the church of St. Mark in Venice. Why, even thejudgment of right reason decides the shaving of the beard to be improper.For the beard is the difference which in respect of appearance distinguishesa woman from a man. That is why a certain philosopher when asked why he grewa beard and whiskers, replied that as often as he stroked his beard andwhiskers he felt that he was a man, and not a woman. Those men who shavetheir beard are not possessors of a manly face, but of a womanly face. Henceit was that Epiphanius blamed the Massalians for cutting off their beard,which is the visage peculiar to man as distinguished from woman. TheApostles in their Injunctions, Book I, ch.3, command that no one shalldestroy the hair of his beard, and change the natural visage of the man intoone that is unnatural. ³For,² says he, ³God the Creator made this to bebecoming to women, but deemed it to be out of harmony with men.² Theinnovation of shaving the beard ensued in the Roman Church a little beforeLeo IX, Gregory VII even resorted to force in order to make bishops andclerics shave off their beard. Oh, and what a most ugly and most disgustingsight it is to see the successor of St. Peter close-shaven, as the Greekssay, like a ³fine bridegroom,² with this difference, however, that he wearsa stole and a pallium, and sits in the chief seat among a large number ofother men like him in a council called the college of cardinals, while hehimself is styled the Pope. Yet bearded Popes did not become extinct afterinsane Gregory, a witness to this fact being Pope Gelasius growing a beard,as is stated in his biography. See the Dodecabiblus of Dositheus, pp. 776-8.Meletius the Confessor (subject 7, concerning unleavened wafers) states thata certain Pope by the name of Peter on account of his lascivious acts wasarrested by the king and one half of his beard was shaven off as Œa mark ofdishonor. According to another authority, in other temples too there wereprinces, even on the sacerdotal list, who had a beard, as in Leipzig theyare to be seen painted after Martin Luther in the church called St. Paul¹sand that called St, Thomas¹s. I saw the same things also in Bardislabia. From The Rudder, pp. 403-405. source: http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/clergy_hair.aspx