The answer
All fasts, even if some of them bear the names of saints, like every worship, are directed to the Lord Christ. Each fast has a particular purpose that touches some aspect of our salvation and spiritual growth in Christ Jesus. The fasts are:
a. Wednesdays and Fridays (excepting the fifty days following the Resurrection and if
Christmas or Theophany falls on one of these days).
b. The Paramoun fasts or preparation (before Nativity and Theophany).
c. The Nativity Fast: forty-three days.
d. Jonah’s Fast: three days.
e. Great Lent: fifty-five days.
f. The Apostles’ Fast, from the day following the Feast of Pentecost until the eve of the
Feast of the Apostles.
g. The fast of the Assumption of the body of the Virgin Mary: fifteen days.
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty