Why are Orthodox priests fat. Why are all priests so fat

  • 20.09.2019

Let's expose! Are the priests that fat? October 18th, 2017

Yesterday we discussed the topic and there were a couple of very popular photos on the Internet, which have been surfing the net for about 10 years.

For example, this photo at the beginning of the post. All of her must have seen it once.

And here is the original.

There is a difference?

And often on the network you can find the following revelation:

"The" hero "of these demotivators was Hegumen Stefan from Novosibirsk. He is the cleverest and kindest man, a real monk and priest. Fr Stephen has a terrible endocrine disease - pheochromocytoma, an adrenal gland tumor. , is he alive now. They don't live long with such a sore. Now think about whether it is worth "like" demotivators like those below. "

But deception is visible, as they say, with the naked eye. First, the priest is definitely not an abbot, but, most likely, a mitred archpriest. And secondly, in the Novosibirsk diocese there are definitely no abbots Stefanov - neither sick nor healthy.

The second popular photo has also been changed:


Although they write on the network that this is also allegedly Stefan, in fact this is the former hegumen Theodosius (Cherneykin), who actually previously served in the clergy of the Novosibirsk diocese, but was defrocked in 2015.

Well, for nonsense, in which you already did not believe a lot, of course, everyone on the network, which they are trying to pass off as the original:

This is a photojab contest with Artemy Lebedev in LiveJournal:



But of course there were also the famous "photoshopped watches":

Myth 1. All priests are fat because they eat a lot and eat well.

First, not all Orthodox priests are fat. Neither we nor our opponents have conducted research that could establish whether there are actually more obese people among priests than among non-priests.

Second, the average priest is older than the average man, because priests are not often promoted at a young age. Probably less than half of the priests became such in the most direct way: school - seminary - priesthood. Many people came to this at a more mature age. And the older a man, the, alas, his belly is bigger.

Third, non-priests of mature age often wear jackets. The jacket hides the belly. And the clothes of the priests do not hide. Therefore, the belly of a person in priestly clothing (cassock) is more noticeable.

And finally, the most important thing. Let's finally speak like adults who have had their own experience in the fight against subcutaneous fat. What does the thickness of the fat layer really depend on? From wealth? From the sophistication of food?

Nothing like this. Most of all, it depends on the diet and sports training. Having a regular work day can help you avoid overeating in the evening and devote time to training in the gym.

The priests have irregular working hours. On days of worship, they have the opportunity to eat for the first time only at three in the afternoon. In addition, almost all of them are fathers with many children. According to many priests, they often do not even have time to comb their hair. Where can I go to the gym to improve beauty, while mother with 3-5-8 children is straining. And not only the mother needs help, but the children themselves need the attention of their father. And how many more spiritual children do the priests have who also need to devote time?

And why do Orthodox priests need this fitness? The beauty of the body is not one of the priority values ​​for priests. First, they are not preoccupied with seducing the opposite sex. They all have wives. And what a sin to conceal - it is the desire to please, to seduce is one of the main incentives to maintain our physical shape.

Secondly, they generally attach more importance to the spiritual, understanding the short duration of this life, and not seeing the point of investing efforts in something that will very soon turn to dust. While there is always not enough time to work on your soul.

Therefore, with their big bellies, some priests look like spiritually weak people who are simply too lazy to take care of themselves. But the priests are strong and not lazy. They simply apply their strength in a different direction.

Yes, and from people who are supposed to be the spokesmen of the fatherly love of God for us, we do not need the beauty of the waist. Think and be honest - would you prefer to deal with a priest who gives you more time or less time, but has a thinner waist because he goes to the gym?

And one moment. Everyone knows that good people tend to be overweight more than evil people. There is even such a saying - "There should be a lot of a kind person." Indeed, anger and other evil emotions seem to burn the flesh of a person. Priests are different people, but nevertheless their ministry, willy-nilly, pacifies their souls, teaches kindness ...

In medical terminology, excessive accumulation of fat and its deposition in the subcutaneous tissue is called obesity. Depending on the weight, obesity is of 4 degrees. They jokingly say: in the first degree, others envy, in the second, they laugh, in the third, they sympathize. Why is there such a problem as excess fat? There are many factors contributing to this: it can be hereditary characteristics, and disruption of the endocrine system, with the ensuing consequences (for example, diabetes mellitus), and metabolic disorders. The most common causes of excess weight in our time are: a sedentary lifestyle, overeating, etc.

The superfluous is always postponed, for some reason, not where we would like. Favorite places of gyroscopic surgeries, as a rule, are the waist, hips, buttocks, abdomen ...

If the cause of obesity is not disease (they should be dealt with by a doctor), but our laziness and gluttony, then the situation can and should be corrected. First of all, it is necessary ...

How many priests of the Russian Orthodox Church have seen, most of them are overweight, and some are simply fat, what is the reason. Maybe the post isn't all that helpful.

So how does a typical priest's day go? Let's try to create a daily routine with comments. First of all, it should be noted that the clergy have irregular working hours.
Wake up at 6.00-7.00
Breakfast is missing. The priest serves the liturgy on an empty stomach. Before the service, after 24 hours, it is absolutely forbidden to eat or drink, not even medicine.
The service starts at 7.00 or 8.00. The priest appears in the temple long before the official start of the service.
The Liturgy lasts two to three hours, immediately after it begins church services - weddings, molebens, funeral services, panikhida, christening.
End of service at 13 or 14 o'clock. Now notice that the priest is on his feet without food or drink by this time for seven o'clock!
Lunch at about 2 pm. Many reproach the priests: they say, very often the priests are fat or with ...

Why are all POPs and ministers of the church so fat and scary ??? nothing ...

Why are all the POPs and the ministers of the church so fat and scary ??? I have nothing bad against them but disgusting!

I thought about that too. There are a lot of fasts and restrictions on the consumption of any food in the church. Do they all have metabolic disorders? The church is separated from the state, maybe this is the reason? because lean food is a very high-calorie food, in fact, there is plenty of variety of lean food, and the service in the church is very difficult from the physical point of view, so try to eat little and always be on your feet. Well, let's say that's not all. It's just that you were unlucky and in life you have come across only such. Although, it must be admitted, for the most part they are exactly that. And the reason is that it seems to me that due to their duty they are not up to special beauty, the main thing for them is internal beauty, not external. I'm fat and scary. Shoot yourself at a fick. Pancake is scary for him. There are different priests…. They have it ...

How to reduce the volume of the buttocks? This question very often arises in both women and men. Our laziness, unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle - often all this is the reason that our butt gets fat and ugly large buttocks, consisting mainly of adipose tissue, grow. Here, no references to J.Lo will help - one thing is curvy forms, and another is a fat ass, from which anyone just wants to get rid of. How to reduce the size of the priests?

Fat on the buttocks can be removed in a variety of ways. Doctors of the European Clinic of Plastic Surgery A.A. Iskorneva know not only how to reduce the volume of the buttocks, but in general how to make the buttocks beautiful. We offer our patients to quickly reduce the volume of the thighs and buttocks using the latest liposuction methods.

It should be noted that liposuction is a way to form a beautiful figure, not a method of losing weight. Therefore, you must be ready to turn to diet and perform specific physical exercises to reduce the volume of the buttocks, ...

Why is fat necessary during weight loss?
Fat deficiency in the body is very harmful to health, besides, their absence in your diet leads to the fact that the body part with its own fat reserves with great difficulty.

An excess of fat, undoubtedly, leads to weight gain, but their absence is fraught with the fact that fat will not leave the body.
Most nutritionists believe that fat intake for a losing weight person should be about 30-40 g per day. Alternatively, you can focus on higher rates - 1-2 g of fat per 1 kg of your own weight. Thus, an average person who is losing weight needs to consume between 40 and 80 grams per day, depending on your weight.
The best foods containing healthy Omega 3s that are not stored in our body are fatty sea fish from cold seas, for example, mackerel, herring, sardines, tuna, salmon, as well as flaxseed oil, walnuts.

So when dieting, do not forget to consume fats, ...

Vitaly Milonov explained why there are many obese people among the priests

Vitaly Milonov, a deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, explained why Orthodox priests are often thicker than Catholic ones.

(9) comment

“Do you know why our priests are fat? .. No? But I know, because he is a man of the church. All because of the services. Before twelve or two o'clock in the afternoon, Orthodox priests do not eat. Catholics are lean because they live in hot climates. By the way, Orthodox priests in Cyprus are generally thin, ”Milonov said in an interview with Online812.

Constant fasts also harm the figure, during which nothing but bread and potatoes can be eaten. “I can say that more than fifty percent of priests suffer from diabetes, precisely because we have an unhealthy diet,” the deputy said. The Greeks were more fortunate here too - during the fast they can ...

We always seem to want what we don’t have. If we have straight hair, we dream of curly hair. Those with whom they always curl, constantly straighten them. The same, apparently, can be said about the skin. Owners of dry constantly moisturize it, while others are already tired of the eternal shine of oily skin.

Oily skin and its signs

Many people think they have oily skin when in fact it is combination skin. That is, only certain areas on the face are oily (the so-called T-zone: forehead, chin and nose).

Truly oily skin usually has the following characteristics:

1. She looks shiny and oily all over her face.

2. Has enlarged pores.

3. Acne.

4. Creates an "orange peel" effect.

Skin diseases: who is to blame and what to do?

To determine if your skin is oily or not, wash your face in the morning, pat it dry with a dry towel and do not use any cosmetics for two hours. If after ...

Feces, feces, or feces are a by-product of digestion. Food mixtures with bile from the liver and digestive enzymes from the pancreas provide the possibility of enzymatic breakdown (digestion) of proteins, carbohydrates and food fats in the suspension. The suspension passes through the small intestine, where the absorption of nutrients and a significant part of water into the blood takes place. Liquid waste is fed into the large intestine. In the large intestine, more water is absorbed and feces are formed. Normal stool contains bacteria, undigested food, cellulose from undigested plant foods, and bile.

More than 900 ml of fluid - saliva, gastric juice, gallbladder, pancreas and intestinal secretions - enter the gastrointestinal tract every day. About 500-1500 ml of this fluid reaches the large intestine, and only about 150 ml is excreted in the feces (feces). Water and electrolytes are absorbed in both the small and large intestines. The large intestine can only absorb ...

Hieromonk Oleg (Osipov), a resident of the Ascension Pechersk Monastery in Nizhny Novgorod and a doctor, answers:

I have often heard this question myself. The answer to it, I believe, cannot be unambiguous. I can only list the reasons that are on the surface.

First of all, you need to understand how the life of a person who has decided to change his worldly life and devote himself to serving God is changing. Breaking free from ordinary worldly life, a person, among other things, takes on the obligation to live according to the church charter. This charter includes a special routine of life and a special diet.

The daily routine of a clergyman excludes almost all types of active recreation and entertainment. In particular, sports games, dancing and the like.

Directly the ministry consists, as everyone knows, of the performance of church services, requirements and prayers, which are performed in a slightly mobile state.

If we consider physical labor in the framework of ...

The world is full of injustice. Especially in relation to people inclined to be overweight. Why, one wonders, do some people eat sweets and do not add a drop of excess fat, while others are forced to limit themselves in everything? But not everything is so simple. Some of these lucky slender people may have excess body fat and even be obese.

Syndrome of skinny fat, or "fat skinny" - a slender person suffering from latent obesity, many seem to be a far-fetched problem.

But it is worth looking at the results of bioimpedance measurements of an imaginary (or imaginary) thin woman, it becomes clear: people with latent obesity really exist.

“I was shocked when, with my height of 165 cm and weight of 57 kg, a doctor from the Health Center revealed that I had 2 kilos of excess fat! So, I went to the examination, there is nothing to say, ”said 20-year-old Alena, a student of the Moscow medical university, to VitaPortal.

The district therapist advised Alena to be examined after re-confirming the high ...

October 17th, 2017

This demotivator, popular on the Internet, has been surfing the net for a very long time. But this is actually a fake and I will write about it in more detail tomorrow. But this fake did not appear out of nowhere.

The question of the "volume" of clergy in a series of others is certainly often asked by believers and especially atheists. The obvious answer lies on the surface. All priests are sinful and greedy for money and worldly goods. They eat everything that is horrible and in large quantities, therefore they are so voluminous

But is it all that simple? After all, being a priest means observing fasting and participating in services and other ceremonies. Can lifestyle and unhealthy diets cause overweight and obesity?

Let's discuss this issue and try to sort it out in a difficult situation.



In Orthodoxy, fasts, on the one hand, are stricter and more frequent (more than half of the days a year are fast!), And on the other, less "regime". There are very severe ascetics among Catholics, but then they are the most real ascetics - not only do not eat meat, but do not eat at all. A crust of bread there or a bowl of soup for the day. Or not even that. The majority of the Orthodox (we do not take ascetic monks) have long abandoned the practice of fasting as a refusal of food in general. As a result, we get: with frequent refusal of animal food from hunger, we save ourselves with something nourishing and carbohydrate: bread, potatoes, cereals ... But we still want to eat, so we sit down for tea and cookies three times a day.

If the priest is active, then three times a day he does not sit down for seagulls. He generally eats incorrectly and irregularly. During the day, he grabs some pieces, hastily crosses himself, and late in the evening, after six, having come home, he eats. A hungry and tired person can eat a lot. Which it does. (Catholics can also be hungry, tired and active, it's just that we have this more common phenomenon - specifically, the Russian Orthodox Church is still in a state of recovery, so you have to run and work a lot.

The wife of a priest is often a woman with many children with another baby under her arm; she prepares what is simpler - that is, again, potatoes, pasta, and that’s all. Catholic priests quite often have something like a housekeeper - they, lonely celibate men, help them with the housework, including with food.

A priest in the provinces is also quite often not rich (well, that is, he is rarely completely beggar, but he has much more pressing problems than finding lean beef or dietary trout) - after all, the parishioners feed him, donating to the temple, and the parishioners too, frankly, not millionaires - our standard of living is significantly lower than in Catholic Europe. That is, again, potatoes-pasta-bread-sausages.

In Orthodox countries, where the standard of living, the quality of food and the condition of the Church are somewhat better, priests look healthier. Among the Greek or there Serbian priests, you will not meet so many obese people.

The answer of the priest Sergiy Ryabko:

As you know, there are occupational diseases. For priests, this is due to a special way of life and the observance of numerous fasts. As a rule, these are cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, varicose veins, stomach diseases, etc. Monastics of both sexes suffer from reproductive system diseases. Among the clergy, it is not customary to have breakfast, but to dine immediately, eating food at noon. A priest who celebrates the Divine Liturgy has no right to eat or even drink from midnight to the end of the Liturgy, which happens around noon, which is why another name for the Liturgy is Liturgy.

Fasts, as a rule, are strictly observed, and this is 7 weeks of Great Lent in the spring, from 3 to 5 weeks of Peter's Lent in the summer, 2 weeks of Assumption Fast, 40 days of Rozhdestvensky Lent. Fast days are also Wednesday and Friday throughout the year. The so-called fast food is not eaten by fasting, i.e. animal origin: meat, milk, eggs, as well as products that include the above ingredients. Sometimes on fast days it is permissible to eat fish. Since the body requires its own, the lack of high-calorie food is compensated by a large amount of bread, pastries, pasta, potatoes, vegetable fats, which most often causes a tendency to be overweight.

Clergymen for the most part spend their lives standing on their feet in front of the throne, or sitting. Few are engaged in physical labor. A sedentary lifestyle with age is also conducive to obesity. Going to fitness clubs, exercising on simulators is not something that is a sin, rather, there is no time, because the day and working week of a clergyman is not standardized. Before the revolution, the rural clergy had an allotment of land and received most of their income from it, i.e. the priest and his family members worked on the cornfield with his own hands in his free time from services.

Therefore, before the revolution, the rural clergy was distinguished by harmony and health. It accounted for up to 90% of the total number of clergy. Now the village is destroyed, most of the parishes are in cities. Very often, if the parish is located in the village, the priest lives in the city. There is not enough clergy, therefore there is a practice of one priest serving several parishes, i.e. he takes turns visiting his parishes, sometimes by public transport.

Fasting also includes abstaining from married life. But in this area the rules of the Orthodox Church are even stricter. Marital relations are prohibited not only by fasting, on the night before the fast days of Wednesday and Friday, but also on the night before holidays and Sundays. And also the day before, on the day of the Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and on the following night, i.e. when a priest or deacon celebrates the Divine Liturgy, and this happens several days a week. It is clear that abstaining from married life leaves unused calories, which also tend to favor obesity.

As for me, I am a sinner: since childhood I like to eat. Only this reason explains my completeness.

Regarding Catholics - I doubt the statistics. Where and how many Catholic priests have you seen, where and how many Orthodox? On TV I saw many fat Orthodox priests, in my life (in the churches I visit) I have not seen a single fat one.


And here is the answer to a question from other priests:

All priests are fat, because they eat a lot and eat well, this is a myth.

First, not all Orthodox priests are fat. Neither we nor our opponents have conducted research that could establish whether there are actually more obese people among priests than among non-priests.

Second, the average priest is older than the average man, because priests are not often promoted at a young age. Probably less than half of the priests became such in the most direct way: school - seminary - priesthood. Many people came to this at a more mature age. And the older a man is, the more, alas, his belly is bigger.


Third, non-priests of mature age often wear jackets. The jacket hides the belly. And the clothes of the priests do not hide. Therefore, the belly of a person in priestly clothing (cassock) is more noticeable.

And finally, the most important thing. Let's finally speak like adults who have had their own experience in the fight against subcutaneous fat. What does the thickness of the fat layer really depend on? From wealth? From the sophistication of food?

Nothing like this. Most of all, it depends on the diet and sports training. Having a regular work day can help you avoid overeating in the evening and devote time to training in the gym.

The priests have irregular working hours. On days of worship, they have the opportunity to eat for the first time only at three in the afternoon. In addition, almost all of them are fathers with many children. According to many priests, they often do not even have time to comb their hair. Where can I go to the gym to improve beauty, while mother with 3-5-8 children is straining. And not only the mother needs help, but the children themselves need the attention of their father. And how many more spiritual children do the priests have who also need to devote time?

And why do Orthodox priests need this fitness? The beauty of the body is not one of the priority values ​​for priests. First, they are not preoccupied with seducing the opposite sex. They all have wives. And what a sin to conceal - it is the desire to please, to seduce is one of the main incentives to maintain our physical shape.

Secondly, they generally attach more importance to the spiritual, understanding the short duration of this life, and not seeing the point of investing efforts in something that will very soon turn to dust. While there is always not enough time to work on your soul.


Therefore, with their big bellies, some priests look like spiritually weak people who are simply too lazy to take care of themselves. But the priests are strong and not lazy. They simply apply their strength in a different direction.

Yes, and from people who are supposed to be the spokesmen of the fatherly love of God for us, we do not need the beauty of the waist. Think and be honest - would you prefer to deal with a priest who gives you more time or less time, but has a thinner waist because he goes to the gym?

And one moment. Everyone knows that good people tend to be overweight more than evil people. There is even such a saying - "There should be a lot of a kind person." Indeed, anger and other evil emotions seem to burn the flesh of a person. Priests are different people, but nevertheless their ministry, willy-nilly, pacifies their souls, teaches kindness ...


Vitaly Milonov's answer:

“Do you know why our priests are fat? .. No? But I know, because he is a man of the church. All because of the services. Before twelve or two o'clock in the afternoon, Orthodox priests do not eat. Catholics are lean because they live in hot climates. By the way, Orthodox priests in Cyprus are generally thin, ”Milonov said.

Constant fasts also harm the figure, during which nothing but bread and potatoes can be eaten. “I can say that more than fifty percent of priests suffer from diabetes, precisely because we have an unhealthy diet,” the deputy said. The Greeks were more fortunate here too - during the fast they can eat a lot of greens and fruits, which are inaccessible in our northern conditions.

Or maybe simply because most lean foods are carbohydrate. And the excess of carbohydrates, as you know, is converted into fat stores. Try one bread with potatoes or beans with nuts. Or is there not only one loaf of bread with potatoes?

Sources: