Page "Great Apostasy" Paragraph 60

Protestants often assert that practices that seem especially strange to them, such as regular fasting ( several Protestant Churches practice fasting ), veneration of relics and icons, honoring the Virgin Mary ( known as the Theotokos to the Orthodox and as Mother of God to Catholics ), and observing special holy days, must have been introduced after the time of Constantine ( or even introduced by Constantine as a way to lead the Church into paganism ).

Documents from the pre-Constantine church often show otherwise ; however, there were several different Christian sects before Constantine.

Fasting is a biblical practice from even Old Testament times, and was mentioned by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and reportedly practiced by him as well.

Early Christian documents refer to the regular practice of fasting.

For example, the Didache ( or " Teaching of the Twelve ") instructs Christians to fast every Wednesday and Friday, a practice the Orthodox Church continues to this day.

Every feast day is preceded ( or followed, as with Shrove Tuesday followed by Ash Wednesday ) by a fast as well, in part to avoid the excessive revelry of pagan feasting without moderation.

The catacomb church was surrounded by relics of necessity, but accounts of early martyrdoms show that Christians regularly sought the remains of the martyrs for proper burial and veneration.

( See the Martyrdom of Polycarp.

) Many of these early accounts associate miracles with the relics: mentioned in Acts are Paul's handkerchiefs which healed the sick ().

The Infancy Gospel of James is attributed to James the Just but was certainly written no later than the 2nd century ; it lays out additional details of Mary's life.

This " gospel " is viewed by the Orthodox Church as apocryphal, and beneficial as a teaching tool only.

The practice of observing special holy days was borrowed from the Jews, who were commanded to observe such days by God.

In the same way, other practices were borrowed from the Jewish liturgy as well, such as the use of incense and oil lamps.