Rogation of the Ninevites

The story behind the day

The Rogation of the Ninevites, called Bā'ūṯā d-Ninwāyē in Syriac, is a three-day fast of repentance kept by the East Syriac churches, among them the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church. It runs from Monday to Wednesday, beginning three weeks before the Great Fast of Lent. It recalls the people of Nineveh who, in the Book of Jonah, proclaimed a fast and turned from their ways when the prophet warned them.^[1–4]

Origins

The story is told in the Book of Jonah. When Jonah announced that Nineveh would fall, the people proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, great and small. Nineveh repented, and God relented from the destruction he had threatened.^[4]

What it marks

The fast is a season of repentance and prayer. The Chaldean community gathers in church for the liturgical prayers of the season, and the National Council of Churches in Australia describes the days as marked by prayers and vespers in the daytime and special services in the evening.^[6–7]

How it came to be

Historians and tradition tell different stories. An archaeological study of Nineveh reports that Sabrisho, metropolitan of Karkha, established the Fast of Nineveh before Lent in the late sixth century, while a church newsletter in Australia places its beginning in the seventh century under Marutha of Tikrit. The Syro-Malabar liturgical tradition relates that between 570 and 581 a plague spread through Mesopotamia, and Mar Sabrisho' heard in prayer the words of an angel telling him to proclaim a fast; the plague then left, and the people resolved to keep the day each year. Chaldean accounts likewise tell of a devastating sixth-century plague, which the faithful met with a fast later set as a yearly three-day observance.^[8–10]

How it is kept

three-day fast table at an Assyrian home in Erbil — Three-day fast table at an Assyrian home in ErbilIllustration · AI-generated

Believers abstain from food, some until after morning vespers, and keep a vegan Lenten diet through the three days. The East Syriac fast closes with a service of thanksgiving on the Thursday morning that follows, and in the Syro-Malabar tradition the fast ends on the fourth day with the veneration of the cross and the feast. Different languages give the fast different names: the Rogation or Petition of the Ninevites in English, and Ba'utha or Ba-oosa D'Ninvaye in Syriac.^{[1, 11–12]}

Across traditions

The National Council of Churches in Australia counts thirteen churches that keep the fast, including the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church, and the Syro-Malabar liturgical commission says that both the East and the West Syriac churches observe it. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church lists the Fast of Nineveh among its fasts: it falls from Monday to Wednesday of the third week before Lent. The Coptic Church calls its fast the Fast of Jonah and places it two weeks before Great Lent.^{[3, 5]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.