Orthodox Men Should Not Trim Their Beards
“The beard must not be plucked.” (Saint Cyprian of Carthage, “Treatise 12,” Third Book, 84)
Up until the 20th century, the universal tradition for Orthodox Christian men was to wear a beard and not to trim it. Unfortunately this tradition is being supplanted in our times by a spirit of modernism and a desire to follow the unchristian customs of the West, which, starting 1000 years ago, decided to ignore holy tradition and even the God-given natural appearance of man by shaving off their beards.
In the Old Testament, God gave command concerning the priests: “They shall not shave their beard” [Lev. 21:5], and He also ordered the laymen of the sons of Israel: “Ye shall not make a round cutting of the hair of your head, nor disfigure your beard” [Lev. 19:27]. Perhaps one might think that because this comes from the Old Testament, it is inapplicable to our times. Yet the ancient Church of the New Testament, even continuing up till very recent centuries, had the very same tradition for men.
Besides not cutting their beards, Orthodox clergy (deacons and higher) and monks also do not cut their hair, in order to signify that they are consecrated to God, just as the Nazarites of the Old Testament [Num. 6:5-6].
There is also an element of humility and modesty in a layman not trimming his beard, so that he will not trouble himself about his appearance, vainly grooming himself to appear more attractive, which is effeminate and unmanly. However God has ordained, that is how a man should appear. This same principle also applies to women not cutting their hair (which enhances their beauty anyway) or disfiguring their bodies with piercings or cosmetics.
The early Christian writer Clement of Alexandria (150-215) wrote: “God planned that women be smooth-skinned, taking pride in her natural tresses, the only hair she has,…but man He adorned like the lion, with a beard, and gave him a hairy chest as proof of his manhood and a sign of his strength and primacy” (The Instructor, Book III, Ch. 3). Further, he states that since man’s hairiness was a sign of God’s order, “It is therefore impious to desecrate the symbol of manhood, hairiness” (Ibid., Ch. 11).
In the early centuries (as well as in the Soviet Union), sometimes the torturers would shave or pluck out the beards of the Christian martyrs, since this was seen as shameful.
The Apostolic Constitutions (4th C.) declare: “Nor may men destroy the hair of their beards and unnaturally change the form of a man. For the Law says: Ye shall not mar your beards. For God the Creator has made this decent for women, but has determined that it is unsuitable for men. But if ye do these things to please men, in contradiction to the Law, ye will be abominable with God, Who created you after His own image. If, therefore, ye will be acceptable to God, abstain from all those things which He hates, and do none of those things that are unpleasing to Him” (Apostolic Constitutions, Book 1, Section 2).
The Latin West adopted the custom of shaving beards from paganism. Caesar, with some exceptions, would always shave his beard, and perhaps the popes of the eighth century wished to imitate him. The Latins’ shaving was a source of disgust to the Eastern Romans (Greeks), who ridiculed the Westerners for adopting an effeminate, unmanly appearance. From the time of Saint Photios (9th C.) onwards, it was one of the great subjects of reproach on the part of the Greek Church that the Roman clergy systematically cut off their beards. And in 1023, clerical shaving was even mandated by the Roman Church.
Despite this innovation, however, laymen in the West continued to wear beards, and it was considered shameful for a layman to be deprived of one. Although the Latin clergy were now shaving, punishments were meted out for anyone who assaulted a layman’s mane, according to the following law issued by Saint King Alfred (871-886): “If a man shave off another's beard let him make amends with twenty shillings. If he bind him first and then shave him like a priest, let him make amends with sixty shillings.” It is also interesting that in the medieval Roman Catholic Church, clerical writers condemned laymen who went clean shaven for usurping clerical prerogative. Laymen were still expected to have beards, as is only natural and according to God’s ordinance.
Centuries of iconographic tradition also bear witness to the proper appearance for an Orthodox man. Apostles, martyrs, monks, bishops, priests, and laymen are all painted with beards from the earliest depictions. It is not right for a man to look like a woman. Even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is depicted in ancient icons with a beard, which of course He had, like any other 1st-C. Israelite would. Why should a man modify his appearance, like a woman using cosmetics? Beards have always been the standard apparel of the Israel of God, in both the Old and New Testament. This is why in Orthodox icons, men, both laymen and clergy, are painted with full beards, unless they were youths (in which case they are depicted beardless in order to signify their young age).
In the 1700s, Saint Kosmas of Aitolia went on a preaching tour around Greece. By that time, many false traditions had crept in among the ignorant Orthodox villagers, including shaving. As a response, the saint encouraged the men to grow their beards, offering to gift them a comb if they did so. He said, “Aren’t you ashamed to shave? Doesn’t God Who gave us beards know better?… You, young men, honor those with beards. And if there is a man of thirty with a beard and one of fifty, or sixty, or a hundred who shaves, place the one with the beard above the one who shaves, in church as well as at the table. On the other hand, I don’t say that a beard will get you to heaven, but good works will. And your dress should be modest, as well as your food and your drink. Your whole conduct should be Christian so that you will be a good example for others” (“First Teaching,” Apostle of the Poor, p. 21). This is part of Orthodox tradition. It is a matter of obedience.
Metropolitan Gabriel (Petrov) of Novgorod (1730-1801) was once going to a service, where the Archpriest Andrew Samborsky, whose beard was shaved off, was supposed to serve together with him. Seeing Samborsky, the metropolitan said: “What kind of man are you? Our Church does not accept those who shave the beard. Get out!” (Little Russian Philokalia, Vol. 3, pp. 71-72).
Canon 96 of the Quinisext Council (Trullo) excommunicates those who adorn themselves and arrange their hair to beguile onlookers. Father Nikodemos the Hagiorite, commenting on this canon, states: “This excommunication is incurred also by those who shave off their beard in order to make their face smooth and handsome after such treatment, and not to have it curly, or in order to appear at all times like beardless young men; and those who singe the hair of their beard with a red-hot tile so as to remove any that is longer than the rest, or more crooked; or who use tweezers to pluck out the superfluous hairs on their face, 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 incurred also by those women who use rouge and paint on their face, in order to look pretty, and in this way to attract the men beholding them to their Satanic love. Oh, and how the miserable women have the hardihood to dishonor the image which God gave them with their wicked beautifications! Ah! how is God to recognize them and tell whether they are His own creatures and images, at a time when they are wearing another face which is devilish, and another image, which is that of Satan?… Note that the present canon censures the priests of the Latins who shave off their mustache and their beard and who look like very young men and handsome bridegrooms and have the face of women. For God forbids men of the laity in general to shave their beard, by saying: ‘Ye shall not mar the appearance of your bearded chin’ [Lev. 19:27]. But He specially forbids those in holy orders to shave their beard, by saying to Moses to tell the sons of Aaron, or, in other words, the priests, not to shave the skin of their bearded chin [Lev. 21:5]. Not only did He forbid this in words, but He even appeared to Daniel with whiskers and beard as the Ancient of Days [Dan. 7:9]; and the Son of God wore a beard while He was alive in the flesh. And our forefathers and patriarchs and prophets and apostles all wore beards, as is plainly evident from the most ancient images of them wherein they are painted with beards. But, more to the point, even the saints in Italy, like Saint Ambrose, the father of monks Benedict, Gregory Dialogus, and the rest, all had beards, as they appear in their icon painted in the church of Saint Mark in Venice. Why, even the judgment of right reason decides the shaving of the beard to be improper. For the beard is the difference which in respect of appearance distinguishes a woman from a man. That is why a certain philosopher, when asked why he grew a beard and whiskers, replied that as often as he stroked his beard and whiskers he felt that he was a man and not a woman. Those men who shave their beard are not possessors of a manly face but of a womanly face. Hence it was that Epiphanios blamed the Messalians for cutting off their beard, which is the visage peculiar to man as distinguished from woman. The apostles in their Constitutions, Book I, Ch. 3, command that no one shall destroy the hair of his beard, and change the natural visage of the man into one that is unnatural. ‘For,’ says he, ‘God the Creator made this to be becoming to women, but deemed it to be out of harmony with men.’ The innovation of shaving the beard ensued in the Roman Church a little before Leo IX. Gregory VII even resorted to force in order to make bishops and clerics shave off their beard. Oh, and what a most ugly and most disgusting sight it is to see the successor of Saint Peter close-shaven—as the Greeks say, like a ‘fine bridegroom’—with this difference, however, that he wears a stole and a pallium, and sits in the chief seat among a large number of other men like him in a council called the college of cardinals, while he himself is styled the pope. Yet bearded popes did not become extinct after the insane 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. Meletios the Confessor (Subject 7, ‘Concerning unleavened wafers’) states that a certain pope by the name of Peter on account of his lascivious acts was arrested by the king and one half of his beard was shaven off as a mark of dishonor. According to another authority, in other temples too there were princes, even on the sacerdotal list, who had a beard, as in Leipzig they are to be seen painted after Martin Luther in the church called Saint Paul’s and that called Saint Thomas’s. I saw the same things also in Bardislabia” (The Rudder, pp. 403-405).
(Saint Mark’s Basilica, Venice)
In conclusion, let both Orthodox laymen and clergy return to the ancient practice of our holy mother, the Church. Let not modern convention dictate the behavior of the servants of Christ, Who has undergone the sufferings and torments of His Passion in order to redeem us from the power of sin, the devil, and the world. Whatever sacrifices or inconveniences we experience are nothing in comparison to God’s own self-emptying love for us. Let every man have the humility to submit himself to the will of the Church in every point, not considering any of her precepts to be “minor” or “inconsequential,” because he who is faithful is that which is least will be faithful in much [Lk. 16:10]. Our outward behavior reflects our inward disposition. Let all our life exhibit, therefore, an attitude of obedience and fidelity to tradition.