Writings in Orthodox Christianity related to Beards

St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite

The following is a list of quotes from Orthodox sources on the tradition of beards. One should take care not to turn the following quotes into pharisee like laws, and begin to  judge those around them.

In the history of the Orthodox Church there were saints who trimmed and shaved their beards i.e. Constantine the Great, Theodore Ushakov, Justinian the Great, some pre-schism Western saints and more. St. Photius the Great point out that practices such as clean shaven clergy do not distort the essence of our faith, and that a sensible man does not condemn those who do so. So please use these quotes for reference and not for judging those around you, which will only lead to the detriment of your soul and others.

“It is not lawful to pluck out the beard, man’s natural and noble adornment.” – Clement of Alexandria, 2.277

“In their manners, there was no discipline. In men, their beards were defaced.” – St. Cyprian of Carthage (c. 250, W), 5.438

“The beard must not be plucked. ‘You will not deface the figure of your beard’.” [Lev 19:27] – St. Cyprian of Carthage, 5.553

“Men may not destroy the hair of their beards and unnaturally change the form of a man. For the Law says, “You will not deface your beards.” For God the Creator has made this decent for women, but has determined that it is unsuitable for men.” – Apostolic Constitutions (compiled c.390, E) 7.392. (1)

“There are some things, too, which have such a place in the body, that they obviously serve no useful purpose, but are solely for beauty, as e.g. the teats on a man’s breast, or the beard on his face; for that this is for ornament, and not for protection, is proved by the bare faces of women, who ought rather, as the weaker sex, to enjoy such a defense.” – St. Augustine of Hippo

“If there happens to be a man 30 years old who has let his beard grow, and one of 50, 60 or 100 years who shaves, make the one who has let his beard grow sit higher up than the one who shaves, as much in the church as at the table” – St. Cosmas of Aetolia
(Augoustinos Kantiotis, Saint Cosmas of Aetolia [Athens, 1959], p. 86).

“How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them!…For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest–a sign of strength and rule.” – Clement of Alexandria, 2.275

“What can be worse and more disgusting than cutting one’s beard, which is an image of a man… The word of God and the teaching in the Enactments of the Apostles, on the issue of a beard, prescribes not to spoil it, which means not to cut the hair of the beard – St. Epiphanius of Salamis (Works, pt. 5, ch. 7, pg. 302, pub. y 1889)

St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite’s Comments on Canon 96 of the Sixth Oecumenical Synod

“Those too incur the excommunication of this Canon, according to Zonaras, who do not put a razor to their head at all, nor cut the hair of their head, but let it grow long enough to reach to the belt like that of women, and those who bleach their hair so as to make it blond or golden, or who twist it up and tie it on spills in order to make it curly; or who put wigs or “rats” on their head. 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 redhot 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…  And if these things are forbidden to be done by the laity in general, how much more they are forbidden to clerics and those in holy orders, who ought by their speech and by their conduct, and by the outward decency and plainness of their garments, and of their hair, and of their beard, to teach the laity not to be body-lovers and exquisites, but soul-lovers and virtue- lovers. Note that the present Canon censures the priests of the Latins who shave off their moustache 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 pictures of them wherein they are painted with beards. But, more to the point, even the saints in Italy, like St. Ambrose, the father of monks Benedict, Gregory Dialogus, and the rest, all had beards, as they appear in their pictures painted in the church of St. 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 Epiphanius blamed the Massalians for cutting off their beard, which is the visage peculiar to man as distinguished from woman. The Apostles in their Injunctions, 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 St. 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 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. Meletius 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 St. Paul’s and that called St, Thomas’s. I saw the same things also in Bardislabia.” From The Rudder, pp. 403-405.

“Let the head of men be clipped, unless they have curly hair. But let the chin have the hair. … Cutting is to be used, not for the sake of elegance, but on account of the necessity of the case … so that it may not grow so long as to come down and interfere with the eyes.” – Clement of Alexandria (circa 195 AD), 2.286.

Post-Apostolic times also confirmed this. The long-standing tradition of obedience was still going strong. As we can see from the following quotes, the post-Apostolic Fathers were completely in harmony with their ancestors: “The beard must not be plucked. “You shall not deface the figure of your beard.” – St. Cyprian of Carthage AD 250

“The hair of the chin showed him to be a man.” – Clement of Alexandria (c.195, E), 2.271

“I am saddened by and pity those clerics who reject the cassock and who shave their beards” -  Elder Philotheus (Zervakos) of Paros (Herman A. Middleton, Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, p. 156)

“This, then, is the mark of the man, the beard. By this, he is seen to be a man. It is older than Eve. It is the token of the superior nature….It is therefore unholy to desecrate the symbol of manhood, hairiness.”- Clement of Alexandria, 2.276

In the book titled Peter the Great, by Robert Massie we will see on page 244: For most Orthodox Russians, the beard was a fundamental symbol of religious belief and self-respect. It was an ornament given by God, worn by the prophets, the apostles and by Jesus himself. Ivan the Terrible expressed the traditional Muscovite felling when he declared, “To shave the beard is a sin that the blood of all the martyrs cannot cleanse. It is to deface the image of man created by God.” Priests generally refused to bless men without beards; they were considered shameful and beyond the pale of Christendom. Patriarch Adrian said, “God did not create men beardless, only cats and dogs. Shaving is not only foolishness and dishonor; it is a mortal sin.”

“The nature of the beard contributes in an incredible degree to distinguish the maturity of bodies, or to distinguish the sex, or to contribute to the beauty of manliness and strength.” – Lactantius (c. 304-314, W), 7.288

“The churches of our Russian Church Outside of Russia are usually quite different, with no pews or organs, and a more old-worldly kind of piety; and there has been a noticeable revival of traditional church iconography and other church arts. The traditional Orthodox influence is visible even in such external things as the way our clergy dress and the beards which almost all of our clergy have. Just a few decades ago almost no Orthodox clergy in America had beards or wore rassas on the street; and while this is something outward, it is still a reflection of a traditional mentality which has had many inward, spiritual results also. A few of the more conservative priests in other jurisdictions have now begun to return to more traditional Orthodox ways, but if so, it is largely under the influence of our Church, and a number of these priests have told us that they look to our Russian Church Outside of Russia as a standard and inspiration of genuine Orthodoxy.” – Fr. Seraphim (Rose) of Platina

St. Cosmas of Aetolia & Equal to the Apostles on beards:

“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.”

St. Cosmas – “I ALSO SAY A WORD FOR MEN. It is natural for a man who is going on fifty years to wear a beard. But here I see old men who are sixty and eighty years old and still shave. Aren’t you ashamed to shave?

Doesn’t God who gave us beards know better? Just as it is unseemly for an old woman to deck herself out and put on cosmetics, so it is for an old man to shave.

When wheat grows and becomes white what does it signify?”

“Harvest.”

St. Cosmas – “The same with man. When he grows up and becomes White, what does this signify?”

“Death.”

St. Cosmas – “Is there anyone here who wishes to let his beard grow? Let him stand up and tell me so we can become brothers, and I shall pray for him and ask all the Christians to forgive

“I, Teacher.”

St. Cosmas – “Good, you have my blessing. Pray to God for me, a sinner, so that I will pray for you too for as long as I live. Will you do it?”

“I will, 0 saint of God.”

St. Cosmas – “I beg you, my fellow Christians, say three times for all those who let their beards grow: ‘May God forgive and have mercy upon them.

Let Your nobility also ask for forgiveness. And may God enlighten you to let go of your sins as you let your beard grow – 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.”