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The Holy Canons Trullo Canon 53

Canon 53 A godparent may not marry the child's widowed mother

Κανόνες τῆς ἐν Τρούλλῳ Ἁγίας καὶ Οἰκουμενικῆς Πενθέκτης Συνόδου

The Council in Trullo · Constantinople, 691 to 692 · convened by the emperor Justinian II · The Quinisext Council (Trullo, 692) on the map

Since kinship according to the spirit is greater than the union of bodies, and we have come to know that in some places certain persons who receive children from holy and saving baptism afterwards contract a marital cohabitation with the widowed mothers of those children, we decree that from the present nothing of the kind be done. And if any, after the present canon, should be detected doing this, first let such persons separate from this unlawful cohabitation, and then let them also be subjected to the penances of fornicators.

Ἐπειδὴ μείζων ἡ κατὰ τὸ πνεῦμα οἰκειότης τῆς τῶν σωμάτων συναφείας, ἔγνωμεν δὲ ἔν τισι τόποις τινὰς ἐκ τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ σωτηριώδους βαπτίσματος παῖδας ἀναδεχομένους, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο, ταῖς ἐκείνων μητράσι χηρευούσαις γαμικὸν συναλλάσσοντας συνοικέσιον, ὁρίζομεν, ἀπὸ τοῦ παρόντος μηδὲν τοιοῦτον πραχθῆναι. Εἰ δέ τινες μετὰ τὸν παρόντα κανόνα φωραθεῖεν τοῦτο ποιοῦντες, πρωτοτύπως μὲν οἱ τοιοῦτοι ἀφιστάσθωσαν τοῦ παρανόμου τούτου συνοικεσίου ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ τοῖς τῶν πορνευόντων ἐπιτιμίοις ὑποβληθήτωσαν.

The Council in Trullo, the canons

English: this site's translation of the Greek beside it. Greek: the text of the Pedalion, as transcribed at users.uoa.gr/~nektar and corrected here. About these texts.