St. Hippolytus: Fasting for Easter

"NO ONE must eat anything on Pascha [Easter] before the oblation has been made, for with one who acts thus, it will not be counted as a fast. If a woman is pregnant, or if someone is sick and cannot fast for two days, let them fast on Saturday, taking bread and water if necessary."

~St. Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170-235 A.D.): The Apostolic Tradition, 32. (Reference to the strict pre-Easter fast of the early Church.)

"The most prolific Roman Church Father of the third century, St. Hippolytus wrote in an age when the Church of Rome was still Greek in language and culture. He was, in fact, the last Roman theologian to write in the language of the New Testament. And because the use of Greek died out in Rome by the mid fourth century, many of Hippolytus’ works were forgotten and even lost. Among those that survive is the earliest known Christian biblical commentary, the Commentary on Daniel (ca. 204), which accepted as canonical the parts of the book (Dan 13-14) later rejected by some Protestant Reformers. His numerous other commentaries illustrate that, like the Fathers generally, he was before all else an interpreter of Scripture." --Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio

See The Apostolic Tradition