The Burial and Commemoration of the Dead.

The Prayers for a Departing Soul. — The Orthodox Church bestows on the dying a blessing and a parting word to ease their passage into life eternal at the moment of the separation of the soul from the body. This parting word consists of a prayerful canon to our Lord Jesus Christ and to His Immaculate Mother. The troparia of this canon express, on behalf of the dying person, the consciousness of sin, the fear of punishment, and the hope in the intercession of the Mother of God and in the mercy of Christ. The canon ends with a prayer that the Lord may remit the dying person’s sins and grant his soul rest with the saints in the eternal abodes.

The Preparation of a Deceased Christian’s Body for Burial. — After death, a Christian’s body is washed and clothed in new garments. The latter either are all white, when they are called a shroud or winding-sheet, and refer to the promise which the deceased gave at baptism to lead a life of purity and holiness — or else they are the garments of his rank and dignity in life, in token that he must render an account to God of the manner in which he acquitted himself of the duties of the position to which he was called. On his brow is placed a band on which are represented Christ, His Mother and John the Baptist, with the words of the Trisagion, in token that the deceased, as a warrior of Christ, contended on earth for the truth and died with the hope of receiving a crown in Heaven. In the hands is placed an icon of the Saviour or of some Saint, symbolizing the deceased’s faith in Christ and his wish to be admitted into the community of holy disciples. Then the body is laid in a coffin and covered with a pall; to signify that the deceased is under the shelter of the Church of Christ.

The Reading of the Psalter by the Coffin and the Requiem Services. — Immediately after a Christian’s death, the reading of the Psalter begins by his coffin, with the addition, after each “Glory” (stasis or antiphon), of prayers for the rest of his soul, and Requiem services are celebrated, called pannychída, which means, “an all-night service.” But they are in reality only short services, consisting of petitions for the forgiveness of the deceased’s sins, and the rest of his soul in the Kingdom of Heaven. This service is an abbreviation of Matins. It begins with the reading or chanting of Psalm 90:“He that dwelleth in the help of the Most High, shall abide under the shelter of the God of Heaven.”

        Then follows the Great Ectenia, with an added petition for the departed; after which are sung: “Alleluia,” troparia with the refrain “Blessed Art Thou, O Lord,” the Penitential Psalm, the canon with three Small Ecteniæ after the third, sixth and ninth odes, the Trisagion, the Lords’ Prayer, funeral troparia, the Triple Ectenia, and Dismissal, proclaiming “Memory Eternal” of the departed. During the Requiem the coffin is censed all around, to signify that the soul of the departed, like unto the fumes from the censer, ascendeth to heaven and that our prayers for him are pleasing to God. This service bears the name of an “all-night service,” because, in ancient times, at the funeral of martyrs, the Christians used to spend the entire night, chanting and praying.

The Bearing forth of the Body to the Church. — The body is taken to a church before burial. Just before it is borne forth from the house, a short service, called Litý is held — an abbreviated Requiem — consisting of troparia, the Triple Ectenia and Dismissal. The coffin is again censed all around during this service. The body of the departed brother is carried to the church to the chanting of the Trisagion, in token that the departed now passeth into the abode of the celestial hosts, there to sing with them the hymn to the Holy Trinity. The Christians who surround the coffin hold lighted candles in their hands, thereby expressing the certainty that their departed brother ascendeth into eternal light, which is God. The coffin is placed in the middle of the church, facing the Sanctuary, and lights are lit all around it.

The Funeral Service. — The entire funeral rite is inspired by prayer for the departed and the desire to console the survivors. It begins with the chanting of Psalms 90 and 118, which set forth the blessedness of them that have lived trusting in the help of the Most High and in the observance of His law. Then, after “Alleluia” has been sung thrice, follow troparia with the refrain, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord; teach me Thy statutes.” In these troparia man’s entire lot is pictured. Created from nothing, but endowed with, the likeness of God, he returns to earth for having transgressed the divine commandment; yet, notwithstanding that he bears upon himself the wounds of sin, he still retains the image of the ineffable glory of God, and dares to beseech the merciful Lord for restoration to his glorious home. The troparia are followed by the singing of the funeral canon, containing prayers for the departed; after the third, sixth and ninth odes, the Small Ectenia is recited. Then are sung the Idioméla: these are eight sticheræ, which contain the lamentations of man, who realizes how fleeting and perishable are earthly things. Each stichera is sung to a tone or melody of its own (as indicated by the name, “idioméla”: “their own melodies.”).

        “What earthly sweetness remaineth unmixed with sorrow? What glory on earth continueth unchanged? All things are more feeble than shadows, all things are more deceptive than dreams... Where is worldly inclination? Where the imaginings of the ephemeral creatures of a day? Where are the gold and the silver? Where is the multitude of servants and noise? All is dust, all ashes, all a shadow... I weep and lament, when I think about death, and see our beauty, fashioned according God’s image, lying in the graves, disfigured, without glory, bereft of form. O marvel! What is this mystery concerning us? How have we been given up to corruption? How have we been linked with death? Truly, as it is written, by the command of God, Who giveth repose unto the departed.”

        After the idiomela the Beatitudes are chanted; then there are readings from the Epistles and Gospel, which speak of the resurrection of the dead, and give comfort to them that mourn over the vanity of all earthly things.

        The readings from Scripture are followed by the Ectenia of Supplication, which concludes with the “prayer of absolution,” in which the Church remits all the departed’s transgressions, absolves him from all obligations, all pledges or oaths, and sends him off in peace into life everlasting. In token that the prayers of the Church have weight with God and that what is remitted to the penitent on earth is remitted to them in heaven also, it is customary in our country to place in the departed’s hands a paper with this prayer written upon it.

        The funeral service ends with the singing of sticheræ, which speak of the separation of our departed brother from us and express his request that we should pray for him. This is the moment when the last kiss is given and the coffin is closed; then “memory eternal” of the departed is proclaimed.

Burial, or Laying the Body in the Grave. — When the funeral service is concluded, the coffin is lowered into the grave, facing the East, to signify that the deceased is going towards the Orient of life everlasting, to await the second coming of Christ, the Sun of Truth. While the coffin is being lowered, the prayers of the Litia are chanted; then the priest casts earth crosswise upon the coffin, saying: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all that dwell therein,” and pours oil upon it, if the departed received holy unction in life, and also scatters on it ashes from the censer. This oil, unused for the lamp, and these extinct ashes symbolize the life which has been extinguished on earth, but, is, by God’s mercy, to be resurrected for everlasting bliss.

        Christian graves are dug either in a cemetery by a church, or within the church building, to signify that they who have been true to the Church in life, are sheltered by her in death.

Prayers and Rites After the Burial. — The Church cares for Christians in death. She prays for them and offers the Bloodless Sacrifice of the Liturgy in their behalf on the third, ninth and fortieth day after their decease, then every year on the anniversary of death, which is called the “day of remembrance” or “commemoration.” On the third day, we pray that Christ, Who rose from the dead on the third day after His death, may resurrect our departed brother into a life of blessedness; on the ninth day we pray the Lord that He may number the departed among the nine orders of Angels and Saints; on the fortieth day we beseech Christ that He Who endured temptation from the Devil on the fortieth day of His fast may help the departed to stand the ordeal of God’s judgment without being shamed, and that He Who ascended to Heaven on the fortieth day, may receive the departed into the heavenly abode. Sometimes he is commemorated daily through all the forty days, by the celebration of the Liturgy in memory of him. By devoting to prayer the anniversary day of our brother’s demise we express the belief that the day of a man’s death is not the day of his annihilation, but of his birth into life everlasting.

        At all commemorative services is set forth a dish of boiled wheat or rice with honey (Kólivo or Kutyá). The grain symbolizes resurrection, while the honey (or sugar) indicates the sweet, blissful life in the Kingdom of Heaven.

        Apart from private commemorations of every deceased Christian, at the wish of his friends and relatives, there are certain days set apart by the Church for the commemoration of all deceased Christians generally. The church services for these days are called “Universal Requiems,” and the days themselves are called “ancestral days” (All-Souls’). Such days are: the Saturday before Cheese-Fare week; the Saturdays of the second, third and fourth weeks in Lent; the Saturdays before Trinity (Pentecost) and before the feast of St. Dimitri of Thessalonica (26th of October); the Tuesday — in some localities the Monday — of St. Thomas’ week (the week after Pascha); and the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist. The Saturday before St. Dimitri’s feast was instituted in memory of the Great-Prince Dimitri Donskoy and of the warriors killed on the Field of Kulikof in the great battle against the Tatars.

Special Features of the Burial of Priests and Babes. — The body of a priest is not washed; but sponged with pure oil and clothed in the sacred vestments. The face is covered with an aër, and in the hands are placed a Cross and Gospel. The body is borne to the church in procession, the church bells ringing a carillon. Before every church which the procession passes, the Litý service is performed. During the funeral service five readings from the Epistles and five from the Gospels are read; after the funeral canon the sticheræ on “Praise the Lord” are sung, then the Great Doxology. More idiomela are sung than at the funerals of laymen.

        For babes who have died after receiving baptism, the funeral service is performed after a special rite, the Church praying not that the departed’s sins be forgiven him, but that the Lord, according to His unfailing promise, may vouchsafe to receive him, as being blessed and undefiled, into the Kingdom of Heaven.

        For babes who have died unbaptized, no funeral service is performed, they not having been cleansed of the original sin. Of their future lot, St. Gregory the Theologian says that they will be neither glorified nor punished by the righteous Judge, as such that have not received the seal, yet are not wicked, and have suffered more than done harm; “For not every one who is not deserving of punishment is therefore deserving of honor; nor is every one who is not deserving of honor therefore deserving of punishment.”