What is a funeral service? Whom the Russian Orthodox Church did not allow to perform the funeral service.
The funeral service is considered the most important funeral rite for believers. However, the church denies it to some deceased people. On whom and why is there a ban on the remission of sins?
Seeing off the deceased to the afterlife is accompanied by a funeral service. Of course, this rite is not a direct pass to Heaven, but it can forgive sins that the deceased did not have time to repent of during confession while still alive. The priest reads a prayer over the body, thereby forgiving the person for all his vices and bad deeds.
After this, the scroll with prayer is placed in the right hand of the deceased. If due to certain circumstances (infection, death in another city) the funeral service was held in absentia, then this scroll can be placed with the deceased a little later. And if the remission of sins took place after the funeral, then it is enough to bury the scroll with the prayer at the burial site.
However, the Orthodox Church does not perform funeral services for everyone. Guided by church canons, the priest has the right to refuse funeral services for those people who died after being heavily intoxicated or as a result of drug use.
The church also refuses to perform funeral services for people of other faiths, those who treated religion with mockery and disdain, and the unbaptized. If you do not know whether a person was baptized during his lifetime, try to find out by finding his godparents. The ban on funeral services applies even to an infant who simply did not have time to undergo the baptismal ceremony. If the child died in the womb, the church will also refuse a funeral service.
Everyone knows that according to Orthodox canons it is impossible to perform funeral services for suicides, since voluntary death is the most terrible sin. It is forbidden to mention suicides at a funeral service, and notes cannot be submitted for them. Even burying such people in church cemeteries is considered a violation of Orthodox canons. However, there are exceptions among suicides. These include mentally ill people who cannot account for their actions. Also, people who died as a result of a tragic accident: unknowingly ate poisonous mushrooms or berries, or fell from a height. It is also allowed to perform a funeral service for a person who sacrificed his life to save others.
However, in order to achieve a funeral service, you will need to prove the fact of a noble sacrifice, an accident or psychological illness. To do this, you will need to submit a petition addressed to the bishop, in which you should describe in detail the circumstances of the death, and also attach a medical certificate.
It also happens that a person deliberately decides to die by jumping from a tall building. However, after the fall he still remains alive for some time and ends up in the hospital. If during this time before his death he manages to repent of his actions, then the priest will be able to hold a funeral service.
A refusal to perform a funeral service should not mean to you that the deceased should be forgotten. With home prayer, good deeds and alms you can help the soul of a person dear to you.
On the day of special remembrance of the dead, the rector of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Kozhukhovo, Archpriest Alexy Mityushin, answered several questions related to the funeral service.
What is a funeral service?
Archpriest Alexey Mityushin
A Christian accompanies any matter, from the most seemingly insignificant to the more important, with prayer, turning to God for His blessing. When we wake up, go to bed, sit down to eat, we say prayers; when we give birth to a child, we baptize him and thereby introduce him into eternal life, when we get married, we perform the sacrament of wedding, and so on. Moreover, when our loved one dies, we pray intensely for him. We do not know whether the person repented of his sins before death, or whether he forgot to repent of something important. And therefore we ask that his soul be forgiven and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The soul of the deceased passes into a new, completely different world, and it must be escorted there, given the “last kiss,” with dignity. The sacrament of death, as it is often called, is accompanied by a special prayer rite - and the funeral service is the most important and, one might say, solemn moment during the burial of a person’s body. A funeral service is something that benefits the soul of the deceased. This benefit will not be brought by, say, a minute of silence, or any special ritual accessories - wreaths, flowers, etc., because this is something simplified, and sometimes ostentatious. By performing the funeral service for the deceased, we are indeed doing a good deed for him.
In addition, the funeral service is also useful for us. We understand that death is the beginning of eternal life, but if the Lord Himself cried when his friend Lazarus died, how can we not cry? After all, it happens that we bury not only people dying of old age, but also children, spouses, friends, which seems to us unnatural, unfair, and so on. The prayers that are sung during the funeral service are a consolation for a person who is in grief.
Also, while performing the funeral service, we come into contact with eternity, imagine ourselves lying in a tomb, think about how we will go to God’s Judgment. It happens, for example, that some girls reason like this: I will sin, and then, like Mary of Egypt, I will repent. Of course, such a point of view is unacceptable, but, in addition, we may simply not have time. Therefore, the funeral service is edifying: it reminds us that we need to be Christians.
Why perform funeral services for the dead?
When we pray for a person, we believe that the Lord will hear our prayers. Moreover, Jesus Christ Himself told us: Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). Therefore, we hope that when we collectively pray at the funeral service for the forgiveness of a person’s sins “free and involuntary,” and sing “Rest rest, O Christ, the soul of your servant,” the Lord dwells among us.
It is important to understand that the funeral service is a link in a large chain of spiritual work that we need to do for our deceased, loved ones. Therefore, it is not enough to simply come to the funeral service, stand with a gloomy face and carnations in your hands, and start going about your everyday affairs again. It all begins with preparing a person for the sacrament of death - with the dying person communing the Holy Mysteries of Christ (if possible). Further, when a person dies, the canon for the outcome of the soul is read - so that the person’s soul is strengthened in such a trembling hour. Before the funeral service, a requiem service is performed in the church - a short prayer for the deceased. And now comes the rite of the funeral itself - the most important rite of prayer. Again, nothing ends here: we have 40 days ahead of very important prayers for a person, reading the psalter at home and prayers at the Divine Liturgy.
It was considered a great misfortune to die without church guidance. Thus, the soul of the deceased was deprived of posthumous peace and the opportunity to meet with loved ones in the “heavenly world.”
Death in old age, in the family circle, after confession and remission of sins was considered a good mercy of the Lord. Among the princes and aristocracy, it was customary to take monastic vows before death. The schema was taken in order to gain peace for one’s soul. The funeral took place not under the name with which the person lived his whole life, but under the monastic name received on his deathbed. This custom came to Rus' from Byzantium - it was believed that the schema facilitated retribution for earthly sins unwittingly committed by those in power.
It was believed that it was “right” to rejoice for those who died - after all, thanks to his righteous life and death, man rose to the Divine throne. However, this was not always possible. Sudden deaths without repentance and communion in Rus' happened quite often. Some time after the battles, local peasants found the remains of the dead, often eaten by wolves, but with crosses on their necks or in a half-rotten hand... The crosses were handed over to the church, and from them it was possible to identify the remains. A memorial service was served for the dead and they were buried: the warrior who died for his fatherland was undoubtedly a righteous man, and his Christian burial was a duty, not a mercy. This tradition is still strong, and there are groups of enthusiasts who, using historical documents, search for the places of death of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, the remains are identified and buried if possible.
When cities were captured by an enemy army, during plague epidemics or natural disasters, people died en masse without repentance, and even their names were unknown. Such dead people were placed in common graves - poor people, and the funeral service was performed for everyone at once, praying for their souls.
It was possible to have a funeral service in absentia if a person went missing, but he had very little chance of survival: for example, in a shipwreck or on a long voyage. To be more precise, a memorial service is served in absentia for the dead, for the funeral service implies a church ritual over the body, which was the container of the soul.
Russian people attached great importance to the sacrament of death in accordance with the canons of Orthodoxy, according to which funeral services and absolution had to be earned. The funeral ritual includes strictly defined alternations of stichera, the canon, and the reading of the Apostle and the Gospel. A significant part of the prayers is not read, but rather sung, which is why the ritual is called the funeral service.
Extreme sportsmen and suicides
The church imposed a ban on funeral services for suicides. It was believed that by killing himself, a person voluntarily rejected the gift of God: life. Moreover, the opinion of the church on this issue may not coincide with the official version. So, according to the investigation, Sergei Yesenin committed suicide, but he was buried, and he was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.
Not only were there no funeral services for suicides, they were not buried in the church cemetery, and the names of such victims could not be mentioned in the funeral service. However, home prayers, giving alms and doing good deeds to help the soul of the unjustly deceased were recommended.
In our time, problems may arise with funeral services for extreme sports enthusiasts who died while implementing their desperate enterprises, according to the logic that the person knew that he could die, but deliberately took this risk.
There was no funeral service for robbers, murderers, and other categories who, from the point of view of Orthodoxy, lead a non-Christian lifestyle. However, the Orthodox Church considered the main task to be to save the souls of people, therefore, in case of repentance, unrighteous people received dying instructions, which helped them pass through the trials that awaited them after death.
The Orthodox Church did not perform funeral services for people of other faiths, atheists and the unbaptized, including infants. A baby who died unbaptized was a stain on the conscience of the parents, so children were baptized as early as possible. A special rite was performed on children under seven years of age who died after baptism. Their souls are considered sinless, the children are buried only with prayers for acceptance into the Kingdom of God. The priest also prays for the consolation of the child’s parents and for the sinless soul to become an intercessor in the face of the Lord for the souls of their relatives and friends.
Special options for funeral services
It was considered a great misfortune to die without church guidance. Thus, the soul of the deceased was deprived of posthumous peace and the opportunity to meet with loved ones in the “heavenly world.”
Death in old age, in the family circle, after confession and remission of sins was considered a good mercy of the Lord. Among the princes and aristocracy, it was customary to take monastic vows before death. The schema was taken in order to gain peace for one’s soul. The funeral took place not under the name with which the person lived his whole life, but under the monastic name received on his deathbed. This custom came to Rus' from Byzantium - it was believed that the schema facilitated retribution for earthly sins unwittingly committed by those in power.
It was believed that it was “right” to rejoice for those who died - after all, thanks to his righteous life and death, man rose to the Divine throne. However, this was not always possible. Sudden deaths without repentance and communion in Rus' happened quite often. Some time after the battles, local peasants found the remains of the dead, often eaten by wolves, but with crosses on their necks or in a half-rotten hand... The crosses were handed over to the church, and from them it was possible to identify the remains. A memorial service was served for the dead and they were buried: the warrior who died for his fatherland was undoubtedly a righteous man, and his Christian burial was a duty, not a mercy. This tradition is still strong, and there are groups of enthusiasts who, using historical documents, search for the places of death of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, the remains are identified and buried if possible.
When cities were captured by an enemy army, during plague epidemics or natural disasters, people died en masse without repentance, and even their names were unknown. Such dead people were placed in common graves - poor people, and the funeral service was performed for everyone at once, praying for their souls.
It was possible to have a funeral service in absentia if a person went missing, but he had very little chance of survival: for example, in a shipwreck or on a long voyage. To be more precise, a memorial service is served in absentia for the dead, for the funeral service implies a church ritual over the body, which was the container of the soul.
Incorrect funeral rites from the point of view of the Church
According to Orthodox tradition, an improper funeral can damage a person’s soul in its ascension to heaven. Among such mistakes are echoes of pagan traditions in the form of pompous funeral celebrations, an abundance of wreaths, and alcohol at funerals. It is believed that music and lavish funerals distract the soul of the deceased from its task of transition to the Kingdom of God.
What, according to Orthodox tradition, happens to the soul as a result of an incorrect death
If a person was a righteous person and lived according to his conscience, his soul will enter the Kingdom of Heaven even without a funeral service. But life is life, and a person always sins to one degree or another. These sins delay the soul and cause it suffering. If a person has spent his life committing evil acts - offending loved ones, tyrannizing the weak, contributing to their premature death - his soul can become restless and turn into a ghoul. Such phenomena in the Russian tradition were called “undead”; they fed on the energy of living people and became enemies of all living things.
On the same topic:
Whom the Russian Orthodox Church did not allow to have a funeral service Whom the Russian Orthodox Church forbade to perform funeral services Why did the Orthodox Church prohibit keeping a dog in the house?
Russian people attached great importance to the sacrament of death in accordance with the canons of Orthodoxy, according to which funeral services and absolution had to be earned. The funeral ritual includes strictly defined alternations of stichera, the canon, and the reading of the Apostle and the Gospel. A significant part of the prayers is not read, but rather sung, which is why the ritual is called the funeral service.
Extreme sportsmen and suicides
The church imposed a ban on funeral services for suicides. It was believed that by killing himself, a person voluntarily rejected the gift of God: life. Moreover, the opinion of the church on this issue may not coincide with the official version. So, according to the investigation, Sergei Yesenin committed suicide, but he was buried, and he was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.
Not only were there no funeral services for suicides, they were not buried in the church cemetery, and the names of such victims could not be mentioned in the funeral service. However, home prayers, giving alms and doing good deeds to help the soul of the unjustly deceased were recommended.
In our time, problems may arise with funeral services for extreme sports enthusiasts who died while implementing their desperate enterprises, according to the logic that the person knew that he could die, but deliberately took this risk.
There was no funeral service for robbers, murderers, and other categories who, from the point of view of Orthodoxy, lead a non-Christian lifestyle. However, the Orthodox Church considered the main task to be to save the souls of people, therefore, in case of repentance, unrighteous people received dying instructions, which helped them pass through the trials that awaited them after death.
The Orthodox Church did not perform funeral services for people of other faiths, atheists and the unbaptized, including infants. A baby who died unbaptized was a stain on the conscience of the parents, so children were baptized as early as possible. A special rite was performed on children under seven years of age who died after baptism. Their souls are considered sinless, the children are buried only with prayers for acceptance into the Kingdom of God. The priest also prays for the consolation of the child’s parents and for the sinless soul to become an intercessor in the face of the Lord for the souls of their relatives and friends.
Special options for funeral services
It was considered a great misfortune to die without church guidance. Thus, the soul of the deceased was deprived of posthumous peace and the opportunity to meet with loved ones in the “heavenly world.”
Death in old age, in the family circle, after confession and remission of sins was considered a good mercy of the Lord. Among the princes and aristocracy, it was customary to take monastic vows before death. The schema was taken in order to gain peace for one’s soul. The funeral took place not under the name with which the person lived his whole life, but under the monastic name received on his deathbed. This custom came to Rus' from Byzantium - it was believed that the schema facilitated retribution for earthly sins unwittingly committed by those in power.
It was believed that it was “right” to rejoice for those who died - after all, thanks to his righteous life and death, man rose to the Divine throne. However, this was not always possible. Sudden deaths without repentance and communion in Rus' happened quite often. Some time after the battles, local peasants found the remains of the dead, often eaten by wolves, but with crosses on their necks or in a half-rotten hand... The crosses were handed over to the church, and from them it was possible to identify the remains. A memorial service was served for the dead and they were buried: the warrior who died for his fatherland was undoubtedly a righteous man, and his Christian burial was a duty, not a mercy. This tradition is still strong, and there are groups of enthusiasts who, using historical documents, search for the places of death of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, the remains are identified and buried if possible.
When cities were captured by an enemy army, during plague epidemics or natural disasters, people died en masse without repentance, and even their names were unknown. Such dead people were placed in common graves - poor people, and the funeral service was performed for everyone at once, praying for their souls.
It was possible to have a funeral service in absentia if a person went missing, but he had very little chance of survival: for example, in a shipwreck or on a long voyage. To be more precise, a memorial service is served in absentia for the dead, for the funeral service implies a church ritual over the body, which was the container of the soul.
Incorrect funeral rites from the point of view of the Church
According to Orthodox tradition, an improper funeral can damage a person’s soul in its ascension to heaven. Among such mistakes are echoes of pagan traditions in the form of pompous funeral celebrations, an abundance of wreaths, and alcohol at funerals. It is believed that music and lavish funerals distract the soul of the deceased from its task of transition to the Kingdom of God.
What, according to Orthodox tradition, happens to the soul as a result of an incorrect death
If a person was a righteous person and lived according to his conscience, his soul will enter the Kingdom of Heaven even without a funeral service. But life is life, and a person always sins to one degree or another. These sins delay the soul and cause it suffering. If a person has spent his life committing evil acts - offending loved ones, tyrannizing the weak, contributing to their premature death - his soul can become restless and turn into a ghoul. Such phenomena in the Russian tradition were called “undead”; they fed on the energy of living people and became enemies of all living things.
