WASTE

“Whatever I find, that’s what I’ll judge.” These words were spoken by the Savior about the Second Coming and the Last Judgment. But since the state at the moment of death is almost predetermining the future state of a person on the day of the Last Judgment, the Mother Church especially takes care of the Christian death of the dying person and strengthens him in the last minutes of his life with special prayers, pronounced as if on behalf of the departed: at the bed of the dying person, the canon is read and a prayer for the separation of the soul - the so-called waste prayer. The canon is placed in the Small Trebnik and is entitled as follows: “Canon of prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ and the Most Pure Mother of God at the separation of the soul from the body of every true believer.”

The priest, coming to the dying man, gives him to kiss the cross and places this instrument of the Savior’s atoning death or another image before the eyes of the dying man in order to incline him to trust in God’s mercy and the salvation granted through the saving suffering and death of the Lord.

The rank itself consists of the usual beginning; according to “Our Father” - “Come, let us worship” and the 50th Psalm; then reading the canon itself. After the canon “It is worthy to eat” and a prayer (read by the priest) for the outcome of the soul.

In the canon for the exodus of the soul, the Church, on behalf of the dying person, calls on those close to his deathbed to weep for his soul, which is being separated from the body, and to offer the most fervent prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and all the saints for the protection and protection of the suffering soul of the one dying from all the horrors of the hour of death, especially from the evil demons who keep the writing of sins, and about deliverance from the ordeals of all the evil ones. In these prayers for the exodus of the soul, the Church prays to the Lord that He would free the dying soul from all earthly bonds in peace, free him from every oath, forgive all sins and rest him in eternal abodes with the saints.

The canon guiding the believer to his transition to the future life is based on the words of the Lord Himself, who in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus says that poor Lazarus, after his death, was carried by the Angels to Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22). If the soul of the righteous was carried by the Angels to the bosom of Abraham, then the soul of the sinner is subjected to ordeals in hell by evil spirits (the Word of Cyril of Alexandria on the outcome of the soul - in the following Psalter; the life of Saint Theodora).

In the Great Trebnik (chapter 75), in the Trebnik in 2 parts (chapter 16) and in the Priestly Prayer Book, there is also a special order for the separation of the soul from the body, when a person suffers for a long time before death. The following of this order is similar to the above-mentioned following of the canon when separating the soul from the body.

BURIAL OF THE DEAD

The hour of death and burial, as the last duty of the living to the deceased, were accompanied by special religious rites among all nations. These rituals among some peoples of the pre-Christian world had a highly poetic, joyful character, while for others, on the contrary, they had a more gloomy character, which depended on basic religious beliefs and different ideas about death and the afterlife.

Funeral rites among Christians have their origins, on the one hand, in the burial rites of the ancient Jews and in the burial rites of Jesus Christ, and on the other hand, they arose in Christianity itself and served as an expression of Christian teaching about earthly life, death and the future life. The Jews closed the eyes of the deceased and kissed his corpse (Gen. 50:1), washed him, wrapped him in linen, and covered his face with a separate piece of linen (Matt. 27:59; Jn.

11:44), they were placed in a coffin, anointed with precious oil and covered with fragrant herbs (John 19:34), and buried. According to Jewish customs, the most pure body of the Savior, taken from the Cross, was wrapped in a clean white shroud, and his head was tied with a scarf, anointed with aromas and was laid in a tomb.

In addition, the development of funeral rites in Christianity was influenced by Christian views on life and death. According to Christian teaching, our earthly life is a journey and a path to the Heavenly Fatherland; death is a sleep, after which the dead will rise to eternal life in a renewed spiritual body (1 Cor. 15, 51-52); the day of death is the birthday for a new, better, blissful and eternal life. The body of a deceased brother is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the vessel of the immortal soul, which, like grain, although it returns to the earth, after the resurrection it will be clothed with incorruptibility and immortality (1 Cor. 15:53).

In accordance with such gratifying Christian views, the burial of the dead in the very first times of Christianity acquired a special, properly Christian character. As can be seen from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Christians followed generally accepted Jewish customs regarding the burial of the dead, changing some of them in accordance with the spirit of the Church of Christ (Acts 5, 6-10; 8, 2; 9, 37-41). They also prepared the deceased for burial, closing his eyes, washing his body, clothing him in burial shrouds, and weeping over the deceased. However, Christians, contrary to Jewish custom, did not consider the bodies of the dead and everything that touched them unclean, and therefore did not try to bury the deceased as soon as possible, usually on the same day. On the contrary, as can be seen from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, disciples or saints gather around the body of the deceased Tabitha, that is, Christians, especially widows, place the body of the deceased not in the vestibule of the house, as was usually the case in the pre-Christian world, but in the upper room, i.e. . in the upper and most important part of the house, intended for offering prayers, because they meant to offer prayers here for her repose.

Further and more detailed information regarding Christian burial in ancient Christian times is found in the works of Dionysius the Areopagite (“On the Church Hierarchy”), Dionysius of Alexandria, Tertullian, John Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian and others. In the work “On the Church Hierarchy,” the burial is described as follows:

“Neighbors, offering songs of gratitude to God for the dead, brought the deceased to the temple and placed them before the altar. The rector offered songs of praise and gratitude to God for the fact that the Lord granted the deceased to remain even until death in the knowledge of Him and Christian warfare. After this, the deacon read the promises of the resurrection from the Divine Scriptures and chanted the corresponding songs from the psalms. After this, the archdeacon remembered the departed saints, asked God to number the newly deceased among them, and encouraged everyone to ask for a blessed death. Finally, the abbot again read a prayer over the deceased, asking God to forgive the newly departed all the sins he had committed through human weakness, and to dwell in him in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, from where sickness, sadness and sighing would escape. At the end of this prayer, the abbot gave the deceased the kiss of peace, which all those present did, poured oil on him and then buried the body.”

Dionysius of Alexandria, speaking about the care of Christians for the dead during the plague that raged in Egypt, notes that “Christians took the dead brothers in their arms, closed their eyes and closed their mouths, carried them on their shoulders and folded them, washed and dressed them and accompanied them in a solemn procession "

The bodies of the dead were dressed in funeral clothes, sometimes precious and shiny. Thus, according to the church historian Eusebius, the famous Roman senator Asturius buried the body of the martyr Marinus in white precious clothes.

According to the testimony of church writers, Christians, instead of wreaths of flowers and other worldly decorations used by pagans, placed crosses and scrolls of sacred books in the coffins of the dead. Thus, according to the testimony of Dorotheus of Tyre, the Gospel of Matthew, written during his lifetime by Barnabas himself, was placed in the tomb of the Apostle Barnabas, which was later found during the discovery of the relics of the Apostle (478).

PREPARING THE BODY OF THE DECEASED FOR BURIAL AT THE PRESENT TIME

Relatives usually take care of the deceased. In the very first times of Christianity, among the clergy there were special persons for burying the dead under the name of “toilers” (they are still remembered at the special litany).

The body, or, according to the Trebnik, the “relics” of the deceased, according to ancient custom, is washed in order to appear in the judgment of the face of God in purity and immaculateness, “puts on new clean clothes according to his rank or service,” as evidence of our faith in the resurrection of the dead and the future Judgment, at which each of us will give an answer to God in how we remained in the rank in which we were called.

The custom of washing the body and covering it with new, clean clothes dates back to the time of Jesus Christ Himself, whose most pure body, after being removed from the cross, was washed and wrapped in clean linen, or a shroud.

The body of the deceased, washed and clothed, is sprinkled with holy water and placed in a coffin, also sprinkled with holy water. The deceased is placed in the tomb, according to ancient apostolic tradition, “with a face of grief,” “with eyes closed, as if sleeping, lips closed, as if silent, and hands folded crosswise on the chest,” as a sign that the deceased believes in Christ, crucified, risen, ascended into heaven and resurrected the dead. The deceased is covered with a new white veil, or “shroud,” indicating the baptismal clothes in which he put on, having been washed in the sacrament of Baptism from sins, and signifying that the deceased kept these clothes clean during his earthly life and that his body is being delivered to the grave , will rise at the Second Coming renewed and incorruptible. The entire coffin is covered with a sacred cloth (church brocade) as a sign that the deceased is under the protection of Christ.

The body of the deceased is crowned with a “crown” with the image of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and the Forerunner, and with the inscription “Trisagion”, thereby honoring the deceased as a winner who has ended earthly life, preserved the faith and hopes to receive from the Lord Jesus the heavenly crown prepared for the faithful by the mercy of the Triune God and through the prayerful intercession of the Mother of God and Forerunner (2 Tim. 4, 7-8; Rev. 4, 4, 10). An icon or cross is placed in the hands as a sign of faith in Christ.

The body of the deceased is brought into the house with its head facing the icons. Lamps are lit at the coffin, and candles are also lit by those present at the memorial service when it is celebrated for the deceased. These lamps mean that he has passed from the corruption of this life to the true non-evening light (Simeon of Thessalonica). (The bishop’s coffin is sometimes overshadowed with trikyriy, dikyriy and ripids.)

Before the body is taken out for burial, the Psalter is read over the body of the deceased. This reading of the Psalter for the deceased is also performed on the ninth, twentieth and fortieth day after death and annually on the days of repose and “name day” of the deceased. Prayers for the deceased, according to St. Cyril of Jerusalem, bring great benefit to the souls of the dead, especially when they are combined with the offering of a bloodless Sacrifice. If these prayers are always necessary for the salvation of the soul of the deceased, then the intercession of the Church is especially necessary immediately after his death, when the soul is in a state of transition from earthly life to the afterlife and determining its fate in accordance with the life lived on earth. These prayers are also needed for the edification and strengthening of those around us and those mourning the departure of the deceased. Grief is usually silent, and the more silent, the deeper. The Holy Church interrupts this silence, which instills despondency, with a comforting and most edifying conversation - the reading of the psalms of the Psalms near the deceased before his burial, which powerfully turn those who mourn to prayer and thereby console them.

Note.

The reading of the Psalter is usually done standing (the position of a praying person). The reading of the Psalter for the deceased itself is performed in the following order.

Beginning: Through the prayers of the saints, our fathers... Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee. Heavenly King... Trisagion according to Our Father. Lord have mercy (12 times). Come, let us bow (three times). And the first “Glory” of the 1st kathisma is read.

After each “Glory” there is a prayer: “Remember, O Lord our God,” remembering, where appropriate, the name of the deceased (the prayer is placed in the “Following the Exodus of the Soul” - in the following Psalter and at the end of the Lesser Psalter).

After the end of the kathisma, the Trisagion according to the Lord’s Prayer, the penitential troparia and the prayer prescribed after each kathisma are read (see the row in the Psalter after each kathisma).

The new kathisma begins with “Come, let us worship.”

DIFFERENT TYPES OF BURIAL OF THE DECEASED

In the Orthodox Church there are four types, or ranks of burial, namely: the burial of lay people, monks, priests and infants. This also includes the rite of burial performed on Bright Week.

All funeral rites are similar in composition to funeral matins or all-night vigil. But each rank separately has its own characteristics.

The sequence of the funeral service is called in the liturgical books “initial” in the sense that the death of a Christian is an exodus, or transition from one life to another, like the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land.

The funeral service usually takes place after the liturgy.

The burial does not take place on the first day of Easter and on the day of the Nativity of Christ until Vespers.

RITE OF BURIAL OF WORLDLY PEOPLE (“SEQUENCE OF DEAD WORLDLY BODIES”)

Under the name of Christian burial we mean both the funeral service and the committing of the body of the deceased to the earth (and not just the committing to the earth). The funeral service is usually performed in a church and, as an exception, at home or in a cemetery.

Before the body of the deceased is taken to the church for the funeral service, a short funeral lithium is performed over him at home (lithium - from Greek “intensified public prayer”).

The priest, having come to the house where the “relics of the deceased” are located, puts on the epitrachelion and, having put incense into the censer, censes the body of the dead and those standing before him and begins as usual:

Blessed be our God...

Singers: Amen. Trisagion.

Reader: Holy Trinity. Our Father. By exclamation -

Singers: From the spirits of the righteous who have died...

In Thy chamber, Lord... and so on. troparia

Deacon(or priest) litany: Have mercy on us, O God...

Exclamation: God of spirits and all flesh...

Deacon: Wisdom.

Singers: The most honest Cherub... and so on.

And the priest gives the dismissal:

“Christ our true God possesses the living and the dead, through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother, our venerable and God-bearing fathers, and all the saints, the soul of His departed servant from us ( Name), he will dwell in the villages of the saints and count with the righteous, and he will have mercy on us, as he is Good and Lover of Mankind.”

After that priest proclaims eternal memory: “In the blessed Dormition there is eternal peace...”. The singers sing: “Eternal memory” (three times).

When everything is ready to be taken out, the priest begins again the beginning (of the funeral service itself): “Blessed is our God.”

The singers begin to sing “Holy God,” and while singing the Trisagion, the body of the deceased is transferred to the temple. In front of the entire procession is a cross, followed by singers. A priest in vestments with a candle in his left hand and a cross in his right, and a deacon with a censer walk in front of the coffin. The priest walks ahead of the coffin because, as noted in the Breviary of Peter the Mogila, he serves as a “leader” - the spiritual leader of Christian life and is a prayer book before God both for the living and for the dead. The laity, as if weeping and paining for the dead, follow the coffin. The procession is accompanied by the singing of “Holy God” to the glory of the Holy Trinity, in whose name the deceased was baptized, in which he served, in which he confessed, in which he died, and after death may he be worthy to sing the Trisagion hymn together with the inhabitants of heaven.

In the temple, the body of the deceased is placed either in the vestibule, or in the middle of the temple opposite the royal doors, facing the east (head to the west) - in the likeness of Christians praying that not only the living, but also the dead would participate spiritually in the offering of the mystical sacrifice at the liturgy, so that the departed soul prayed together with the brothers still remaining on earth. After the liturgy, during which the body of the deceased stands in the church, his funeral service usually takes place.

The “Burial of the Worldly People” is part of the all-night vigil, or a full memorial service.

The funeral service consists of three parts:

1) from the usual beginning, Psalm 90, Psalm 118 (“blameless”) and funeral troparions for the blameless;

2) from the singing of the canon, stichera, Gospel beatitudes with troparia, reading of the Apostle and the Gospel, litany, reading of the prayer of permission and, finally, stichera at the last kiss.

3) The funeral service ends with a funeral litia.

After this, the body is carried out to the grave for burial with the singing of “Holy God” and a short litany is held when the body is lowered into the grave.

First part. After the usual exclamation “Blessed is our God,” “Holy God” is sung (three times) and Psalm 90 is read, after which the blameless (Psalm 118), divided into three sections, are sung. The beginning of each verse is sung by the choir, the rest of the verses are read by the priest. (According to the Rule, all verses of Psalm 119 are to be sung.) In the first and third articles, each verse is accompanied by the refrain: “Alleluia,” and in the second article, “Have mercy on Thy servant” ( or Thy servant).

At the end of each article “Glory” and “And now” with a chorus.

After the 1st and 2nd articles there is a small funeral litany, pronounced with censing. Censing is required throughout the entire funeral service. At litanies during burial, it is customary to say “newly deceased” servant of God instead of the word “deceased.”

After the immaculates, immediately (without the litany) the troparions for the immaculates are sung (the work of St. John of Damascus - 8th century): “Blessed art thou, O Lord... You have found the source of life in the faces of the saints.” Then the small litany and the “sedal rest”: “Rest, our Savior.” After the sedalna the Theotokos is sung: “Who shone forth to the world from the Virgin.”

This is followed by The second part funeral service.

After the 50th psalm, the canon of the 6th tone is sung - the creation of Theophan the Inscribed, written in the 8th century. on the death of his brother, Theodore the Inscribed. Irmos 1st: “As Israel walked on dry land.” This canon is also placed in Octoechos in the Saturday service of the 6th tone.

At the canon they usually sing or read the chorus to the first troparion: “Wonderful is God in His saints, the God of Israel,” and to the second: “Rest, O Lord, to the soul of Thy departed servant.” In this canon, the Church especially calls for the intercession of the deceased the martyrs, as the firstborn of the Christian death who have achieved eternal bliss, and prays to the Lord, Who is “by nature Good and Compassionate and the Author of mercy, and the compassion of the Abyss,” to rest the deceased “in the land of the meek,” with the saints, in the sweetness of paradise, in the Heavenly Kingdom, where there is no longer sorrow or sighing, but endless life in joyful communion with God.

According to the 3rd song of the canon, the small litany is pronounced and the sedalene is sung: “Truly all is vanity.”

According to the 6th canto there is also a small funeral litany, kontakion: “Rest with the saints” and ikos: “Thou art alone the Immortal.”

According to the 9th canto, a small funeral litany is pronounced and eight self-vocal stichera, written by John of Damascus for the death of one ascetic, are sung in 8 voices, as a consolation to his grieving brother. These stichera depict with strong and touching features the transience of earthly life, the perishability of the body and beauty, the helplessness at death of wealth and fame, worldly connections and advantages.

But behind this image of the transience of earthly life, the inevitable destruction and decay of the body, the Church comfortingly pronounces “Blessed”: In Your Kingdom, when you come, remember us, Lord! Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the weeping, the meek... - sayings of the Savior about the eternal bliss of the ascetics of piety and virtue; the deceased is asked that Christ the Lord give him rest in the land of the living, open the gates of paradise for him, show him a resident of the Kingdom, forgiving all his sins.

After this there is the singing of the prokeme and the reading of the Apostle and the Gospel.

Through the words of the apostolic reading, the Church transfers our thoughts and hopes to the future general resurrection of the dead. “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so will God bring with him those who died in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The Church awakens the same hopes in us with the words of the Gospel about the general resurrection (John 5:24-31).

After the Gospel, the litany is pronounced: “Have mercy on us, O God,” and at the end the prayer “God of spirits” with the exclamation “For You are the resurrection, life and peace.”

Usually, after reading the Gospel and the litany “Have mercy on us, O God,” the priest, standing at the coffin at the feet of the deceased, turning his face to the deceased, reads a prayer of permission, which he then places in the hand of the deceased (and in this case, the farewell prayer placed at the end of the funeral service , is not readable, because its content is the same as the first one, only shorter).

In this prayer, the Lord is asked to forgive the deceased for his voluntary and involuntary sins, in which he “repented with a contrite heart and gave over to oblivion for the weakness of nature.” Thus, the prayer of permission is the priest’s prayer for the deceased to be granted forgiveness from the Lord for all sins revealed to the confessor, as well as those for which the deceased did not repent, either due to the forgetfulness of sins characteristic of man, or because he did not have time to repent of them, being caught in death. It is also permissive in the proper sense, since it allows the deceased to be released from church prohibition (“oath” or penance), if for some reason it was not resolved during his lifetime.

As a sign that the deceased died in communion with the Church, a prayer of permission is placed in his hands.

The Church, by reading the prayer of permission, also sheds great consolation into the hearts of those who grieve and cry.

The prayer of permission has been said over the deceased since ancient times (IV-V centuries). The content of this prayer was borrowed from the prayer of propitiation found at the end of the ancient liturgy of the Apostle James. It was brought to its present composition (in the Trebnik) in the 13th century by Herman, Bishop of Amathunta. Even righteous people did not shy away from this permit. So, for example, the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky, at his burial, accepted a letter of permission, straightening his right arm as if alive. The custom of placing a prayer of permission into the hands of the deceased has been observed in the Russian Church since the time of St. Theodosius of Pechersk, who, at the request of the Varangian prince Simon to bless him in this life and after death, wrote a prayer of permission and handed it to Simon, and Simon bequeathed to put this prayer into his hands after death.

After the prayer of permission and conciliation, touching stichera are sung at the last kiss:

“Come, brothers, let’s give the last kiss to the deceased.”

When singing them, there is a farewell to the deceased as an expression of his separation from this life, our unceasing love and spiritual communion with him in Christ Jesus and in the afterlife. The people perform the last kiss by kissing the cross in the hand of the deceased.

The third part. The funeral service consists of a funeral litia. After the stichera, the Trisagion of Our Father is read.

Choir sings: “From the spirits of the righteous who have died...” and so on. troparia

Then the litany: “Have mercy on us, O God,” and so on. (see the beginning of the “Rite of burial of worldly people”).

And creates priest dismissal with the cross: “Risen from the dead, Christ our true God” (see Breviary).

Deacon proclaims: “In the blessed Dormition there is eternal peace...”.

Choir: Eternal memory (three times).

Priest: “Your memory is eternal, our worthy and ever-memorable brother” (three times).

After the funeral service, burial takes place.

The coffin of the deceased is accompanied to the grave in the same way as to the temple, with the singing of the Trisagion and the procession of the priest ahead of the coffin.

At the cemetery, before the body is lowered into the grave, a litany is performed for the deceased. After closing the coffin and lowering it into the grave, the priest pours the oil remaining after the blessing of oil on the coffin in a cross shape (if this sacrament was performed before death on the deceased); According to custom, grains of wheat used during the blessing of oil and a vessel of oil are thrown into the grave.

In the grave, the deceased is usually placed facing the east as a sign of anticipation of the coming of the morning of eternity, or the Second Coming of Christ, and as a sign that the deceased is moving from the west of life to the east of eternity. This custom was inherited by the Orthodox Church from ancient times. Already Saint John Chrysostom speaks of it as existing from former times (Archbishop Benjamin. New Tablet).

The priest also pours ashes from the censer onto the coffin lowered into the grave. Ashes signify the same thing as unlit oil - life extinguished on earth, but pleasing to God, like incense.

Then the priest sprinkles the coffin lowered into the grave crosswise with earth, taking it with a shovel from all four sides of the grave (colloquially called “sealing the coffin”). At the same time, he pronounces the words: “The earth and its fulfillment (are made up of it) are the Lord’s, the universe and all who live on it.

And all those present on the coffin, lowered into the grave, “place (throw) dust”, as a sign of submission to the Divine command: “You are earth and you will go back to earth.” Committing the body to the earth also expresses our hope of resurrection. That is why the Christian Church adopted and maintains the custom of not burning, but burying the body in the ground, like a grain that should come to life (1 Cor. 15:36).

According to accepted custom, a grave cross is placed at the head of the grave as a sign of the deceased’s confession of faith in Jesus Christ, who through the Cross conquered death and called us to follow His path.

RITE OF INFANTS' BURIAL

Babies are children under the age of seven who cannot yet clearly distinguish between good and evil. If they do something bad out of foolishness, then it is not considered a sin to them. A special funeral service is performed for infants who have died through holy Baptism, as for those who are immaculate and who have received cleansing from original sin in holy Baptism, in which the Holy Church does not pray for the remission of the sins of the dead, but only asks that they be honored with the Heavenly Kingdom, according to the false promise of Christ (Mk. 10, 14).

The rite of infant burial is shorter than the rite of burial of worldly people (of age) and differs from the latter in the following:

The funeral service for infants also begins with the reading of the 90th Psalm, but neither kathisma (blameless) nor troparions for the blameless are sung in it.

The canon is sung with the refrain: “Lord, rest the child.”

The small litany for the repose of the baby (placed after the 3rd song of the canon) differs from that pronounced about the deceased aged: it calls the deceased baby blessed and contains a prayer to the Lord for the repose of the baby, so that He “according to His false promise (cf. Mark 10 , 14) He vouchsafed this to His Heavenly Kingdom.” In the litany there is no prayer for forgiveness of sins; the prayer read by the priest secretly before the exclamation after the litany is different from that during the litany for the deceased of age. This small litany is said after the 3rd, 6th and 9th cantos and at the end of the funeral service before the dismissal.

After the 6th song of the canon, the kontakion “Rest with the Saints” is sung, and together with the ikos “Thou art alone the Immortal,” 3 more ikos are sung, depicting the grief of the parents for the deceased baby.

After the canon, the Apostle and the Gospel are read differently than during the funeral of worldly people: the Apostle - about the different state of bodies after the resurrection (1 Cor. 15, 39-46), and the Gospel - about the resurrection of the dead by the power of the risen Lord (John 6, 35-39 ).

Instead of the prayer of permission required during the funeral service for the elderly, the prayer is read: “Keep the Infants,” in which the priest prays to the Lord to accept the soul of the deceased baby into angelic, luminous places. The priest reads the prayer of permission over the buried baby, standing at the head of the deceased, facing the altar.

At the last kiss, different stichera are sung than at the burial of “worldly people.” They express the grief of the parents for the deceased baby and offer them consolation that he has taken residence among the saints.

Seeing off to the grave and committing to the earth is carried out according to the rite of burial of “worldly people”.

The litia, which is performed for the baby at home, as well as at the end of the funeral service when buried in a cemetery, differs from the usual rite of litia for the funeral of adults only in the litany: instead of “Have mercy on us, O God,” a small funeral litany for the baby is pronounced, placed after the 3rd song canon of infant funeral service.

Funeral services are not performed for unbaptized infants.

The rite of burial of monks is placed in the Great Trebnik.

The funeral service for monks differs from the funeral service for lay people in the following ways:

1. Kathisma 17th (blameless) is divided not into three articles, but into two, while the choruses are different, namely: to the verses of the 1st article “Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me by thy justification.”

To the verses of the 2nd article (up to verse 132) there is a chorus: “I am yours, save me.”

And from verse 132 (“Look upon me and have mercy on me”) - the refrain: “In Thy Kingdom, O Lord, remember Thy servant” or “Thy handmaid.”

2. Instead of the canon about the deceased, Sunday antiphons are sung in power from the Octoechos in all 8 voices, and after each antiphon there are four stichera, in which the death of the Lord on the cross is sung as a victory over our death and a prayer is offered for the deceased.

3. When singing “Blessed”, special troparia are sung, adapted to the vows of the monastics.

4. At the last kiss, from among the stichera: “Come, let us give the last kiss, brothers, to the deceased,” some stichera (5-10) are not sung, but special stichera are added.

5. When the body of a deceased monk is taken out for burial, it is not “Holy God” that is sung, but the stichera of self-concordance is sung: “What earthly sweetness remains unaffected by sorrow.”

6. On the way to the cemetery, the procession stops three times, and there is a funeral litany and prayer.

7. At the time when they throw earth on the coffin, troparia are sung: “When the earth has fallen, receive from you what was created by the hand of God first.”

In these troparia the Church cries out: “raise up Thy servant from hell, O Lover of mankind.” And the deceased, as it were, turns to the brethren: “My spiritual brothers and sisters, do not forget me when you pray... and pray to Christ that my spirit may make peace with the righteous.” And the brethren at the same time perform 12 bows for the deceased, who has ended his temporary life, which in its own way has 12 hours of day and night.

FEATURES OF THE CELEBRATION OF A PRIESTLY BURIAL

When transferring the body of a deceased priest from home to church and from church to cemetery, the procession is the same as during a procession of the cross. The coffin is carried by clergy. In front of the coffin they carry the Gospel, church banners and a cross (when carrying the body of the laity, only the cross is in front). In every temple that the procession passes, there is a funeral bell. When the body of the bishop is carried, a chime will ring in all the churches of the city; The coffin in front of each temple, past which the procession passes, stops, and a funeral litany is performed. This is how the burial of sacred persons was carried out since ancient times (see historian Sozomen, book 7, chapter 10). When carrying the body of the bishop from the temple to the grave, they carry it around the temple, and while carrying it around, a short litiya is performed on each side of the temple.

The priestly burial is distinguished by its spaciousness and solemnity. In its composition, it is similar to the matins of Great Saturday, when funeral songs are sung to the God-man Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. This similarity in burial corresponds to the ministry of the priest, which is an image of the eternal priesthood of Christ. The funeral of priests differs from the burial of lay people in the following:

After the 17th kathisma, performed as at the burial of worldly people, and after the troparions for the immaculate, the five Apostles and five Gospels are read. When reading the first Gospel, the bell is usually struck once, when reading the 2nd Gospel, twice, etc.

The reading of each Apostle is preceded by the singing of the prokeme. Before the prokemenum, sedate antiphons are sung or read, sometimes together with troparions and a psalm ("Alleluia" is chanted to the verses of the psalm). The antiphons depict the mysterious action of the Spirit of God, strengthening the weakness of man and rapturing (tearing) him away from the earthly to the heavenly. Before the fifth Apostle, “Blessed” is sung with troparions different from those used for funeral services for worldly people.

After reading the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Gospels, prayers are read for the repose of the deceased. Usually, each Gospel and the prayer after it are read by a special priest, and the prokeimenon and the Apostle by a special deacon, if there are many of them at the funeral service.

The canon is sung with the irmos of the canon of Great Saturday "By the wave of the sea", except for the 3rd and 6th hymns, which relate only to Christ God and are replaced: the 3rd hymn - with the usual irmos "No One is Holy", and the 6th hymn - with the irmos from the canon Vel. Thursday “The final abyss of sins is my custom.” According to the 6th song, the kontakion “Rest with the Saints” is sung and 24 ikos are read; Each ikos ends with the singing of “Alleluia.”

After the canon, the following stichera are sung: praise stichera, “Glory to God in the highest,” and at the end of the doxology, stichera stichera are sung in all 8 voices: “What is the sweetness of life,” but for each voice not one stichera, as in the funeral service of worldly people, but three. After the great doxology or after the stichera of verse, a prayer of permission is read and placed in the hand of the deceased.

When accompanying the deceased from the church to the grave, they sing not “Holy God”, but the irmos of the canon “Helper and Patron be my salvation.”

In accordance with the bright and solemn significance of the event of the Resurrection of Christ, the burial performed on Bright Week puts aside everything sad from its service: the Resurrection of Christ is victory over death. Before this event, the very thought of death seems to disappear, and therefore the service itself has more to do with the risen Lord than with a deceased brother in faith.

The funeral service on Easter week is performed as follows: before the body of the deceased is taken to the temple, a lithium is performed. The priest makes an exclamation and sings: “Christ is risen” with the verses: “May God rise again.” Then, after singing “With the spirits of the righteous departed,” there is the usual litany for the deceased and after the usual exclamation, the song: “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ.” When the body is transferred, the Easter canon is sung: “Resurrection Day.”

The funeral service begins in the same way as the lithium indicated above, that is, after the exclamation: “Christ is risen” with the verses “May God rise again.” Then the usual litany of repose at the funeral service and after it the canon of Easter: “Resurrection Day.”

For the 3rd and 6th cantos there is a funeral litany. After the 3rd song and litany, the following is sung: “Preparing the morning.”

According to the 6th canto, after singing the kontakion “Rest with the saints” and the ikos “Thou art alone the Immortal,” the Apostle laid down that day at the liturgy and the first Sunday Gospel are read. Before the reading of the Apostle, “Be baptized into Christ” is sung. Before reading the Gospel, “Alleluia” is sung (three times).

After the Gospel: “Let us pray to the Lord” and the prayer of permission.

After clergy or choir sings: “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ” (once) and “Jesus has risen from the grave” (once).

After the 9th canto - the small funeral litany and exapostilary: “Having fallen asleep in the flesh” (twice) and then: “Blessed art thou, Lord... The council of angels was amazed.”

Instead of stichera for the last kiss, the stichera of Easter are sung: “May God rise again,” and there is a farewell to the deceased, during which the singing of the troparion of Easter continues: “Christ is risen from the dead.”

At the end of the kissing, the funeral litany is said: “Have mercy on us, O God,” and the prayer (aloud): “God of spirits” and an exclamation.

Deacon: "Wisdom."

Singers: “Christ is risen from the dead” (three times), and the priest performs the Paschal dismissal, after which:

Deacon: “In blessed dormition...”

Singers: “Eternal memory” (three times).

The coffin is accompanied to the grave with the singing of the troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead.” There is a litiya at the grave, and after “Eternal Memory” they sing: “To the earth, having died, accept from you what has been created,” - the troparion laid down in the rite of burial of monks.

In order to have a clear idea of ​​the changes in the ordinary rite of funeral service in the case of burial of deceased laymen, priests, monks and infants during Easter Week, one must take into account the fact that in the funeral rites of the Orthodox Church two sides are clearly distinguished. Some prayers, readings and chants relate to the dead themselves and consist of petitions for forgiveness of sins and for the blessed repose of the dead. Other chants are addressed to the living, relatives, acquaintances and, in general, neighbors of the deceased and are intended to express the complicity of the Church in grief for the dead and at the same time to arouse in the living a joyful feeling of hope for the future blissful life of the deceased.

As for the dead, both in the event of death during Holy Week and at other times of the year, the prayer of the Church is necessary so that the Lord will forgive their sins and grant them a blessed life. Therefore, in the Easter rite of funeral service, these prayers about the forgiveness of sins and the repose of the dead are left. As for the relatives and neighbors of the deceased, on the days of Holy Easter they should be free from excessive sorrow and lamentation, as on the days of the brightest and solemn holiday of Christ’s victory over death in the Resurrection of Christ. Therefore, when burying on Easter, the Church excludes from the usual rite of funeral service those prayers and chants that reflect grief and condolences for the dead (“Holy Countenance,” “What a Lifely Sweetness,” “Come, Last Kiss,” etc.) and determines to sing and read instead of them there are only Easter hymns, arousing one bright and joyful feeling of hope for the resurrection and eternal life of those dying in the Lord The bodies of deceased bishops, priests, deacons and monks are not washed with water, but only with a sponge soaked in oil, rubbed in a cross shape: face, chest, arms, legs, and this is done not by ordinary lay people, but by monastics or clergy. The clergy wear appropriate clothing. A cross is placed in the right hand of the deceased bishop or priest, and the Gospel is placed on the chest, the proclamation of which to the people was their very service. A censer is placed in the deacon's hands. The face of the deceased bishop and priest is covered with air as a sign that they were the performers of the mysteries of God, and especially the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ (the air is not removed during burial).

The bishop's coffin is covered with a mantle, and on top is a sacred (church) cover.

The monks put on monastic robes and wrap themselves in a mantle; To do this, the lower part of the mantle is cut off in the form of a strip, and with this trimmed strip on top of the mantle the deceased monk is wrapped crosswise (in three crosses), and the face is covered with crepe (basting) as a sign that the deceased was removed from the world during his earthly life.

Over the deceased bishop and priest, the Gospel is read instead of the Psalter, as if to continue their service and to propitiate God. The word of the Gospel, according to the explanation of Simeon of Thessalonica, is higher than any succession, and it is proper to read it over the priests.

Litia for the deceased is performed before the body is taken to church, along the way and before lowering the body of the deceased into the grave, at home upon returning after burial and at liturgies after the prayer behind the pulpit, as well as in church after the dismissal of Vespers, Matins and the 1st hour (see. Typikon, chapter 9). Litiya is part of the burial and memorial service. The funeral service ends with a litia after the 9th song. The burial also ends with a litia - after the stichera for kissing.

After the liturgy of the lithium for the departed:

When the litiya is performed according to the prayer behind the pulpit (see the Missal), then there is no dismissal and “Eternal Memory” is not proclaimed, but before the singing of “Be the name of the Lord,” the choir immediately sings: “From the spirits of the righteous... In Thy chamber, Lord... Glory: Thou art God... And now: One Pure...".

Deacon(litany): Have mercy on us, O God: and so on.

Choir: Lord, have mercy (three times), etc.

Priest: God of spirits... For You are the resurrection:

Choir: Amen. Be the name of the Lord: (three times) and other liturgy.

Each article begins in the Trebnik: 1st art. - “Blessedness of the chastity on the way”; 2nd Art. - “Thy commandments”; 3rd Art. - "Your name. Alleluia."

These words, which belong to the beginning of each article, must be sung by the canonarch (in a special tune in a special voice), after which the singers, in the same tune, begin to sing the entire first verse of each article with the indicated chorus, for example: “Blessed are the blameless ones who walk in the way in the law of the Lord. Alleluia” etc.

A prayer of permission from the priest over the deceased:

Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His Divine grace, and by the gift and power given by His holy disciple and apostle, to bind and solve the sins of men, (said to them: receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive, their sins will be forgiven them: theirs you retain, they will be retained: and If the tree is bound and released on earth, it will be bound and released in heaven). From them, who came to us to be kind to one another, may through me the humble one create forgiveness for this child in the spirit ( Name) from everyone, as much as a person has sinned against God in word or deed, or in thought, and with all his feelings, willingly or unwillingly, knowledge or ignorance. If you were under an oath or excommunication by a bishop, or if you swore an oath to your father or mother, or fell under your own curse, or broke an oath, or committed some other sins: but for all of these you repented with a contrite heart, and from all of them you are guilty and let Yuzy resolve it; for the weakness of nature he was given over to oblivion, and may she forgive him (her) everything, for the sake of humanity

His own, through the prayers of the Most Holy and Most Blessed Lady and Ever-Virgin Mary, the glorious and all-praised apostle saints, and all the saints. Amen.

According to Kyiv liturgical practice, when pouring a libation to St. applying oil to the body of the deceased, over whom the consecration of oil was performed, the priest takes a vessel with oil, opening it, and pronounces over the deceased: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, having strengthened you in faith and the struggle of Christian life, may He now mercifully accept this and forgive His generosity with oil May you, who have sinned through human weakness, make you worthy to receive a reward along with His saints, who sing to Him: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.”

The choir repeats: “Alleluia,” and the priest pours oil from a vessel in a cross shape onto the body of the deceased.

Where this custom exists, the priest, taking a censer, pours the ashes into the grave on the coffin, saying: “Earth, dust and ashes, O man, and to the earth you return” (Trebnik. Przemysl, 1876).

According to the custom that exists in Ukraine, when “sealing” the coffin, the priest says: “This coffin is being sealed until the future Judgment and general resurrection, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen,” and also, sprinkled crosswise with earth on the coffin (with a shovel), pronounces the words of the Trebnik : “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulfillment thereof is the world and all who live on it.”

If the priest does not accompany the body of the deceased to the cemetery and is not present when lowering it into the grave, but only performs the funeral service in the temple, then he sprinkles earth on the body of the deceased after the funeral in the temple, pronouncing the indicated words. To do this, they bring a little earth (sand) in a vessel, then cover the face and the entire deceased with a shroud, after which the priest sprinkles the body of the deceased with earth in a cross shape, saying: “The Lord’s earth and its fulfillment.”

Deacons are buried with the burial of lay people, and only with the bishop's permission - with priestly burial.

This rite was translated from Greek into Slavic by Gabriel, the prototype of Mount Athos, and was first printed in the Russian Trebnik under Patriarch Joasaph (1639), and has since been placed in our Trebnik.

The funeral ikos speaks with sorrow about the corruption of the human earthly body, and the grief of separation from the deceased is expressed in funeral sobs and the singing of “Alleluia.”

In connection with this content of this ikos, during burial on Easter week it should be replaced either by the Paschal kontakion: “Even if You also descended into the grave,” or by the Paschal ikos: “Even before the sun, the Sun sometimes set into the grave.”

The funeral rite for Easter is placed in the Trebnik, as well as in a separate book - “Service of Holy Pascha”.

On performing the rite of burial on Easter for deceased priests, monks and infants, see the instructions in the book. Bulgakov “Handbook for clergy” and in the book by K. Nikolsky “A Guide to the Study of the Charter”.

On the burial of deceased priests on Easter days - see also: Collection of solutions to puzzling questions from pastoral practice. Kyiv, 1904. Issue. 2.S. 107-108.

Situations in life are different. Young people consider it a bad omen to think about death. Elderly people have been collecting their mortal bundle for a long time. In any case, the development of events assumes only one of the options at the end of the life path of each of us.

1. Relatives and friends can always accompany you on your last journey with dignity.
2. A person dies alone and there is practically no one to bury him.

There is also third option, which many have never heard of. It removes the burden of burial from loved ones and will not allow lonely people to be left without a decent funeral. Exactly lonely it's the hardest thing. For them it's would be an ideal option. More on this innovation in funeral services later.

Often, compassionate neighbors themselves have to bury singletons. Due to various life circumstances, it can be difficult for them to raise the required amount of money. This is the case if the deceased did not leave them his savings specifically for this purpose. Nevertheless, such neighbors are lonely due to their difficult character or if they lead an antisocial lifestyle. Such people usually do not leave money for their funeral.

In any case, it is better to show humanity in an individual funeral than to be buried at the expense of the state. Let’s assume that there is no one or nothing to bury the deceased. Of course, no one will remain unburied. There is an alternative to the social benefit for burial - this is free funeral.

If within a certain time the body is not taken from the morgue, or no one comes to get the death certificate, then the documents are handed over to the police. If the police find relatives of the deceased, then see paragraph 1. about relatives. They may not be found. It happens that relatives refuse a funeral. Therefore, point 2. What will happen in this case?

The maximum that municipalities provide is a cheap coffin with a sign in a specially designated place in the cemetery. In reality, several bodies were wrapped in a plastic bag and buried in a mass grave. Funds are allocated for the burial of unclaimed bodies and the funerals of homeless people, which are not particularly controlled. It all depends on the awareness of specialized funeral services and the municipality.

Do you think that if no one needed such people during their lifetime, then after death they will be shown a little sympathy and respect? Hardly.

Free funeral are provided only for non-working persons. Pensioners are also included in this category. Of course, the attitude towards unclaimed corpses in the morgue is appropriate. No one will perform an autopsy to ascertain the causes of death for persons without a fixed place of residence.

If the body was claimed, but an application was submitted for a free funeral, then you can count on the worst coffin and not the best car for transporting the body to the cemetery. They won't take you back. And everything you want above this minimum will be paid at your expense.

The fence and sign with a cross are again at the discretion of the ritual service. Cost limitations may also be due to insufficient funding. Often a sum of money is allocated from the budget, which is simply catastrophically small for a large number of free funeral.

In order to meet their last minutes on earth with dignity and not create problems with their funeral, modern grandparents have recently acquired a ritual insurance policy. Or whatever they call it

BURYING THE DEAD, sanitary and hygienic aspects(syn.: burial, burial), - removal of corpses or ashes of the dead to designated places (cemeteries). Unburied or improperly buried corpses of the dead pose a danger because they pollute the air, water and soil with gaseous, liquid and solid decomposition products, as well as pathogenic microbes (in the case of death from certain infectious diseases).

At different times, different peoples had different methods of 3. u. The corpses were left on the surface of the earth far from populated areas (“valleys of the dead”), placed in crypts, buried in the ground, and burned. The last two methods are the most common.

When buried in the ground, the body of the deceased must be placed in a coffin made of light wood. Transportation of the corpse to the burial place by railway. or by air transport is permitted only in a galvanized, hermetically sealed coffin filled with a substance that absorbs moisture. The metal coffin is placed in a wooden, tightly knitted box and transported in the luggage compartment. For transportation, special permission from the local SES (at the place of death) and the relevant transport department is required. The corpses of those who died from especially dangerous infections require special disinfection (see). The order of burial of those who died from especially dangerous infections is determined by the special rules of the USSR M3.

3. u. carried out on specially designated land plots - cemeteries. San. The rules provide for the placement of cemeteries at a distance of at least 300 m from residential buildings. For the cemetery, an area not flooded by floods is selected with dry, loose soil, sloping in the opposite direction from the populated area and reservoir, with good ventilation, insolation and a groundwater level of at least 0.5 m below the bottom of the grave (at a higher groundwater level, the area is drained) . The cemetery must have convenient access roads, be fenced and laid out into separate areas with driveways and roads. The well-maintained cemetery has a special room with a morgue and funeral hall, an office, a guardhouse, running water, a flower shop, and public toilets. Green spaces (strips, group and individual tree plantings, green hedges) must occupy at least 20% of the cemetery area and be located in such a way as to ensure sufficient ventilation and insolation of the area. A properly arranged cemetery does not pose a danger in epidemics. respect. The territory of the cemetery and its landscaping must satisfy aesthetic requirements.

The use of the territory of a former cemetery for the construction of objects with deep disturbance of the land cover may be permitted by the SES. Moreover, after the last burial, the so-called legislation established in our country must be maintained. cemetery period lasting 20 years. However, even before the expiration of this period, the territory of the closed cemetery, after the removal of grave mounds and tombstones, can be used for the construction of parks, squares, and green areas.

The burning of dead bodies (cremation) is carried out in specially equipped buildings - crematoria. This method is preferable in gig. and epidemiol, in relation, because in this case pathogenic (including spore) bacteria quickly and completely die, and further contamination of soil and water is eliminated. In cremation ovens, the corpse is burned in a stream of hot gases or air at temperatures up to 1000°. Within 1 - 1.5 hours. the organic mass is completely destroyed and the cremated body turns into ashes. When operating cremation furnaces, the atmospheric air must be protected from pollution and odors. After burning the corpse, the ashes (usually 2-2.5 kg) are placed in a capsule (urn). Urns are either buried in the ground in a cemetery or walled up in special niches in columbariums (a place to store urns).

Burial of the dead in mass graves is allowed, as a rule, in wartime on the battlefield and sometimes during natural disasters. For mass graves, areas are selected that meet the general requirements for places 3. u. The graves of soldiers who fell for their homeland are usually located in picturesque, easily accessible areas. After the war, they become places of visitation and civil honors.

The area of ​​the grave is calculated taking into account the fact that each corpse requires at least 1.2 m2 (0.6 X 2 m), when placing them in 2 tiers and burying no more than 100 corpses in one grave. The depth of the grave and groundwater level should be the same as for a single burial. When placing corpses on two levels, the height of the soil layer between the tiers must be at least 0.5 m, and the distance from the upper tier to the surface of the earth must be at least 1 m. A board (stone, etc.) with the inscription of the grave number is installed on the grave mound.

To speed up the process of mineralization of corpses, drainage is arranged at the bottom of the grave in the form of a circular groove 30 cm wide and deep with an inclination towards the filtration well, which is made up to 1 m3 in size in such a way as to ensure the flow of liquid into it. The grooves in the well are filled with drainage material (crushed stone, stones, gravel, brushwood, etc.). The process of mineralization is also facilitated by aeration of the grave, which is provided by two ventilation pipes made of boards or connected poles, raised to a height of 1-1.5 m above the grave mound. The bottom of the grave is lined with branches, straw, reeds and other materials. To avoid difficulty with mineralization, it is not recommended to disinfect graves and corpses, except in special cases. The experience of using and studying the soil of cemeteries has shown that, despite some overloading of the soil with organic substances, group burial does not pose a sanitary-epidemiological danger to the population. The burial is carried out by special teams. Team leaders are required to find out and register in a special book the identity of the dead and accurately indicate the coordinates of the grave in it. Before burial, the corpses are freed from overcoats, sheepskin coats and other warm clothing and, if possible, placed in thick paper bags.

Maintaining order and registering mass graves is the responsibility of local Councils of People's Deputies and public organizations of nearby settlements.

Bibliography: Benyamovsky D.N. New crematorium, Moscow Municipal Economy, No. 11, p. 41, 1966; Benyamovsky D.N. and Grigorieva T.B. Purification of exhaust gases after cremation, Scientific. works of Academician com. farms named after K. D. Pamfilova, V. 67, p. 109, M., 1970; Experience of Soviet medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, vol. 33, p. 266, M., 1955; Guide to Municipal Hygiene, ed. F. G. Krotkova, vol. 1, p. 591, M., 1961; T a v r o fi-skiy A. L. About some issues of organizing funeral services, Health. Ross. Federation, No. 4, p. 36, 1974.

M. G. Shandala; N. F. Koshelev (military).

Sooner or later everyone comes to the end of their life. The souls of people go to God's judgment, go through ordeals and then, according to the determination of the omniscient God, receive what they deserve.
Physical death, which became the law for all people after the fall of the ancestors Adam and Eve, is frightening in its uncertainty. People die in different ways - some in carelessness and negligence, not thinking about what awaits them beyond the grave, others - consciously, with a sense of the greatness of the approaching moment, use the means that the Orthodox Church offers the dying: she guides her children to the afterlife The sacraments of Repentance, Communion and Blessing of Anointing, and in moments of separation of the soul from the body, he performs the canon for the exodus of the soul (exit prayer).

At the moment of death, a person experiences a feeling of languor. When leaving the body, the soul meets the Guardian Angel given to it in Baptism and evil spirits - demons. The appearance of demons is so terrible that at the sight of them the soul is troubled and trembles.

According to the Church, the human body is a temple of the soul, sanctified by the grace of the Sacraments. The image of the burial of the dead, given in the Gospel, has been preserved since Old Testament times in the Orthodox rite and is expressed in the washing of the body, its clothing, and the position in the coffin.

Washing the body with water foreshadows the future resurrection and standing before God in purity and immaculateness.

The body of a Christian is dressed in new, clean clothes of light colors. The deceased must wear a pectoral cross. The washed and clothed body is placed on a prepared table face up, towards the east. The lips of the deceased should be closed, hands folded crosswise (right hand on top of the left) as a sign of faith in the Crucified Christ. An icon of the Savior or a Crucifix is ​​placed in the hands.

The forehead of the deceased is decorated with a halo, which symbolizes the crown of the Kingdom of Heaven. The body is covered with a sheet or a special funeral shroud with the image of the Crucifixion - as a testimony to the faith of the Church that the deceased is under the protection of Christ.

The coffin is usually placed in the middle of the room in front of the icons. Candles are lit around him. If possible, they place four candlesticks: one at the head, one at the feet, and two on both sides of the coffin.

It is forbidden to place any objects, money, or food in the coffin, since such customs are relics of paganism.

The above rules can only be followed if the body has not been taken to the morgue. According to existing Russian standards, without submitting the deceased for an autopsy, it is impossible to obtain death certificates. Orthodox people have to put up with this, but every effort should be made to have time to properly prepare the body after it is released from the morgue.

It is very good to order all the days preceding the burial for the deceased funeral services in one or more churches. At a time when the body lies lifeless and dead, the soul goes through terrible trials - ordeals, and therefore has a great need for the help of the Church. Funeral services make the transition to another life easier.

Commemoration at the Divine Liturgy (Church Note)

Health is commemorated for those who have Christian names, and repose is remembered only for those baptized in the Orthodox Church.

Notes can be submitted at the liturgy:

For proskomedia - the first part of the liturgy, when for each name indicated in the note, particles are taken from special prosphoras, which are subsequently lowered into the Blood of Christ with a prayer for the forgiveness of sins

The body of the deceased is carried by his relatives and friends, dressed in mourning clothes. Since ancient times, Christians participating in funeral processions have carried lighted candles.
The body of the deceased is placed in the middle of the temple with its face open and facing the east, and lamps are placed near the coffin.
After reading the Gospel, the priest reads aloud a prayer of permission, asking for permission for sins that the deceased forgot to confess due to weakness of memory. However, this prayer does not forgive sins that were deliberately hidden.

To more clearly assure those close to the deceased of his forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, the priest places a scroll with a prayer of permission into his right hand. (Here it is necessary to refute the widespread superstition among the people that this prayer, called the “roadside” prayer, serves the deceased as an immutable pass to the Kingdom of Heaven. The fate of each person is in the hands of God, and nothing material has an impact on God).

Return from the burial of Christ (Nikolai Ge, 1859)

After the prayer of permission, the last kiss of the deceased begins as a sign of our unity in love for him, which does not cease beyond the grave. It is performed by singing touching songs:
“Seeing me lying silent and lifeless, weep for me, all brothers, and relatives, and acquaintances. Yesterday I talked with you, and suddenly the terrible hour of death overtook me; but come, all those who love me, and kiss me with the last kiss. I am no longer I will live with you or talk about something; I go to the Judge, where there is no partiality; there the slave and the ruler stand together, the rich and the poor in equal dignity; Pray unceasingly to Christ God for me, so that because of my sins I will not be elevated to a place of torment, but may I dwell in the light of life.”

When saying goodbye to the deceased, you need to kiss the icon lying in the coffin and the aureole on the forehead. At the same time, one must mentally or out loud ask the person lying in the coffin for forgiveness for all the untruths that were committed against him during his life, and forgive him for what he himself was guilty of.

“Eternal Memory” is proclaimed over the coffin. The priest places the earth crosswise on the body of the deceased, saying the words: “The earth is the Lord’s and its fulfillment, the universe and all who live on it.”

The rite of interment can be performed both in a temple and in a cemetery. After this, the coffin is closed with a lid and it is not allowed to open it again under any pretext.

Persons who deliberately take their own lives are deprived of a church funeral service. One should distinguish from them people who took their own lives through negligence, who are not recognized as suicides.
In the Orthodox Church, it is customary to classify as suicide those persons who died during robbery and who died from wounds and mutilations.
Cremation, that is, burning the bodies of deceased Orthodox Christians, has never been a tradition. Now, however, the cremation of Orthodox Christians has become commonplace, but undesirable.

Some priests do this. All memorial services and funeral services are performed in the same way, except for burial and prayer with a whisk. The latter are not included in the coffin, but remain with relatives. The priest performs a symbolic interment by sprinkling earth on a clean sheet of paper. The earth is wrapped in the same paper and, together with prayer and a whisk, is kept with relatives. During cremation, no sacred objects should be left in the coffin.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus carry the body of Christ
(Ivanov A.A., 1850s)

When the ashes are buried in a grave, the soil wrapped in paper, a prayer and a whisk in one bag are placed there so that everything is consigned to decay along with the ashes. Leaving ashes out of the ground contradicts all the traditions of the Orthodox Church and the meaning of burial.

The funeral rite is a reflection not only of the everyday life of its bearers, but also of the archaic worldview. The funeral rite, once probably no less complex in structure than the wedding rite, now appears in a greatly reduced form. This is also evidenced by conversations with informants recorded in the late eighties (for example, with M. N. Fedorova, a native of the village of Dorozhnovo, Okulovsky district, who at the time of recording lived in the village of Kulotino in the same region, or with A. Ya. Vlasova, a native of the village Gari, Starorussky district, who lived at the time of recording in the village of Dubki of the named district).

A glass of water was placed in the head of the dying person so that the soul would wash and go.

Previously, relatives came to say goodbye immediately when a person died, or even to the dying person.

As soon as a person dies, they open the doors, everyone goes out onto the porch to see off the soul - the deceased lies in the house, and the soul leaves, they see it off on the street. When the soul is seen off, the eldest woman in the house laments (“howls with a voice”). They started wailing even before washing.

They wailed as soon as a person died, even before they were washed - they went out into the street, stood facing the direction where they would take him to be buried, and wailed: “Farewell, go with God.”

Burial of Christ (guards approaching in the background)
Lorenzo Lotto, 1516

The study of the verse showed that the Russian village of the Soviet era retained an improvisational culture of performance, when a folklore text was created anew each time on the basis of an established tradition. The genre of lamentations is central to the ritual, despite the destructive changes that have occurred to it, it still performs its everyday function. The parable continues to preserve cultural memory, but its artistic merits fade significantly, and a number of obligatory moments disappear (for example, detailed commentary on what is happening at the funeral). The genre is becoming more and more clichéd. This is due, first of all, to the loss of a direct relationship to the semantic side of pagan symbolism. It was not possible to identify the entire cycle of lamentations of the funeral rite, which (as, for example, in a wedding) would accompany the entire rite, thematically delimiting certain of its stages. Apparently, we are dealing with a clear fading of folklore memory. It is difficult to say at what stage of historical development such a reduction began. But there is no doubt that the cultural policy of the state, on the one hand, and the intensive transformation of Russia from an agricultural country into an industrial and, therefore, urban one, had a strong impact here. Nevertheless, the archaic aspects of the consciousness of a village person in the funeral rite have been preserved quite well. For example, it is known that death in the Russian folklore tradition has always been perceived as an enemy. This was also preserved in the texts recorded at the turn of the 70s - mid-80s. In lamentations, death is called a “villain,” a “murderer,” who does not make concessions and does not listen to pleas and requests. The archive materials contain records that talk about various kinds of signs associated with the arrival of death in a home or family. For example, death was foreshadowed by a cuckoo landing on an outbuilding; a bird knocking on the window; a dog howling downwards ("a dog's howl - to eternal rest"); a horse walking towards people who are seeing off the deceased, and so on. To make sure a person was dead, a mirror was brought to his lips; if it did not fog up, it means the person died. In order not to be afraid of the deceased, who could somehow remind of himself (for example, often dreaming or even coming to the house; appearing in some other form, for example, in a zoomorphic form, most often a bird), it was necessary to hold on to the stove, look into it or into the basement, and on the fortieth day hang the horse's bridle on the wall.

The dead sleep, remaining human (the deceased is a calm person), but if the deceased had his eyes open, they were closed and copper coins were placed over the eyelids. It is quite possible that this was associated with a kind of ransom from death, for it was believed that the deceased was looking out for one of the living people or even animals remaining in the house, wanting to take them with him. In such cases they usually said: “If he looks, he will see someone.” Coins (nickels) were then left in the coffin. It is interesting that ransom in this ritual was manifested in another way, for example, if the body of a drowned person could not be found for a long time, then there was a custom of throwing silver money into the water to ransom him from the water.

The body of the deceased was placed on a bench, his arms and legs were tied, as it was believed that “evil spirits” could twist them, bringing pain to the deceased person. After two hours the body was washed (the deceased “rested” for two hours). Any person could wash the deceased, but preference was given to strangers. The idea, preserved in the memory of informants, dates back to the last century that old maids were supposed to perform this ritual. In the Okulovsky district a ditty was recorded:

Don't go, friend, get married
For such robbers,
We’d better buy a tub each,
We will wash the dead.
(Recorded from M. N. Fedorova in 1988)

The custom of paying for washing with something from the deceased’s belongings has been preserved. They washed the deceased from the pot with warm water and soap, then the pot was then thrown into the river along with the water, a custom in which, undoubtedly, a pagan worldview is visible. There was another option, when the water remaining after the procedure was poured into a place where no one walks and nothing is planted, since this water is “dead” - it could destroy, kill the earth. In the Starorussky district they believed that washing the deceased forgives sins: “If you wash forty people, you will remove forty sins.” The same person who washed the deceased dressed him. They dressed him in everything new so that he would “look good there” (according to A. Ya. Vlasova), because the deceased was going to live “eternally.” Mortal clothing was not only bequeathed, but also prepared in advance, thus fulfilling the person’s last wish. Sewing clothes is also a ritual: when they sewed it, they did not make knots and did not tear them off, like threads. They sewed in one seam, with the needle forward, the seams were not turned inside out, and the buttons were not sewn on. N.V. Andreeva from the Okulovsky district noted that in the past they most often sewed a jacket and a skirt. We can say with a high degree of confidence that this is a later custom, perhaps dating back to Soviet times, since according to ethnographic research it is known that the common “mortal” clothing was a shirt, for both men and women. Those objects that the deceased did not part with during his lifetime were also placed in the coffin. The coffin was made of spruce or pine boards. For example, it was impossible to make a “house” from aspen, since it was believed that aspen was a cursed tree, because, according to legend, Judas hanged himself on it, and this made it tremble. The shavings left over from manufacturing were placed at the bottom of the coffin or, in some cases, in the pillow on which the head of the deceased was located. It was impossible to burn wood chips and shavings, because, as they believed in the Okulovsky district, it would make the deceased feel hot. The coffin-domina was always made in accordance with the height of the deceased. It was believed that the deceased would take someone if the coffin was larger (Okulovsky district, Fedorova M.N.). The domovina with the body was placed so that the deceased was facing the icon, that is, to the red corner (Okulovsky district), but in the Starorussky district it is noted as the most common option, when the deceased lies with his head in the red corner and his feet towards the door.

Sorokoust about repose

This type of commemoration of the dead can be ordered at any hour - there are no restrictions on this either. During Great Lent, when the full liturgy is celebrated much less frequently, a number of churches practice commemoration in this way - in the altar, during the entire fast, all the names in the notes are read and, if the liturgy is served, then parts are taken out. You just need to remember that people baptized in the Orthodox faith can participate in these commemorations, just as in the notes submitted to the proskomedia, it is allowed to include the names of only baptized deceased.

A linen towel or a piece of white cloth was hung outside the window of the room in which the deceased was located. “Chaplets” or “letters of forgiveness” were placed on the forehead of the deceased, which contained a prayer for the remission of sins. A traveling handkerchief was given to the right hand, and a handkerchief to the left. In the Starorussky district it was believed that it was needed to wipe away sweat during the Last Judgment, as well as to wipe away tears if a person who has passed into the world of his ancestors bursts into tears when meeting loved ones in the “other world.” These meetings took place, according to those interviewed, over a period of forty days. Informants from the Okulovsky district interestingly interpreted the function of the pectoral cross with which the deceased was supplied. Thus, M.N. Fedorova said that it serves as a “pass” and that before entering the gates of another world, it was necessary to show the cross, and the deceased had to buy a new cross. This custom differed from that accepted in the Starorussky region, where the deceased was buried with the same cross that the person wore during life. The funeral took place on the third day. Spruce branches were scattered from the house to the road, along which the procession moved, so that those leaving for another world would “walk” along a “clean road,” since spruce was considered a pure tree in these places. When returning from the cemetery, the branches were removed and then burned, probably thus destroying traces of the deceased so that he would not return and take away any of the surviving relatives.

Transfer of Christ's body to the tomb
(Antonio Cizeri, 1883) - historical realism of the 19th century.

Quite a lot of different kinds of signs associated with the performance of funeral rites have been preserved. Often these signs were in the nature of a talisman. So, for example, they dug a grave early in the morning on the day of the funeral, and they chose a better place, because they believed that if the deceased did not like the place, he would take another relative within forty days. And if there is still a dead person, then “we must expect a third one” (according to M. N. Fedorova from the Okulovsky district). The collapse of the grave walls also indicated that a new hole would soon have to be dug. In general, the custom of pleasing the deceased in everything has been preserved. The custom of not sweeping the floors while the deceased was in the house was also preserved in the surveyed areas, because according to a sign it was possible to “sweep” one of the living relatives. In addition, mirrors in the house were covered with dark cloth so that evil spirits would not spoil the deceased. The coffin with the body was carried to the cemetery on towels; carrying it was considered “more respectful” than carrying it. They said goodbye to the deceased finally in the cemetery, while kissing him on the forehead or on the icon that lay on his chest. The tears of the person saying goodbye should not fall on the deceased, since he would then lie wet and be offended. In such cases they usually said: “Move away, go away, don’t shed your tears there.” And everyone present wished the earth to rest in peace. Before the coffin was lowered into the grave, the relatives threw a penny there (apparently silver), this meant that they bought themselves a place next to the deceased, and everyone else threw copper, and said: “Here’s your share - don’t ask for more.” ". It was believed that the deceased needed the money in order to pay for transportation across a river or lake in the next world. It is known that the image of a river and a crossing is a traditional image not only for Russian, but also for world culture.

Items associated with the funeral and the belongings of the deceased also had their own fate. After the fortieth day, relatives could distribute the personal belongings of the deceased to any people, not necessarily close relatives. And those objects and things that were involved in the funeral rite (for example, towels on which the coffin was carried) were either lowered into the grave and covered with earth, or burned to avoid the bad influence of the deceased on living people. Everything was done so that nothing would disturb the soul of the deceased and would in any way keep it in the world of living people. Much was done to ensure that the deceased would not return for someone, would not “see someone.” As mentioned above, it was believed that the open eyes of the deceased are a sign that they are looking out for a new victim.

According to tradition, while the ceremony was taking place at the cemetery, preparations were being made for the funeral in the house of the deceased. One of the relatives usually stayed at home and prepared the funeral meal and washed the floor. Funeral services took place not only immediately after the funeral, but also on the ninth and fortieth day, and then a year later. Deceased relatives were also commemorated on Parental Saturdays - days established by Christian tradition. On memorial days, people always visited the graves of relatives, bringing food and wine with them in order to invite the deceased to a ritual meal. Thus, a custom remained from the ancient funeral rite, which involved both the appeasement of the souls of the dead and the demonstration of the power of life. In the modern funeral rite, the contours of the old, still pagan rite are visible, but it is also noticeable that the magical content of the ritual action has largely been erased.

Any person at least once in his life is faced with the need to organize a funeral for someone. Each of us must be ready to take on such a difficult mission as burying a person. The procedure and general scheme for preparing all the necessary documents especially for you are in our article.

What to do if a person dies?

In the event of a person's death, the first thing to do is call a doctor. The order of necessary actions when a person dies due to natural causes is as follows: first try to personally assess the condition of the supposed deceased, and then you should call a doctor from the clinic to establish the fact of death. Any ambulance team also has the authority to die and issue appropriate certificates. Attention: if you have even the slightest hope that the person is still alive, when calling doctors, give the reason “the patient is unconscious.” In this case, the ambulance will arrive faster; most likely, experienced specialists who can carry out

Having declared a medical death, doctors give the relatives a corresponding document. Doctors are also required to arrange for the body to be delivered to the morgue and call the police. Accordingly, the answer to the question: “What to do immediately after the death of a person?” - like this: first of all, call a doctor.

Obtaining a death certificate

Depending on the circumstances under which the person died, the doctor who established the fact of death sends the body to the morgue for storage until the funeral or a forensic medical examination. A pathological examination is mandatory if the cause of death is murder or personal injury. In case of natural death, an autopsy is usually not ordered or this issue is discussed with the next of kin of the deceased. A death certificate is issued the next day after the fact of death is established. To obtain it, you must contact the registry office at the place of registration of the deceased with his passport and medical certificate.

But what to do if death occurred under unusual or criminal circumstances, how to bury a person? The procedure in such a situation may change slightly. Relatives will be able to receive a body for burial and a death certificate only with permission from the prosecutor's office. This document is issued after the cause of death has been established and all necessary research has been carried out.

Ritual agents and services

Very often, almost simultaneously with the doctors called to recognize the fact of death, funeral service employees arrive. Such ritual agents are often called “black” and openly criticized for high prices and excessive intrusiveness. It's difficult to stay calm immediately after the death of a loved one, but try to be as calm as possible. You are not obligated to agree to an agency employee's proposals just because he has already knocked on your door. Moreover, you can simply not start negotiations with a specialist whom you did not call.

Do you need the help of specialized agencies in organizing a funeral? This is an individual question. Firms working in this area can really take on all the troubles. Only you will have to pay for their services separately. If you want to avoid unnecessary expenses and you have enough strength to do everything yourself, you can do without cooperation with funeral companies. We hope that the instructions for the first steps when a person has died, and the tips for organizing a funeral collected in our article, will help you with this.

Funeral arrangements

Find the strength within yourself to notify all those closest to you about the person’s death as soon as possible. You should also promptly contact relatives from other cities or on business trips. Arranging a funeral begins with choosing a burial method and purchasing a plot in a cemetery/space in a columbarium. This should be done as soon as the day and time the body is released is known. The issue of conducting various funeral rites should be delicately discussed with the immediate family of the deceased. If you are planning to organize a funeral according to Christian traditions, you can contact the church directly or a specific priest with the question: “How to bury a person?”

It is better to write down the procedure on the day of farewell for yourself on paper. It is necessary to prepare clothes for the deceased in advance and take them to the morgue. There, if desired, you can order mummification and make-up services. A coffin and the necessary ritual accessories are purchased separately; you should also take care of organizing the transportation of the deceased and ordering transport for the funeral. According to old traditions, the deceased must spend the night in his home or church. Today, many people refuse to perform such rituals and, after taking the deceased from the morgue, they take him to the funeral service in the temple or directly to the cemetery/crematorium.

Is it necessary to organize a funeral?

Planning a farewell to the deceased should be based on the specifics of the current situation and the traditions familiar to your family. Try to decide at the initial stages of organizing a funeral how many people will accompany the deceased on his last journey. In such a situation, it is not customary to persistently invite someone or prohibit them from coming. The relatives of the deceased and friends are informed about the date and time of the funeral. It is appropriate to inform your work colleagues as well. In our country it is customary to organize a funeral. This is a lunch organized at the deceased's home or cafe/restaurant, which is held immediately after the burial. During the meal, the deceased is remembered in every possible way and a number of rituals are performed. It is not customary to give up completely. In the company of several close relatives, it would be more appropriate to arrange a symbolic wake. For example, just have lunch together, without organizing a magnificent multi-hour feast and performing only the most important rituals.

How to bury a person: procedure in Moscow to receive social benefits

Immediately after the death of a close relative, few people think about the financial side of the issue. And yet, within six months after these events, the person involved in organizing the funeral must submit documents to receive this payment. This payment is made by the employing organization for employed persons, the Pension Fund for pensioners or social security authorities for the unemployed and minors. If a serviceman or law enforcement officer dies, relatives will not have to think about how to bury the person. The procedure in this case changes, and funeral arrangements should begin by contacting the department where the deceased served/was employed. To receive funeral compensation for the death of civilians, you should contact the appropriate organization with the collected package of documents. You can apply for benefits if you have a death certificate, work book and passport of the applicant.