by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
Orthodox memorial services include all the services of the Church appointed for a person who has departed this life, that is, whose soul has departed from their body in the hope of the resurrection and eternal life. These services begin before the departure of the soul from the body, and they continue well after the departure of a person’s soul from their body, expressed as the Church’s ongoing prayers for the departed (“prayers for the dead”). As with all things Orthodox, the actual theology of dying, death, and the state of the soul and body after their temporal separation is confessed within the prayers of these services, so familiarity with these prayers is absolutely essential in order to understand the meaning of the Orthodox memorial services.
Before discussing their meaning, it is helpful to list these services in order of their usage as this gives important insight into the Orthodox understanding of death and dying. The order typically follows:
- Confession, Holy Unction, and Holy Communion (as death seems near);
- Prayers at the Parting of the Soul from the Body;
- First Panikhida (beginning the vigil for the newly departed);
- Panikhida/Parastas (vigil by the body with the faithful, family, and friends);
- Funeral and Burial (at the cemetery [Gk.], lit., “sleeping place”);
- Panikhidas on the 3rd, 9th, and 40th days after death;
- Panikhida on the anniversary of one’s repose;
- Annual Blessing of Graves (usually on the Sunday after Pascha);
- Naming in the Litanies for the Departed on days of commemorating all the Faithful Departed (e.g., Meatfare Saturday, 2-4th Saturdays of Lent, etc.).
The terms panikhida and parastas (both Greek) literally mean “all-nighter” and “standing alongside,” respectively. Both terms refer to the nature of the Church’s memorial services wherein the faithful are gathered in constant vigil for the brother or sister in the Faith departed this life.
First and perhaps most overlooked, the foundational Orthodox memorial service is the weekly Divine Liturgy. Not only do we pray at each Liturgy for “a Christian ending to our life: painless, blameless, and peaceful; and a good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ,” but each Liturgy of the baptized faithful is a dying and rising with Christ, a participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion with His very Body and Blood. This is the essence of the Gospel expressed by the Apostle in his great Resurrection chapter (1 Cor. 15).
Therefore, we pray these words at every Liturgy: “Again we offer unto thee this reasonable worship (Rom. 12:1) for those who have fallen asleep in the faith: ancestors, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and every righteous spirit made perfect in faith (Heb. 11:40; 12:23)…Remember all those who have fallen asleep before us in the hope of resurrection to eternal life, especially N.; grant them rest, O God, where the light of Thy countenance shines on them…Again we offer unto Thee this reasonable worship: for the whole world; for the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church; for those who live in chastity and holiness of life; for all civil authorities; grant them, O Lord, peaceful times, that we, in their tranquility, may lead a calm and peaceful life in all godliness and sanctity (1 Tim. 2:2).”
These prayers use one of the most common descriptions for those who have died, the phrase “fallen asleep” (see Lk. 8:52; 1 Cor. 15:6, 18; 1 Thes. 4:13-15). In bodily death, the soul departs from the body and the body sleeps; however, the soul (and spirit) remains alive in the Kingdom of God. At the Divine Liturgy, those alive on earth in the Church are joined with those who have departed this earthly life, offering our “bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).
The Divine Liturgy is this ultimate act wherein the Christian is offered to God in total thanksgiving (Gk., eucharistia; cf. 1 Cor. 11:24; Heb. 13:15) together with all the faithful whether on earth or in heaven because of the Offering of the God-Man Jesus Christ who restores us to life with God. As such, the Divine Liturgy ultimately explains and gives the proper context to all the other memorial services of the Church as the constant reality to which we are called and strive to attain, namely, unbroken communion with God in the assembly of all the saints both living and departed. “[N]ot forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another…But you have come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant” (Heb. 10:25; 12:22-24; cf. Eph. 2:19-22).
The conclusion of the Orthodox Funeral service manifests this reality in the Prayer of Absolution over the body of one fallen asleep in the Lord. The Priest says: “May the Lord Jesus Christ our God, who gave His divine commands to His holy disciples and apostles, that they should bind and loose the sins of the fallen [Matt. 16:19; Jn. 20:23] (we, in turn, having received from them the authority to do the same) ask God to pardon you, O spiritual child, all your deeds done amiss in this life both voluntary and involuntary, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”
This prayer can only be said if the departed (“spiritual child”) has an active relationship with his or her spiritual father (the Priest), meaning the departed was active in the practice of Confession and Communion while living. This prayer assumes, first and foremost, preparation for, participation in, and living from the Divine Liturgy. Therefore, the Orthodox Funeral service in the Church can only be properly accorded to a person genuinely practicing the Orthodox Faith as a general rule of life.
Likewise, the distinctive prayer for the departed in the Orthodox memorial services assumes the same rule of life in Christ both when alive in the body and now still alive in the spirit though the body sleeps awaiting resurrection on the Last Day. “O God of spirits, and of all flesh (Num. 16:22; 27:16), who hast trampled down death and overthrown the devil and given life unto Thy world (Heb. 2:14; Jn. 3:16; 5:24): Do Thou, the same Lord, give rest to the soul of Thy departed servant N., in a place of brightness, a place of refreshment, a place of repose (Rev. 6:11; 7:16-17; 21:4; 22:5), where all sickness, sorrow, and sighing have fled away (Isa. 35:10). Pardon every transgression which he (or she) hath committed, whether by word, or deed, or thought (2 Macc. 12:42, 44). For Thou art a good God, and lovest mankind; because there is no man who lives and does not sin (Eccl. 7:20); for Thou only art without sin (Heb. 4:15), and Thy righteousness is to all eternity, and Thy word is true (Ps. 118:142). For Thou art the Resurrection, and the Life, and the Repose (Jn. 11:25; 14:6; Matt. 11:28; Heb. 4:9-10) of Thy servant N., who is fallen asleep, O Christ our God, and unto Thee do we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, who is from everlasting, and Thine all-holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”
Concerning Orthodox prayers for the departed (“prayers for the dead”), it must be repeated that these are prayers for persons still alive in the Kingdom of heaven, which is the whole point of Orthodox memorial services: to commemorate those who are alive in Christ. Thus Orthodox memorial services are so frequently appointed. Just as we pray for persons still living on this earth, so we pray for those departed this earth – their bodies sleep in the grave – whose souls (and spirits) continue living with God and all the saints awaiting the resurrection of, and re-constitution with, their bodies.
Orthodox memorial services remember the departed by participating in the everlasting memory of God in Christ. For instance, the Panikhidas on the 3rd, 9th, and 40th days after one’s repose recall Christ’s Resurrection on the third day, the nine ranks of angels, and Christ’s Ascension into heaven, all of which the departed now participates in the faith and love of God. The Scripture powerfully confirms this truth revealing the departed saints alive in glory, aware of our condition of earth, and praying for us: Jeremiah (2 Macc. 15:14); Moses and Elijah (Lk. 9:30); Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Lk. 16:19f.; 20:37-38); the martyrs (Rev. 6:9-10).
“’But even if a woman should forget these things, nevertheless, I shall not forget you,’ says the Lord” (Isa. 49:15). “Then God remembered Noah…” (Gen. 8:1). “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Ex. 2:24). “A righteous man shall be in everlasting remembrance” (Ps. 111:6).
This last verse provides the simplest of Orthodox prayers for the departed: Memory Eternal. God’s memory is an eternal state of being, an eternal relationship of communion in the divine, indestructible, and incorruptible Life. Once again, this simple prayer points to the new reality each believer has with God in Christ expressed in the Divine Liturgy: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Lk. 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24-25). Here past, present, and future merge into the timeless existence we now have with God, the One Who Is (Ex. 3:14; Jn. 8:58). As we share in the very Flesh and Blood of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, remembrance is not a mental recollection, a sentimental feeling, or nostalgia, but active communion in all things divine.
Orthodox memorial services reiterate in the ongoing practice of the Church the fundamental Christian hope proclaimed by Christ in the Gospel for the Funeral service: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (Jn. 5:24). And from the Epistle reading: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus…Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thes. 4:14, 18).
In Christ, death, corruption, and hell have been overcome. In Christ, we are truly made alive, body, soul, and spirit. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).
