How suicidal Christians are buried. Traditional commemoration of suicides in Orthodoxy

Suicide is the most serious human sin. It is necessary to bury such people behind the cemetery fence, and this corner of suicides cannot be fenced in any way. Otherwise, the soul of the deceased will be greatly tormented. If a suicide is buried among ordinary people, then his soul will receive additional torture in the next world and will take revenge on the one who imprisoned his body behind the cemetery fence. Usually they are relatives. For the same reason, crosses cannot be placed on the graves of suicides, they cannot be buried. A special prayer is read over suicides in churches.

To find a drowned body, you need to float a loaf of bread with mercury inside, and it will stop exactly above the body

Not entirely accurate. When the soul leaves the body at the time of death, it leaves behind a thin silver path. The human soul has a high content of silver. Bread with mercury will stop at the place where the man drowned, where the silver trace was left. And the body itself by this time can be carried away by the current far to the side.

If you fire a gun, the drowned man will float

Not true.

The drowned man himself emerges on the third day

Only in the event that the body is not caught on the snag by them some other obstacle.

After death, the connection between the soul and body of a person is preserved. The soul, wanting the body to be buried according to the rules, raises it to the surface.

If a drowning person is pulled out, he should not be placed on the ground.

Yes. The remnants of a person's vitality can go to the ground. You need to put something under it.

The first dead in the new cemetery will definitely go to Hell

No, it's not true. It’s just that it’s uncomfortable to lie alone in the cemetery, and soon he will pull another one along with him.

Earth from the graves of relatives has protective properties

The earth itself does not possess anything, but the belief of a person in the miraculousness of the earth really helps. A person programs himself for good luck.

The rope on which a person was hung can relieve a headache. Coffin rings cure rheumatism. The soap used to wash the dead heals from aching bones, etc.

Very bad and wrong superstitions. All objects associated with death have not healing, but, on the contrary, destructive properties. No wonder all these items are used in witchcraft to induce damage or even death.

If a person dies on Easter, he will immediately go to Paradise

Yes. Easter is a great holiday, at this time the gates of Paradise are open to everyone.

Other signs and superstitions

Bath

It is believed that:

Bath - a place unclean, filthy;

Devils, kikimors, and a bannik live in it;

You can't wash at night;

Sundays and Christian holidays are also not allowed;

You can not wash without a cross;

You can not wash while intoxicated (the devils will torture). Actually:

The bath (bathroom) is a really unclean place. Because there, with the help of water, a person washes away not only ordinary dirt, but also invisible energy. Ordinary dirt goes down the drain on the floor, while energy dirt remains in the room.

Only a bannik lives in the bath - an invisible bundle of energy, similar to a brownie. Unlike the brownie, the bannik is a blacker creature, since he constantly has to deal only with dirty human energy. Bannik lives only in separate rooms. If the bath is in the house, then there is no bannik there, this is already the territory of the brownie. There is no bathtub in the bathroom. Bathing at night and on Sundays is not recommended. At night, the black forces intensify their influence. At the moment of washing, a person is in a relaxed state, so there is a very high risk of getting a blow to health from any evil spirits.

The same situation is with Sunday. On Sunday, it is generally not recommended to work. The body after a working week requires rest and restoration of vitality. And washing the body is not really fun, but work. No wonder after a good bath a person needs rest. While washing in a bath or bath, the pectoral cross, on the contrary, must be removed. Because the cross clings to itself with black energy. When you wash with a cross around your neck, then blackness, instead of draining with you to the floor, will hold on to the cross. But after washing you can put on a cross, the ion will again begin to fulfill its protective function.

About Us

suicides are among the top 10 causes of death, causing enormous damage to society. Every year in the world commit suicide more than 1.4 million people. The Christian Church is negative to suicide.

Preparing and conducting the burial ceremony of a suicide surrounded by a mass of superstitions and contradictions. In most cases funeral of the suicidal significantly different from the usual ritual. In the old days, they were buried in the forest or in the clearing behind the cemetery. In some villages number of suicides increased so much that it turned out two cemeteries - for the righteous and criminals before God and people. Today, such a tradition in large cities has ceased to exist, while in individual villages and villages people still suicides are buried separately.

Believers believe that among the peaceful dead who have outlived their lives, there is no place for such sinners. Suicides should not disturb the peace of the righteous. As you know, a person who has righteously outlived his life goes to heaven, where his bright soul rests. BUT suicide soul goes to hell. So that she does not grab a pure soul along the way, bury suicides necessary separately from other dead.

For suicides there are several prohibitions that his relatives simply cannot violate, otherwise they themselves will become great sinners. First of all, the deceased cannot be buried before burial. Secondly, bury the murderer it is possible only on the third day, while relatives and friends it is forbidden to mourn and kiss him. Thirdly, it is forbidden to commemorate the deceased at the Liturgy and memorial service, as well as you can’t order magpie for the repose of the soul of the deceased.

Nevertheless, both in the Russian Church and in other Local Orthodox Churches, they considered it possible, after carefully examining the circumstances that led each specific member of the Church to suicide, allow funeral and church commemoration those of them who committed suicide in a state of mental disorder, mental illness. On this basis, ecclesiastical institutions, with the blessing of the reigning bishop, may issue permits for suicide funeral, in respect of which it is known for sure that they committed suicide not in a state of spiritual anger or cold calculation, not in a fit of theomachism, but in a state of mental illness. So, for example, in 1991 the Moscow Patriarchate decided to bury Marina Tsvetaeva. Upon careful examination of all the circumstances of her Yelabuga suicide, they came to the conclusion that it was impossible to call her a conscious theomachist, she never blasphemed God or the Church, she never renounced Christ, and her suicide was the result of the extreme exhaustion of all mental and bodily forces, provoked by loneliness, hunger, ruin. In addition, the church allows bury according to church custom so-called "accidental suicides" - that is, those who did not calculate the dose of alcohol, who drank poison by mistake, accidentally discharged the barrel into themselves while cleaning their weapons, fell out of the window, etc. etc., as well as those who sacrificed their lives to save someone else's life. The church allows funerals for suicides who did not die immediately, but had time to repent (this is how Pushkin was buried, although a duel is equated with suicide). Particularly noteworthy are cases where a person was killed, but the killers tried fake suicide. If there is even the slightest reason to doubt that it was a suicide—i.e. late never showed such intentions, etc., then funeral service usually takes place. So, for example, Sergei Yesenin was reprimanded, despite the official version of suicide.

But you should know that suffer because of the sin of suicide there will be relatives and friends of the sinner, especially offspring. So it is worth thinking and turning to the Bible before doing such an act.

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After the death of a loved one, there are many questions related to burial. If it turned out that the deceased committed suicide or was a criminal, Orthodox customs should be studied. You can always consult about the intricacies of the burial of those who have died by their own hands or have sin in their souls at the funeral services office or in the church.

Orthodoxy about criminals and suicides

According to religious scriptures, suicides and criminals include:

• who died as a result of a duel;
• laid hands on themselves;
• murdered criminals;
• deaths as a result of extreme sports;
• who ended their lives as a result of addiction to alcohol and drugs;
• killers;
• robbers;
• rapists, etc.

These people are not accepted to betray the land according to generally accepted Orthodox burial traditions. It is believed that their soul took on the most terrible sins. The exception is mentally ill people officially registered in a psychodispensary.

Persons who have committed crimes, including against their own lives, are not buried by the clergy and are not ordered to be buried next to everyone else in the cemetery. It is customary to bury their bodies on the outskirts of the cemetery or in specially designated sectors. Many relatives hide the fact for what reason their relative died or what sins he committed. You shouldn't do this.

Nowadays, church mandates are rarely observed. But it is worth remembering that you also take on your soul the sin of deceit, trying to conduct a ritual burial ceremony according to Orthodox customs. The cemetery for the rest is the last refuge, which is under the protection of God. It is impossible to bury suicides and criminals in church graveyards.

There is an opinion associated with the holy scriptures that the soul of a suicide or a murderer can become an obstacle for other souls on the way to paradise.

How to bury suicides and murderers

Church officials say that these people made their own choice, refusing the love of the Lord. Therefore, at their burial:

• it is forbidden to hold a funeral service;
• you can’t cry, mourn, wear mourning for them;
• they don’t order magpies and funeral services;
• do not put a cross on the grave;
• do not put a whisk on the head;
• do not kiss goodbye;
• do not cover with a shroud - a funeral coverlet.

Relatives should contribute to the rite of repentance of sinners during their lifetime. You should call the priest for a conversation and forgiveness of sins. It is recommended to be open and truthful. To help their souls, you can pray fervently at home, do merciful and charitable deeds, and help the destitute.

If such a disaster has knocked on your house and you don’t know what to do and how to properly bury a sinner, call a ritual agent. An experienced specialist will do all the necessary activities in compliance with religious canons.

They commemorate criminals who did not repent before death, and who laid hands on themselves only on Radonitsa and only after receiving permission from the Christian church. For the funeral service and for prayers in God's house, it is necessary to receive the blessing of the bishop, show him the documents, and explain the reasons.

There is a belief among the people that the Church nevertheless commemorates people who voluntarily passed away, the only time a year - on the Saturday preceding the feast of the Holy Trinity (this day of commemoration is called Trinity Parental Saturday). This performance comes from one of the hymns that are sung on this day in the temple, there really are words about people who committed suicide, but they are not commemorated.

Life is given to a person by God, only He has the right to decide when it ends - and no matter how pleasant life is for a person. From the point of view of a Christian, earthly life is a path of trials that must be accepted with humility, understanding for spiritual growth. By arbitrarily renouncing life and the trials that it brings, a person puts his will above the will of God, thereby demonstrating a worldview that is absolutely inconsistent with Christian dogma.

Such a person finds himself outside the Church - like an unbaptized one, therefore, she can no longer do anything for him. Of course, other sins also put a person in a similar situation, but they at least imply the fundamental possibility of repentance, while the suicide deliberately cuts off this path for himself. Priests do not undertake to assert that there is absolutely no hope for such people - only God can know everything about someone's posthumous fate, but one has to completely surrender to His will.

private prayer

The impossibility of a church commemoration makes the close people of the suicide seek at least some consolation in the cell - individual, home prayer. There is no direct ban on cell prayer for suicides in the Church, but this can be done only with the blessing of the confessor. However, priests are reluctant to give such blessings, and there are good reasons for this.

Praying for a suicide to a certain extent becomes a manifestation of pride: the person who does this may seem to be more merciful than the Church or even God himself. In addition, praying for someone, a Christian becomes involved in the state of the soul of this person. The soul of a suicide leaves the world in a state of despair, despondency, or even anger, hostility to God. This condition can be "infected" by the one who prays for him, so the priests do not advise praying for suicides.

If the blessing of the priest is still, you need to read the prayer of the Monk Leo of Optina. A good way to help the soul of a suicide is to give alms to those in need.

Question from Anatoly: My friend committed suicide. The priest did not bury his soul. Why? Why are there such rigid dogmas in religion, is it right? After all, it would seem that the soul of a suicide, on the contrary, doubly needs our church support and spiritual help ... I won't quote the entire letter.

First of all, read the main article on this topic -, it provides fundamental arguments and examples.

Why aren't suicides buried?

To be buried - you still deserve it!

What is a funeral, in fact? Simply put, a funeral service is a prayer for the soul of the deceased - a prayer for the forgiveness of sins, an appeal to God and the Light Forces so that They take care of the Soul, bless it. To some extent, the funeral service is a ritual of sending the Soul to the light worlds, facilitating its path by releasing sins, etc. Does a suicide deserve such a fate?

To comprehend this, you need to understand what punishment the suicide receives:

1. Definitely hells and purgatory, as a rule, it takes several hundred years for the main accumulated negative to burn out there.
2. Sometimes, a suicidal person can be cursed to wander off-Earth, tied to a specific location like a dog on a chain. This can take up to 1000 years. “If you don’t know how to appreciate life in the body, if you don’t want responsibility, live like a dog without a body, maybe you will overestimate…”
3. And before the soul of a suicide is again given the right to be born in a human body and live a human destiny, it lives for several lives in the body of an animal and develops the appropriate qualities (a dog - devotion and gratitude, a shrew - activity, a bear in a circus - submission, etc.). d.).

That is, it can be said that as soon as a person commits suicide, he is no longer a person, at least for several hundred more years, and in some cases for thousands of years, he definitely will not be a person, he does not deserve it.

Therefore, the soul of a suicide is not blessed on the way to the higher worlds, but understands and prepares for immersion in purgatory, undergo the necessary educational procedures. Before that, everything that is most bright and valuable from the soul is taken away by the Higher Powers so that it would not be destroyed in hells and purgatory. And when the soul works off its sin, already in future human incarnations, what was taken away will be returned to it and completed.

Why are suicides not buried in the cemetery?

The answer follows logically from the above information. The one who committed suicide, in fact, is no longer a person, he himself refused this role, refused to be a person, renounced human destiny, and in the near future he will not have to be a person.

Therefore, suicides, as well as livestock, were buried either in special burial places, or along roads, on the side of the road.