A Christian Ending: Appropriate Burial

Newly-revealed incorrupt relics of Elder Visarion

I am so pleased that Khouria Frederica Mathews-Green interviewed Fr. Dn. Mark and Matushka Elizabeth Barna on their book, a manual for Ancient Christian burial! Finally, conversation about the sacredness of the reposed Christian body is springing up. I haven’t read the book myself, I just learned about it from this interview. But I will purchase it as soon as I can. It’s so important for us, as Orthodox Christians, to know how to prepare a body, and to know what is inappropriate treatment of Christian bodies.

You know, cremation was illegal in Greece until six years ago. The parliament legalized it on March 1, 2006. And, almost as a testament against it, incorrupt relics of Elder Visarion (see above photo) of the Holy Monastery of Agathon, outside Evlomia, Greece, were discovered the very same day! He had died 15 years earlier, but when exhumed his body was found intact. My godmother is the one who took and sent me these photos of him, a year before my husband and I moved here.  Let the photos speak for themselves: the Holy Spirit lives in His chosen ones! (To hear a wonderful podcast on this very topic, go here, where Fr. Peter Heers speaks about Cremation and Relics).

If we burn our bodies like the pagans, how will holy relics, like the newly-revealed Visarion, remain as witnesses to the indwelling of the All-holy Spirit? We must honour and cherish the body even at the very end, our death. Which, we know to be the true beginning.

Holy hands clutch the Holy Gospel even after death

This past summer, while staying at a holy monastery, we had a conversation with the Abbess about burial and the inappropriate practices she had witnessed in the past. She spoke about how important it is for us to treat the body with respect, since it is (still) the temple of the Holy Spirit. She also told us some disturbing stories about what goes on at some funeral homes.

She told us about a priest she knows who went to the funeral home to pick up the body of his bishop (who was being prepared by the funeral home). When he arrived he couldn’t find anyone available so he went into the room and saw his bishop’s body hanging. I won’t mention the other details. Suffice it to say the priest was horrified.

DON’T READ THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO READING ABOUT INFANT DEATH

The Abbess also told us about a baby that was brought to her monastery after its preparation by a funeral home. Gerondissa (the Abbess) told us she opened the casket to see the child and was dumbfounded when she saw the baby merely wrapped in a blanket with no clothes on. Worse still was that the infant was covered in chemicals. When Gerondissa asked the funeral home why, they told her they couldn’t inject the body with the chemicals because the veins were too small, so they just rubbed the chemicals on the outside of the body. Well, Gerondissa took the baby and washed and clothed it herself. Then she told the funeral home to never bring her a body like that again.

I don’t blame the funeral homes. I understand they must look at reposed bodies as business, not as something sacred. But we as Orthodox Christians must see them for what they are, and treat them with the respect they deserve.

I am so overjoyed at the work Father Dn. Mark and his Matushka Elizabeth are doing. May God bless them a hundredfold for their incredible ministry, and for taking the time to write a book that will be helpful to many more Christians wanting to treat the bodies of their loved ones with appropriate love and respect. I encourage you all to at very least listen to the interview, and buy the book if you are able.

Here is the write-up about the book (taken from Amazon’s page here):

Holy feet that stood and walked in holy service to the Lord!

A handbook for burial in the ancient Christian tradition. While aimed at Orthodox Christians, this book would be a very helpful guide to anyone who is interested in preparing for a funeral within the context of community, without the use of corporate funeral homes, and using green and sustainable methods. From the foreward: “How should Christian people prepare for death, their own and that of loved ones? No question can be more important than this, since death is the final reality of our earthly life. Yet particularly in the United States, we tend to avoid the question as much as we can. We consider death to be brutal and tragic, whatever its circumstances and causes. It marks an end to our ambitions, while it underscores the ephemeral nature of our existence. Therefore we treat it like a “last enemy” from which there is no escape, no salvation. Death appears as a specter, a menacing evil, that evokes a reaction of dread. Written in a genial, conversational style, this book offers the Christian reader a solid foundation in both the theology and the psychology of death: its place within God’s creative and saving work, and the personal impact it makes on those facing death and those who grieve for them. It also clarifies a great many misconceptions held by most people concerning professional funeral practices, making clear that a truly “Christian ending” to our life can mean beauty and utter simplicity both in the rituals that surround it and in the burial itself. Many readers will be surprised to learn that it is not at all necessary, legally or practically, to use the services of a funeral home. There is indeed “another way,” one more in keeping with the Gospel imperative to honor the physical body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. This work includes a section on the actual preparation of the body of the deceased, together with prescribed readings of psalms and prayers, all of which can be accomplished with or without the participation of clergy. Finally, an extensive bibliography is followed by a list of items needed for preparation, as well as various post-mortem forms the reader will find indispensable.” -Fr. John Breck

What do you think? How do you plan to be buried?