Is cremation allowed in Orthodoxy? How does the church view cremation? Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church - document "On the Christian burial of the dead

Writes "Kommersant". Muscovites are buying up places in columbariums. You can even choose a place at the Vagankovsky cemetery. The average price is 40-45 thousand, depending on the row: the higher the urn, the more expensive. The cost also varies depending on the type of columbarium - open or closed (indoors), said the head of the press service of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Ritual" Dmitry Korobtsov. “Now carousel columbariums have become very popular. Very expensive, because they are all made of expensive material, that is, not a wailing wall, not in one line, but autonomous, like vertical cylinders. If we talk about a columbarium in the center of Moscow, for example, on the Donskoy, the cost of a columbarium niche will vary from 40 to 45 thousand. As for the Vagankovsky cemetery, columnar burials can be freely held there,” he says.

Cremation is cheaper than burial. At the very least, you can save on transport services. And standing in a traffic jam with a funeral procession is not pleasant enough. However, in most cases, cremation is done according to the will of the deceased. There are four crematoria in the capital region, three of which are on the balance sheet of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Ritual and 15 furnaces. The cremation procedure itself is fixed - and will cost only 3,400 rubles. However, most of the income of crematoriums comes from additional services - from storing bodies, embalming to ordering coffins, said the general director of one of the funeral homes in Moscow, Sergei. “From 25 to 30 thousand rubles is somewhere the average price. There is no upper border. There are coffins made of expensive wood, costing 600 and more thousand rubles. The hall of farewell and everything else there is useless. Very often, the crematorium employees shift the bodies and keep good, expensive coffins for themselves and resell,” he says.

The theological dimension of cremation is discussed in an interview with "" candidate of theological sciences Hieromonk Kirill (Zinkovsky) :

I am sure that the soul of the deceased cannot in any way be pleased with the fact that her body was burned, because the holy fathers (for example, St. Gregory of Nyssa in a conversation with St. Macrina) taught about the mysterious connection of the soul of the deceased with his body. And just speaking humanly, I don’t think that it would be pleasant for someone to know that after his death, his relatives burned all his things, everything that was dear to the deceased person. But during cremation, we are not talking about things, but about a person’s own body, which, instead of respect, receives something else - it writhes at a huge temperature to then disappear into dust, at a time when relatives assume that the deceased does not care!

Cremation is gaining popularity due to the fact that modern civilization is developing towards the maximum simplification of life, the maximum satisfaction of the passion for comfort while minimizing the energy expended. The growing demand for cremation is primarily due to financial considerations. The fact is that in large cities cremation is cheaper than a full-fledged burial. Secondly, the growth of this demand is associated with a certain fashion, as well as the desire to show one's originality. It can be assumed that there is also the influence of such personalities as, for example, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who bequeathed himself to be buried according to the Buddhist rite. Young people often like what looks unusual, extravagant, not like everyone else. Thirdly, many consider it convenient to bury the urn in the grave of relatives and not burden themselves with visiting graves in different parts of the same cemetery, or even different cemeteries, since it is very difficult to find opportunities for a full-fledged burial of relatives in one place. However, for an Orthodox Christian, it is obvious that all these arguments cannot and should not tip the scales “for” cremation.

Let me remind you that in Christianity cremation has always been considered a sign of paganism. The bodies of Christians have always been buried with honor and care whenever possible. The body of the burnt, as it were, goes to hell before hell - it burns at a huge temperature, and not instantly, but after experiencing the process of destruction within 60-90 minutes.

By 400 AD e., when most of the peoples of Europe were baptized, cremation actually disappeared from the European continent. In 785, under the threat of the death penalty, Charlemagne forbade cremation, and it was forgotten for about a thousand years, until the heyday of the Renaissance and the gradual retreat of European culture from Christianity.

In the modern world, where, as they say, it is “money that rules the roost”, the main one, I think, is still the financial factor, because the traditional burial in the cemetery costs people a pretty penny, especially in megacities. On one of the Internet sites that promote cremation, you can read: “cremation symbolizes the eternal memory of the deceased. It belongs to the Slavic traditions. The burial ritual appeared with the advent of the church. But this, so to speak, is a small "philosophical" reasoning of the authors of the site, and the main attractive point is reflected in the title itself, which appears in the Internet search engine: "Economy Class Funeral".

In this regard, I would like to recall the words of the elder Paisios the Holy Mountaineer. He noted that in Greece in the 1980s and 90s, the fashion for cremation began to spread. The elder did not give any theological dogmatic refutation of the practice of cremation. He mainly pointed to the moral damage inflicted on the soul of Christians, noting that cremation is, first of all, a manifestation of disrespect for ancestors. Is it really impossible to find some land for cemeteries? How deep people dig into the earth, mining coal! Let them make some kind of large repository for the remains and bury them all together there.

Fears about a possible infection from the remains of the dead is a kind of spiritual illness, because burial is a God-established order, therefore, no infectious phenomena are associated with it. The Lord said to Adam: “thou art the earth, and to the earth thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19). In Greece, there is a tradition for the third year to get the relics and put them in ossuaries - not only on Athos, but also in ordinary cemeteries, they can be arranged. In addition, how do we know, maybe some people will be honored with glory from God and their relics will be holy, and we will lose them through cremation.

Back in 2001, we managed to visit England for a discussion by the priests of the Sourozh Diocese of the problem of the trend towards an increase in cremation. From a theological point of view, the view prevailed there that if a person was cremated, then this, of course, would not prevent God from resurrecting his body. After all, if a person, for example, was torn apart by a shell or a bomb in a war, the almighty God can restore his body in eternity from individual atoms. Moreover, even a normally buried body eventually decays almost completely, turning into dust. Cremation does not correspond to the Orthodox tradition precisely from a spiritual and moral point of view, and is the oldest tradition of pagan culture, in which the attitude towards the human body as a “dungeon of the soul” and even as a source of evil almost always prevailed.

Only Christian preaching turned the centuries-old traditions of paganism. The gospel doctrine of the Incarnation and the resurrection of human bodies caused especially fierce attacks by pagan philosophers in their polemics with Christian teaching. This controversy clearly showed that, depending on one or another view of matter, and of the bodily nature of man, completely different systems of worldview are built, including ideas about God and man. In Christian perception, the matter created by God bears the imprint of His omnipotence, wisdom and caring care for the created world. In addition, it is the material world that is the habitat of the highest creation of God - man, and the salvation of human souls, to which we are all called through the Holy Gospel, is understood in Orthodox theology not as a rejection of the body and the entire material world, but as their transfiguration. The central dogma of Christian theology - the doctrine of the Incarnation, as well as all the sacraments of the Church of Christ testify to the exceptional importance of matter and the human body in God's plan for man to achieve his true destiny.

The reverent attitude towards the body of the deceased, inspired by the ancient church tradition, teaches a lot, teaches young people to see death, to come into contact with it in concrete reality, makes them think deeply and seriously about death. In addition, this is the last opportunity to serve your loved one, to see him on his last journey. Burial according to the traditional Orthodox rite is necessary first of all for those people who bury their loved ones. There is such a saint, Reverend Daniel of Pereyaslavsky (1460-1540), whose special ascetic manifestation of love for his neighbors was his concern for the dead beggars, homeless and rootless people. If he heard about any person who died from robbers, about a drowned man, or who froze on the road, whom there was no one to bury, then he tried in every possible way to find a dead body, carried it in his arms to a skudelnitsa (burial place for the homeless), buried, and then commemorated at the Divine Liturgy. And how many people did the Monk Daniel endure in his arms, hundreds, thousands? Probably, he himself did not think about it, but humbly fulfilled his duty.

And, on the contrary, people who cremate their relatives, as they say, “wash their hands”, limiting themselves to the minimum of the required actions. Sometimes it comes to false reverence, to the refusal to see your loved one dead. In fact, just a person does not want to serve and work hard.

In connection with this attitude, I remember one young woman who came to the conversation. She is pregnant, a believer, but not a church. Doctors scared her that the child had a heart disease incompatible with life and the child would live no more than a month after birth. And she had a false “pity” for the child, but in fact not for the child, but for herself: “They say, I don’t want to see how he suffers, and therefore I will kill him by having an abortion.” At least it's easier for her - she won't see how the baby dies in suffering. But after all, the fate of the terrible death of a baby in the womb is simply forced out of consciousness - it is more comfortable for her, but, of course, not for him!

Let us also recall that in Russia the first crematoria began to operate only after the communist revolution, and the bodies of deceased party workers were the first to be burned.

Cremation is not allowed for Christians. Even in the most extreme case, when a person is in absolute poverty, and he has no money for a funeral, you can find a way out - by agreeing on a burial outside the city, where everything is much cheaper. After all, even homeless people are buried with state money, but according to the Orthodox tradition. I am sure that cremation is a shame for the family that allows it, because it is disrespectful to their ancestors, as well as to centuries-old Christian traditions.

Father, often in a fuss, out of ignorance, and even more often because of problems with finances or paperwork for burial, people cremate the bodies of their loved ones, and then bury them in urns. You are probably aware of this problem.

Yes, sure. Often modern people who lose their loved ones are faced with the question of how to bury these dear people. There was no such problem before the revolution. There was no overpopulation of megacities, there were no such huge cities, and the bulk of the population lived in villages and villages. There, Christians, like hundreds of years ago, buried their loved ones in village cemeteries (graveyards). And the city dwellers had enough place to rest. It never occurred to anyone to set up a business selling land for a last resort. Even the poorest found their last rest under the cross in the land of their ancestors. But times have changed.

Different peoples and in different countries have different rites of burial of the dead. The Christian worldview has formed its own traditions. However, the modern realities of life also dictate their conditions. In large cities, it is becoming more and more difficult to find a place in cemeteries, traditional Christian burial in the ground can be very expensive, and as a result, the cremation of the dead is happening more and more often. On May 5, 2015, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted a document “On the Christian burial of the dead.”

The traditions of Christian burial are associated with the belief in the bodily resurrection of the deceased and the attitude towards the body as a “temple of God”, and therefore it is important for an Orthodox Christian that his body be treated with respect even after death.

Here is how Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh writes about this: “We find this love, this care, this reverent attitude towards the body in Orthodoxy; and this is reflected in an amazing way in the funeral service.

Christianity and CremationHow should a Christian feel about cremation? To what extent is this consistent (not consistent) with Christian teaching? This question - even judging by our editorial mail - is of increasing concern to believers (especially residents of large cities) who respect the beliefs of their relatives and friends. But the answer is quite ambiguous.

History of cremation

Cremation (from the Latin sremo - to burn) is the almost complete destruction of a wooden coffin with the body of the deceased under the influence of high temperature. The whole process lasts from 3 to 5 hours, and the remains are a granular mass weighing from 1.8 to 3.6 kg.

Most archaeologists believe that cremation is an invention of the Stone Age (3rd millennium BC), first used either in Europe or the Middle East. From the 8th century BC e. cremation, becomes the most common method of burial in Greece, and from the VI century. BC e. - in Rome.

What is the established and the only legal way of burial can be clearly seen from the subsequent funeral. It directly states that at the end of the last, the body is buried in the earth: “And so, having taken up the relics, we go to the tomb by all the people who follow, the previous priest ... And rely on the relics in the coffin. Bishop, or priest, take a finger with a shovel, crosswise sweep over the relics of the verb: The Lord's land and its fulfillment, the universe and all who live on it ... and tacos are covered, like a coffin is usually.” With regard to the burial of the bodies of dead Christians in the ground, the custom has undoubtedly been preserved in the Church unchanged from the first days of its existence, and therefore the Roman rule cited by Zonara, followed by Bp. Nicodemus when interpreting the 87th rule of Basil the Great: "about what there is no written law, customs and customs should be kept in that" and "ancient customs should be kept as laws." The custom of burying the dead passed into the New Testament Church from the time of the Old Testament and was preserved by Christians.

According to the clear testimony of Revelation, our bodies will also be resurrected into eternal life and will participate in the blessedness of the righteous or the endless torment of sinners. This is also a stumbling block for unbelievers and a deep mystery for believers.

They consider it impossible to restore and resurrect bodies completely destroyed by corruption, or burned, turned into dust and gases, decomposed into atoms.

But if during the life of the body the spirit was most closely connected with it, with all organs and tissues, penetrating all the molecules and atoms of the body, was its organizing principle, then why should this connection disappear forever after the death of the body? Why is it inconceivable that this connection after death was preserved forever, and at the moment of the general Resurrection, according to the sound of the archangel's trumpet, the connection of the immortal spirit with all the physical and chemical elements of the decayed body will be restored and manifested again.

Russia is experiencing a cremation boom. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, 60% of the dead are cremated. Why does cremation in Russia replace the usual, centuries-old ideas about funerals? How does business in Kirov break the "outdated" concepts of cemeteries, and what does the Russian Orthodox Church think about cremation?

Recently I was walking with a friend along the massive fence of the Donskoy cemetery. The walls of red brick brought to mind the eternal.

“And I want to be cremated,” my friend suddenly blurted out. - Not to rot.

There was no dispute. The girl is 22 years old, and she is convinced that cremation is modern, convenient and hassle-free. My arguments in favor of a traditional funeral were shattered by imperturbable calm.

Russia is experiencing a cremation boom. Funeral agencies through the Internet offer to solve all problems in the most "modern" way. And if you have any questions about what to burn the dead in the oven - the tradition, to put it mildly, is not ours.

Cremation of the bodies of the dead today is becoming an increasingly common method of burial. Relative cheapness, environmental friendliness, the possibility of burial in a columbarium - all this contributes to an increase in demand for such a procedure. Especially if the deceased himself wished to be buried in this way. But along with this, the question arises: how does the Orthodox Church relate to cremation? Isn't this a violation of church canons? And can the relatives of a cremated person expect to perform all the necessary ritual rites?

Culturology of cremation

The burning of the bodies of the dead occurred everywhere and at all times. The bodies were burned as victims, as a source of infection during epidemics, as a measure to combat "sorcerers" who, according to local beliefs, could annoy the living after death. But as a method of burial, burning was carried out exclusively by barbarian and pagan tribes. Any developed civilization, with a high culture, buried their dead in the ground.

A crematorium has been operating in St. Petersburg for a long time. And many people, even believers, are not buried in the ground, but burned. It's much cheaper, and old people often don't have the money for a proper funeral. Is it possible to resort to the "services" of the crematorium? Or is it completely unacceptable? Is it a sin to allow a relative to be cremated? How to repent of this sin? How to pray for those who have been cremated? Can I order funeral services for them? What if the relative himself bequeaths himself to be cremated? How to treat the ashes without your consent of the burnt person?

Konstantin, St. Petersburg.
Christian burial will follow in its essence the burial of the Lord. Let “the dust return to the earth” (Ec. 12:7) is said in the Bible. In the rite of the funeral there are the words: "thou art the earth, and to the earth thou shalt depart." The human body, created from “dust”, from the composition of earthly elements, having fallen into decay and death after the fall of Adam, after death returns to matter and disintegrates into elements.

A difficult choice: cremation or burial? Can the dead Orthodox Christians be cremated - or should their bodies be buried exclusively in the traditional way? Soon this issue will again become the subject of discussion in the governing bodies of the ROC. But regardless of the decision made, it is unlikely that it will be finally clarified - there are many nuances, and life makes its own adjustments.

The attitude of the Church towards the cremation of dead Christians remains a mystery to many. An unambiguous answer to it, perhaps, will be given by the forum of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church - that cremation will become one of its key topics, Archimandrite Savva (Tutunov), Deputy Head of Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, recently told RIA Novosti.

“This is a hot topic. I know that many Orthodox believers are confused by the very fact of cremation of bodies. It is believed that this is such an unconventional form of burial for Christianity,” said Fr. Savva.

In our cemeteries you can often find a crematorium, not a temple or a chapel. This is a sign of the new times, but it was not always so. Is it possible to burn the body of an Orthodox person, how does church tradition relate to this? Cremation of the dead from the point of view of Orthodox Christianity is considered by the Greek theologian Professor Mandzaridis George. The professor reflects on the traditions of Christian burials, the relationship of Christianity to the human body, dead or alive.

Burial of dead Christians

The burial of the dead is not a dogmatic topic. The resurrection of the dead, which our Church believes in, will not depend on whether they were buried or burned. But on the other hand, the burial of the dead has to do with the dogmatic beliefs of the Church. The preference for burial and the negative attitude towards burning the dead are closely related to the Church's faith in man and his destiny.

The inter-council presence of the ROC MP will formulate a clear position of the ROC regarding cremation.
Archimandrite Savva (Tutunov), deputy manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, recalled that many Christians are confused by this form of burial: “This is a topical issue. I know that many Orthodox believers are confused by the very fact of cremation of bodies. It is believed that this is such an unconventional form of burial for Christianity. According to the Ria-Novosti agency, Archimandrite Savva (Tutunov) assumes that the position of the Church on this issue will be worked out in the next two years.
Traditionally, it is believed that the "rite" of cremation is a pagan phenomenon, while an orthodox Christian should be buried in damp earth.

And in general, the act of burning a person, in the Old Testament, appears as a punishment for sin.

Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin: “I would advise you not to exaggerate the difficulties associated with burying the earth” - Father Vladislav, why does the Russian Orthodox Church not approve of cremation?

– The negative attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church towards cremation is explained, first of all, by the fact that this method of burial is at odds with church tradition. There is also a certain theological problem here, because this way of burial does not correspond to the Christian teaching about the Resurrection from the dead. Of course, the point is not that the Lord is unable to resurrect the cremated. But on the part of the human community, a respectful attitude towards the remains of the deceased is expected.

The famous Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris

– The Church does not categorically prohibit cremation under the threat of excommunication of those loved ones who decided not to bury, but to cremate the remains of their relatives.

The Council of Bishops did not recognize cremation as the norm of burial, however, the Russian Orthodox Church will not deprive the commemoration of Christians, “for various reasons, who have not been honored with burial in accordance with church tradition,” the draft document “On the Christian Burial of the Dead” says.

MOSCOW, September 12 - RIA Novosti. The Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church prepared and submitted for wide all-church discussion a draft document “On the Christian Burial of the Dead”, which, in particular, defines the attitude of the Church towards the recently spread practice of cremation, Archimandrite Savva, deputy head of affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, told RIA Novosti on Thursday. (Tutunov).

“The topic of burial of the dead sometimes arises in society in connection with the practice of cremation. Actually, initially the topic proposed for consideration concerned precisely the attitude of the Church to cremation.

Pagan ritual?

In the East, the custom of cremation has existed for a long time. So, Buddhists believe that burning helps the soul to cleanse itself of past karma. Interestingly, in Russian folk tales, villains (for example, the Nightingale the Robber or Koshchei the Immortal) were not only burned, but also scattered ashes in the wind. Witches were usually burned at the stake, as they believed that the flame cleansed their souls from sins. In Europe, the custom of burning the dead was introduced by the Etruscans, from whom it, in turn, was adopted by the Greeks and Romans. Subsequently, with the spread of Christianity, cremation was banned. But in the medieval cemeteries there was not enough space, the dead sometimes had to be buried in common graves, and they were covered with earth only when the grave was full ... Such burials turned into a source of the spread of various infections. In the 16th century, Europeans began to burn their dead on funeral pyres.

Or rather Orthodox. Catholics cremate, as our pagan ancestors used to do. My friend said let the dead bury the dead). Some people find it hard to change morals. Orthodoxy is very, very conservative. Therefore, it is important for them to preserve their traditions, including churches, texts, and ideology. Are you an optimist? Do you want to have only pluses around you? Go to the cemetery.

Our church proposes to remove cemeteries and numerous churches that have no historical value. Why oppress people when you can rejoice? If someone wants to keep the ashes of Aunt Ruth, let him keep them at home. The only place for the dead is our memory. And some radical comrades offer to eat the bodies altogether, solving the problem of cleaning from cadaveric poisons. Then the issue of land and hunger will be partially resolved.

Is it possible to cremate the dead Orthodox Christians - or should their bodies be buried in the earth exclusively in the traditional way? Soon this issue will again become the subject of discussion in the governing bodies of the ROC. But regardless of the decision made, it is unlikely that it will be finally clarified - there are many nuances, and life makes its own adjustments.

Gravediggers will be led out of the shadows

The attitude of the Church towards the cremation of dead Christians remains a mystery to many. An unequivocal answer to it, perhaps, will be given by the forum of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church - that cremation will become one of its key topics, Archimandrite Savva (Tutunov), Deputy Head of Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, recently told RIA Novosti.

“This is a hot topic. I know that many Orthodox believers are confused by the very fact of cremation of bodies. It is believed that this is such a non-traditional form of burial for Christianity,” said Fr. Savva. At the same time, he noted that today the Russian Orthodox Church does not have a rigidly formulated attitude to cremation, officially expressed and completely exhausting this topic.

Indeed, few issues have such a complex attitude on the part of the Church as committing the bodies of the dead to fire. On the one hand, it would seem that everything is clear - the dead are supposed to be buried in a cemetery in consecrated ground with the performance of all the prescribed rites. And the latter, in turn, are rigidly tied precisely to the traditional practice of burying bodies in the earth. Much is said about this in the corresponding rites.

Here are some of the most characteristic quotations from the text of the funeral, from which it clearly follows that the body should be buried in the ground: with a shovel, cruciformly throws on top of the relics of the verb: the Lord's land and its fulfillment, the universe and all who live on it ... and they cover it like a coffin is usually.

Just in case, let's clarify - in this case, "relics" do not mean the relics of saints, but simply a dead body. However, in colloquial Russian, this term has become archaic - today it is used as a designation for the remains of a God-glorified ascetic, missing the epithet indicating his holiness.

More excerpts from the same rite of burial:

"Thou art the earth, and unto the earth thou shalt depart" (This is already a quotation from the Bible, chapter 3 of Genesis, verse 12), "because of the earth we shall be created from the earth, and to the earth we shall go there." “Come, kiss the former little one with us, surrender to the grave, cover with stone, dwell in the darkness, bury with the dead.” “Seeing the image of the dead before us, let us perceive the whole of the final hour: this one departs, like grass cut, we wrap it in sackcloth, we cover it with earth.”

Thus, the liturgical practice of Orthodoxy simply does not provide for the burial of a specially burned body - the bodies of those who died in the fire are buried in the usual rite.

Definitely negative attitude to the cremation of the dead and the officials of the Russian Orthodox Church. Here, for example, are the words of the Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin: “We have a negative attitude towards cremation. Of course, if relatives ask for the funeral of the deceased before cremation, the ministers of the Church do not refuse them. But people who profess Orthodoxy must respect the dead and prevent the destruction of the body created by God."

And here is the textbook opinion of Patriarch Kirill himself when he was the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations in the rank of Metropolitan of Kaliningrad and Smolensk. In response to a question from the wife of a terminally ill patient, he said the following:

"... Cremation is outside the Orthodox tradition. We believe that at the end of history there will be a resurrection of the dead in the image of the Resurrection of Christ the Savior, that is, not only in soul, but also in body. If we allow cremation, then we symbolically renounce this faith. Of course, we are only talking about symbols here, for the human body buried in the earth also turns to dust, but God will restore the body of everyone from dust and decay by His power. "Of course, many who believe in a universal resurrection, for practical reasons, still cremate the dead. In the event of your husband's death, you can bury him, but if you can convince him not to insist on cremation, then try to do it! ".

In the theological literature, one can also come across such an argument - burning the body of the deceased is a grave sin - desecration of the temple of God: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple God's is holy, and you are this temple" (1 Cor. 3:16-17).

It is often remembered that in Russia the victorious procession of crematoria began shortly after the victory of the Bolsheviks. Their position, by the way, was rather ambiguous: the embalmed bodies of Lenin and Stalin - why not an attempt to artificially create "imperishable relics"?

However, posthumous worship was the privilege of the dead leaders of the Communist Party - the rest were ordered to turn into ashes. The latter even enjoyed a kind of state support: honored leaders of the party and the state were buried in a niche in the Kremlin wall, where only a small urn with the ashes of the deceased could fit.

On the other hand, one of the leaders of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Leon Trotsky, frankly proclaimed the crematoriums to be "the department of godlessness" and cremation to be an anti-religious act. Apparently because, regrettably, he understood the essence of a religion hostile to him much better than many of today's "indifferent" believers.

Indeed, the attitude towards the bodies of the dead in Christianity (and in Judaism and Islam too) is very reverent. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the body is considered the "dungeon for the soul." And the soul must be released as soon as possible for the subsequent reincarnation or for nirvana and other purely spiritual states of bliss. But the Bible speaks of the coming Resurrection of the dead, each in his own body, even if endowed by God with incorruption and eternity.

It is interesting to note that in a very rational Israel, with its incredible dense population, there is still not a single crematorium. Neither the Jews nor the Arabs need them - both peoples, despite the sworn enmity in many other ways, agree 100 percent in relation to the burial of the dead.

Thus, the conscious desire to destroy his body after death immediately suggests the thought - does such a person really believe in the God of Holy Scripture? Of course, situations are different. The high cost of traditional burial in cemeteries, especially in large cities, the "cemetery mafia", which makes it unbearable for poor citizens - this, alas, is also a sad reality.

Different peoples and in different countries have different rites of burial of the dead. The Christian worldview has formed its own traditions. However, the modern realities of life also dictate their conditions. In large cities, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place in cemeteries, traditional Christian burial in the ground can be very expensive, and as a result, cremation of the dead is becoming more common.

On May 5, 2015, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted a document On the Christian burial of the dead .

"Can the dead be cremated?"

Konstantin, St. Petersburg.

Christian burial will follow in its essence the burial of the Lord. Let “the dust return to the earth” (Ec. 12:7) is said in the Bible. In the rite of the funeral there are the words: "thou art the earth, and to the earth thou shalt depart." The human body, created from “dust”, from the composition of earthly elements, having fallen after the fall of Adam to decay and death, after death returns to matter and disintegrates into elements. There is a deep meaning in this: created literally from “nothing” by the Will and Thought of God, in the complex composition of the soul and body, united in the incarnation of a unique personality, after death we lose this part of ourselves - the body - until a time, so that after the resurrection in a new re-creation we will find him again, no longer involved in death.

Cremation, the accelerated unnatural or unnatural destruction of the body of the deceased by burning, of course, is alien to Christian culture, the Christian spirit. In cremation as a modern funeral act, perhaps, the terrifying gap between the secular, i.e. a civilization separated from the Church – and a faith that has transformed this fallen and cruel human world for thousands of years. When faith is banished to the margins of social values, the ugly and soulless essence of these very “free values” is exposed as having no basis in the Holiness of God. And, probably, it is no coincidence that the first crematorium project appeared during the French Revolution, and cremation as an industrial destruction of human remains developed in Europe in the 19th century, in the era of the triumph of Darwin's evolutionary theory.

Cremation does not meet Christian morality and cannot be included in the list of Orthodox burial customs. But cremation is only one, only, perhaps, a more expressive example of many other non-Christian norms of social relations (consumer culture, leisure, individualism), which we no longer notice due to their ubiquity.

One should not see any mystical spiritual meaning in cremation, or even a prototype of the “gehenna fire”. Rather, it is precisely the spiritual significance - precisely the churching power of Christian ritualism, which gives ordinary things a heavenly dimension - that cremation is deprived of. It is empty, soulless, indifferent and ruthless to man, like other landscapes of modern megacities.

If it is possible to bury a deceased close, dear person in the grave, in the ground, even if it is associated with difficulties and expenses, it is better to make every effort to do this. If there is no such possibility, and I know that there are many such cases, I have to be cremated. This is not a sin, but a forced measure, due to external circumstances, to which we cannot oppose anything. If, at the same time, one should repent of anything, it is that they did not make advance efforts so that the body of a loved one avoided cremation.

The departed Christian, who has received holy baptism and, upon death, was honored with a funeral service according to the rite of the Orthodox Church, instead of a grave burial - cremated - can and should be commemorated at Liturgies and memorial services, like other deceased, who died in peace with the Church. I am not aware of canons or rules that state otherwise.

The ashes of a cremated person should be treated like any other ashes - to be interred, to create a semblance of a grave, and, if space permits, to put up a cross.

I have heard the erroneous opinion that cremation, instead of the usual decay of the body in the grave, will somehow make it difficult to bodily resurrection from the dead. It's a delusion. St. Gregory the Theologian appeals to those who doubt the possibility of resurrection in their own body: if you, holding a handful of seeds in your hand, easily distinguish one vegetable from another, is it possible that the Lord, Who holds the whole world in his handful, can something disappear or be lost? ? And according to another St. Gregory - Nyssa, the soul gives the body a certain form (idea), it is imprinted in the flesh with a special imprint or seal, set not from the outside, but from the inside. For the identity of the resurrected body with the earthly one, it is not at all necessary that the same material elements unite: the same seal is enough.

Priest Alexander Shantaev

Father Lawrence (Lawrence) Farley (Orthodox Church in America), a former Anglican priest, graduated from Wycliffe College in Toronto (Canada) in 1979. In 1985 he converted to Orthodoxy and graduated from St. Tikhon's Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania (USA). After his ordination, he went on a new mission to the city of Surrey (Canadian province of British Columbia) under the omophorion of the OCA, where he founded a parish in honor of St. Herman of Alaska. The parish, originally of 12 members, has grown into a large congregation and today has its own temple in Langley, British Columbia. Thanks to the efforts of the parish of St. Herman, other Orthodox communities also appeared, for example, in the cities of Victoria, Comox and Vancouver. Father Lawrence is the author of many books, such as "Handbook for Bible Students" and "Calendar of Saints for Every Day". Numerous articles belong to his pen; he is the compiler of a number of akathists published by the Alexander Press; regularly speaks on the Orthodox radio "Ancient Faith radio"; maintains his Orthodox blog "Straight from theHeart" ("Straight from the Heart"). He lives with his mother Donna Farley - a famous Canadian writer - in the city of Surrey. They have two adult daughters and two grandchildren.

Burning books in itself causes rejection. When I hear that books are being burned somewhere, I always remember the famous, far-sighted and wise saying of Heinrich Heine, who was born a Jew, but later converted to Christianity and died in 1856. Heine said: "Where books are burned, there, in the end, people will also be burned." Ironically, in the 1930s, the Nazis, among many others, set fire to the books of Heinrich Heine.

Just as it is unacceptable to burn books, it is unacceptable to burn people. Beyond that, cremation is not part of our Christian tradition. This statement completely contradicts the modern culture of North America, where cremation is rapidly becoming the most preferred method of burying the dead. But, in spite of everything, Orthodoxy continues to testify to its tradition, according to which cremation is unacceptable, since it involves the burning of people.

Modern secular culture denies this. She declares that people are one thing, and their (dead) bodies are another, and during cremation, it is not a person who burns, but only his body. That is, a "real" person is identified with his soul, which lives in his body, just like a letter is in an envelope. In this case, the envelope has no permanent function and is only used for the safe delivery of the letter. But as soon as the letter is received, the envelope can be thrown away immediately. After all, it is the letter that matters, and that is what we will keep. In the same way, modern secularism claims that the soul is the real person, while the body is only a temporary receptacle, the "carrier" of the soul. When the soul leaves the body at the time of death, it immediately loses its value and becomes as useless as the envelope from which the letter was taken out. What a body without a soul, what an envelope without a letter can be thrown away or burned as unnecessary.

The beauty and grace contained in the body has its source in God

On the contrary, the Church proclaims again and again that the body is not just a vessel for the soul, but in it, as in the soul, the image of God, the image of heavenly beauty, is imprinted. Therefore, it would be more correct to say not “we have a body”, but “we are body, soul and spirit”. The body was created by God, moreover, in the image and likeness of God, and this should be understood not so that God also has two eyes, a nose and ears, but that the beauty and grace contained in the body have God as their source.

The body is a partaker of Divine grace, not only as created by God, but also as redeemed by God. After all, it is over the body that the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation are performed, it is the body that partakes of the Holy Mysteries of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and it is the body that will one day be resurrected for a new, eternal life at the general resurrection. In a word, the human body is holy, and it participates in our salvation. As with all holy objects, the human body must be treated reverently. As stated above, burning means denying the value of what is burned. This practice took place and was justified in paganism, because for pagans the body is not of great value (this is why the pagan Athenian philosophers laughed at the Apostle Paul when they heard from him that the bodies of people would be resurrected - cf. Acts 17, 32). Pagans could cremate and burn their bodies - this did not conflict with their religious beliefs. Christians cannot do this, because they believe that our bodies are too important to be exposed to fire.

The human body is holy, and it participates in our salvation

There are other problems associated with the modern practice of cremation. For example, people in the funeral industry don't tell people the whole truth about cremation. In particular, they do not say that bones do not burn. At a high enough temperature, flesh, hair, and fat can be burned. (This is a terrible sight. Many of those who witnessed this said that if people knew what exactly happens in the cremation process, they would never go for it). Yes, bones do not burn, no matter how high the temperature is. What do they do with them after cremation? They are raked out of the furnace and placed in a special mill, where they are ground to small particles. I was told that cleaning such "mills" is not an easy task, and pieces of bones of different people are mixed. They say that they are specially sprinkled with talc to make them look more like dust. All of these are dishonest attempts to hide from people the fact that bones do not burn.

There are other problems as well. I had to be present at the burial of the ashes of the cremated dead in cemeteries in specially designated places (columbariums). Once, during such a funeral at the cemetery, prayers were read for the deceased, in which he was mentioned as a person - using the pronoun "who", as it should be. Then a worker of the crematorium came out, carrying in his hands a plastic bag with the ashes of the deceased. The worker asked the relatives of the deceased: “Where can I This put?" Thus, the deceased turned into "what". Notice he didn't say "his" or "her" but "it". I do not think that he was a heartless person and disrespectful to the dead. He was just doing his job, and with his mechanically spoken words, he only confirmed the fact that cremation turns a person into a thing - into something that can be carried under the arm in a plastic bag and placed in a small burial urn. Cremation means depersonalization.

Here is the main difference between cremation and the historical traditional church practice of burying the dead. Only church practice truly pays tribute to the personality of the deceased and recognizes the holiness of human flesh. Of course, one should not judge those who have chosen cremation for their loved ones, for we do what we can, and the time of grief and bereavement is not the best time to relearn and change your mind. Although the Church does not judge, it offers the best solution. We pay real respect to our deceased relatives and relatives when we do not subject them to cremation, but reverently bury them. We cannot burn the bodies of those we love. Instead, we commend their bodies to the blessed land, and entrust their souls to the all-good God.

Hieromonk Kirill (Zinkovsky) on the growing popularity of this pagan practice in Russia…

I am sure that the soul of the deceased cannot in any way be pleased with the fact that her body was burned, because the holy fathers (for example, St. Gregory of Nyssa in a conversation with St. Macrina) taught about the mysterious connection of the soul of the deceased with his body. And just speaking humanly, I don’t think that it would be pleasant for someone to know that after his death, his relatives burned all his things, everything that was dear to the deceased person. But during cremation, we are not talking about things, but about a person’s own body, which, instead of respect, receives something else - it writhes at a huge temperature, in order to then disappear into dust, at a time when relatives assume that the deceased does not care!

Let us also recall that in Russia the first crematoria began to operate only after the communist revolution, and the bodies of deceased party workers were the first to be burned.

Ecology of consciousness: Russia is experiencing a boom in cremation. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, 60% of the dead are cremated. Why does cremation in Russia replace the usual, centuries-old ideas about funerals? How business in Kirov breaks the "outdated" concept of cemeteries

Recently I was walking with a friend along the massive fence of the Donskoy cemetery. The walls of red brick brought to mind the eternal.

“And I want to be cremated,” my friend suddenly blurted out. - Not to rot.

Russia is experiencing a cremation boom. Funeral agencies through the Internet offer to solve all problems in the most "modern" way. And if you have any questions about the fact that burning a dead person in an oven is, to put it mildly, not our tradition, almost any funeral agent will object to you: just like ours!

There is probably nothing surprising in this. The media too often talk about how once again a famous and respected person was cremated. Cremation, at least for secular people, is already a common thing. Just the other day, the Russian News Service reported: “In Moscow and St. Petersburg, 60% of the dead are cremated. Pavel Kodysh, President of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoria of Russia, spoke about this. In Moscow, where there are 23 Orthodox monasteries and hundreds of churches, at least 60,000 people are cremated every year. The figure can be slightly increased, since Pavel Kodysh notes that “120 thousand people die in Moscow every year.”

We tried to find out why people send their loved ones to the oven

We tried to find out what guides people who send their relatives and friends to the furnace. Attracted by the price of cremation? Fashion for today's popular method of burial? A legacy of the Soviet past, when was it first started to turn people into ashes on an industrial scale? Lack of land or high cost of cemetery plots? Or is it the desire of modern man not to think about death? An attempt to cross out any reminders of funerals, the dead and mourning ceremonies?

The Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly spoken out about cremation. In May 2015, the Council of Bishops recommended that priests treat cremation as an undesirable event. “Given the ancient tradition of reverent attitude towards the body of a Christian as a temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Synod recognizes the burial of the deceased Christians in the ground as the norm,” reads a specially prepared memorandum “On the Christian burial of the dead.” The words of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill also do not require explanations and comments: “Cremation is outside the Orthodox tradition. We believe that at the end of history there will be a resurrection of the dead in the image of the Resurrection of Christ the Savior, that is, not only in soul, but also in body. If we allow cremation, then, as it were, we symbolically renounce this faith.

Cremation on a turnkey basis

Cremation is cheap and modern. This is one of the main arguments that supporters of the fire funeral bring. To get first-hand information, I call the crematorium at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery.

- 7100 rubles, - the employee of the crematorium answers. – This price includes musical accompaniment. There is also the registration of the deceased, the transfer of the coffin, the cremation procedure itself, farewell, engraving and sealing of the urn.

True, you still need to purchase an urn, pay for the coffin, which, after the farewell ceremony, is burned along with the body of the deceased. Naturally, we must not forget about transport.

To finally understand how much money you need to have in order to cremate a person, he turned to the Unified Funeral Service. Here all proposals are already formed on a turnkey basis.

– The price of cremation has doubled since July 1. Our coffin and transport cost 17,000 rubles. The same amount includes a bed, a pillow and slippers - the agency employee made a special emphasis on slippers. – It is customary for us to bring Christians in slippers to cremation.

On average, for a cremation with all the necessary attributes, you will have to pay around 30,000 rubles. This is without burial.

In St. Petersburg, the deceased will be burned, placed in an urn and placed in a columbarium for 35,000 rubles. This is only 10 thousand cheaper than a traditional funeral.

“There is still a difference,” she explains. “You still need to look after the grave. The fence, and then the monument. And the urn with the ashes is kept in the niche forever. It does not require additional care.

A striking pattern. The overwhelming number of employees of funeral companies advised me to use the services of a crematorium. The reasoning is simple: it is in step with the times and no unnecessary movements. And only one woman with undisguised sympathy said:

- Yes, you bury it as it should be - in the ground! To the ground! Well, add 10 thousand, it's okay!

A free plot in a cemetery - or a paid niche in a columbarium?

After the procedure for burning the body, the urn still needs to be buried. To clarify the cost of this service, I contacted the RITUAL State Budgetary Institution. This is a state budgetary institution of the city of Moscow. Through this site I go to the Rogozhskoe cemetery. It is impossible to bury an urn in an open columbarium, that is, in a wall. But you can buy a place for the urn in a special niche.

“This is something like a granite sarcophagus,” they explained over the phone. - The price depends on the row. The first and fifth rows cost 70,000 thousand rubles.

The first row is almost at ground level. And the fifth row is at a height of two and a half meters.

- This is something like a mezzanine in the corridor - I hear an explanation on the phone. - Slightly higher cost for the second row, third and fourth.

- How much is it? I ask.

A place for an urn in the poverty of the Rogozhsky cemetery costs 90 thousand rubles

- 90 thousand, - answered the employee of the Rogozhsky cemetery.

For this money, you can organize a modest traditional funeral for several people.

It was offered to place an urn with ashes in an open columbarium at the Khimki cemetery for 31,500 rubles. This is if the cell is located at chest level. You will have to pay separately for the plate - 5000 rubles. Still need to add engraving. The amount for engraving consists of the number of characters. It turns out something about 40 thousand rubles. In total, in order to cremate and lay to rest the remains in an open columbarium at the Khimki cemetery, you will have to pay an average of 75,000 rubles.

At the Lublin Cemetery, an urn with ashes can be buried in the ground for 110,000 rubles. How much is 1 square meter of land. A bench and a fence are not provided - there is too little space for such luxury.

“The views of residents of big cities are not the same as in the outback”

Moscow region, Perepechinsky cemetery. Here, the city authorities provide a site for two burials for free. On Perepechynka, as the agents call this place, you only have to pay for digging a grave.

“You can meet 20,000 rubles,” says an employee of a funeral company. - At the cemetery, the guys will have to throw a circle around the digging of the grave. It’s such a tradition,” he adds.

Several ritual services offered to organize a traditional funeral for 20,000 rubles. True, you will have to do without wreaths, an orchestra and other chic.

It is possible to bury any non-working resident of Moscow without money. In the language of ritual agents, this is called "guiding one's last journey free of charge." The only condition is that the work book of the deceased must be closed.

Supporters of cremation may object: they say, but what about the monument? What about care? The fence needs to be painted. And do it whenever possible every spring. And the grave sags, especially when fresh! An urn with ashes, if made of copper, is very durable ...

Questionable Arguments.

Cremation is more convenient and faster. The views of residents of big cities are not the same as in the outback. I mean in a spiritual sense, - Dmitry, the dispatcher of the Moscow ritual agency, shares his thoughts.

"The earth should be for living people, not for the dead"

So in Kirov, people are discussing their crematorium. Entrepreneur Andrei Kataev decided to build a "socially significant facility" in the city. It is planned to cremate Kirov residents at a “low price”. 12,000 rubles - and the job is done. You also have to pay for the urn, coffin and transport.

– No more cemeteries will be created. People will understand the advantages of the crematorium, and within one or two years we will reach the mark of 50% of cremations of all the dead, - Andrey Kataev argues. – But since people here hardly accept everything new, we will have to carry out some kind of a kind of action, explaining to the population that cremation is a civilized way of burying the dead.

I wonder how this work will be carried out? What are these shares?

Mr. Kataev has a cold attitude towards the traditional method of burial.

- The cemeteries are dirty. Well, we don’t have such a culture as, for example, in Europe, Kataev argues. – For priests, funerals are a business: they carry out funerals. For the "ritualists" this is a business, they bury in the ground - this is their bread, - Kataev notes.

That is, Mr. Kataev decided that the people of Kirov do not know how to behave in a cemetery and it is best to send the dead to the furnace. And for him, this is not a business at all!

In an interview, the entrepreneur enthusiastically talks about the fact that "the earth should be for living people, not for the dead." These are his words. They express his attitude towards the deceased person.

One gets the impression that there is no need to debate the issue of cremation, since sooner or later everyone will be cremated everywhere. At least those who open new crematoria in the country are sure of this.

Land for burial even in "expensive and non-rubber" Moscow is given free of charge. It is not possible to save a lot of money on cremation, but the number of urns with ashes, compared to graves, is increasing. So my friend, who is only 22 years old, is already calm about the fact that her body can be burned.

In the next article, we will look at how cremation was planted in Bolshevik Russia. Let's find out how the common people reacted to this. And let's try to answer the main question: why do people today so easily choose a fiery funeral without any coercion and pressure? What has changed over 100 years in the minds of society, and why is the next crematorium in the outback of our country, if not a tradition, but already a pattern? published