some recent orthodox responses to the
current discussion on
life after death 1 the mystery of
death and the beyond by father ambrose
fontrir
dean of french orthodox parishes of the
russian church
outside of russia radio television
periodicals and the book have been
speaking
lately in france about death and the
beyond
even a greek periodical appearing in
french and supposedly orthodox
has taken part in this course publishing
an article
entitled tell me why no one has ever
returned
and the author concludes no human
knowledge can give
a certain answer to this mystery of the
beyond
only fate dissipates the shadows a
little in passing he tips his head to
the lord whom he calls the qualified
fairy man
a fellow man who strangely recalls
sharon the pilot of hades in greek
mythology
who conducted the souls of the dead over
the river sticks in his
boat for the price of an abolus
if the author of the article in question
only had the text of the orthodox
funeral
service or the services for the dead on
saturdays
if he had read the lives of the saints
or of the fathers of the desert
he would have been able to give an
answer to this mystery of the beyond
and edify his readers but our orthodox
and modernists
owing to their flirtation with this
world for which christ the savior did
not
wish to pray have become the salt which
has
lost its savior and which is good for
nothing
but to be trampled under foot according
to the infallible
world of the lord in order to dissipate
a little the shadows of the editor of
the greek periodical
and edify at the same time our faithful
and our readers we give here three
texts on the mystery of death and the
beyond
translators note the first two
texts are from saint dionysius the
aeropogite
and from the life of an athenite monk
showing how an orthodox christian
prepares for
death and the separation of the soul
from the body
the third text from the life of the late
greek
iconographer fortius kontoglu
reposed in 1965 is
translated below in full for his
biography
see the orthodox word september october
1966
the great wager between believers and
unbelievers
by fortios conto glue from his book
mystical flowers athens 1977
on pasca monday in the evening after
midnight
before lying down to sleep i went
out into the little garden behind my
house
the sky was dark and covered with stars
i seemed to see it for the first time
and the distant salmon this seemed to
descend from it
my lips murmured very softly exalt hear
the lord our god
and worship the footstool of his feet a
holy man once told me that during these
hours the heavens are opened the air
exhaled the fragrance of the flowers and
herbs i had planted
heaven and earth are filled with the
glory of the lord
i could well have remained there alone
until
break of day i was as if without a body
and without
any bond to the earth but fearing that
my absence would disturb
those with me in the house i returned
and
laid down sleep had not
really taken possession of me i do not
know whether i was awake or asleep when
suddenly a strange man
rose up before me he was as pale as a
dead man
his eyes were as if open and he looked
at me in terror
his face was like a mask like a mummy's
his glistening dark yellow skin was
stretched tight
over his dead man's head with all its
cavities
he was as if painting in one hand he
held some kind of bizarre
object which i could not make out the
other hand was clutching his breast
as if he was suffering this creature
filled me with terror
i looked at him and he looked at me
without speaking
as if he were waiting for me to
recognize him strange as he was
and the voice said to me it is so
and so and i recognized him immediately
then he opened his mouth and side his
voice came from far away it came up as
from a deep
well he was in great agony and i
suffered for him his hands his feet his
eyes
everything showed that he was suffering
in my despair
i was going to help him but he gave me a
sign
with his hand to stop he began to groan
in such a way
that i froze then he said to me
i have not come i have been sent
i shake without stop i am dizzy
pray god to have pity on of me i want to
die but i cannot alas
every everything you told me before is
true
do you remember how several days before
my death you came to see me and spoke
about religion
there were two friends with me
unbelievers like myself
you spoke and they mocked when you left
they
said what a pity he is intelligent and
he believes the stupid things old women
believe
another time and other times too i told
you
therefore you save up money or else you
will die a pulper
look at my riches and i want more of
them
you told me then have you signed a pact
with death
that you can live as many years as you
want and enjoy a happy old age
and i replied you will see to what an
age i will live now i am 75
i will live past a hundred my children
are free from want
my son earns a lot of money and i have
married my daughter to a rich ethiopian
my wife and i have more money than we
need
i am not like you who listen to what the
priests say a christian ending to our
life and the rest
what have you to gain from a christian
ending better a full pocket
and no worries give arms why did you're
so merciful god create
paupers why should i feed them
and they ask you in order to go to
paradise to feed
idlers do you want to talk about
paradise
you know that i am the son of a priest
and that
i know well all these tricks
that those who have no brains believe
them
is well enough but you who have a mind
have gone astray
uh if you continue to live as you are
doing
you will die before me and you will be
responsible for those you have led
astray
as a physician i tell you and the firm
that i will live a hundred and ten years
after saying all this he turned this way
and that as if he were on a grill
i heard his groans are ouch
oh oh he was silent for a moment
and then continued this is what i
said and in a few days i was dead
i was dead and i lost the wager
what confusion was mine what horror
lost i descended into the abyss
what suffering i have head up to now
what agony
everything you told me was true you have
won
the wager when i was in the world where
you are
now i was an intellectual i was a
physician
i had learned how to speak and to be
listened to
to mock religion to discuss whatever
falls
under the senses and now i see that
everything i call stories myths paper
lanterns
is true the agony which i am
experiencing
now this is what is true this is the
worm
that never sleeps this is the gnashing
of
teeth after having spoken thus he
disappeared
i still heard his groans which gradually
faded away
sleep had begun to take possession of me
when i felt an icy hand touch me
i opened my eyes and saw him again
before me
this time he was more horrible and
smaller in body
he had become like a nursing infant with
a large
old man's head which he was shaking
in a short time the day will break and
those who have sent me will come to seek
me
who are they he spoke some confused
words which i could not make out then he
added
there where i am there are also many who
mock you
and your fate now they understand that
their spiritual
darts have not gone beyond the cemetery
there are both those you have done good
to
and those who have slandered you the
more you forgive them
the more they detest you man is evil
instead of rejoicing him kindness
kindness makes him bitter because it
makes him
feel his defeat the state of this
letter is worse than mine they cannot
leave their dark prison to come and
find you as i have done they are
severely tormented lashed by the whip of
god's love
as one of the saints has said saint
isaac the syrian
the world is something else entirely
from what we see
our intellect shows it to us in reverse
now we understand that our intellect was
only stupid our conversations were
spiteful
meanness our joys were lies and
delusions
you who bear god in your hearts whose
word
is truth the only truth you have won the
great
wager between believers and unbelievers
this wager i have lost i tremble i sigh
and i find no rest in truth
there is no repentance in hell woe to
those who walk as i did when i was on
earth our flesh was drunk and mocked
those who believed in god and eternal
life
almost everyone applauded us they
treated you as
mad as imbeciles and the more you accept
our mockeries
the more our rage increases
now i see how much the conduct of evil
men grieved you
how could you bear with such patience
the poisoned darts which
issued from our lips which treated you
as hypocrites
markers of god and deceivers of the
people
if these evil men who are still on earth
would see where i am
if only they were in my place they would
tremble for
everything they are doing i would like
to appear to them and tell them to
change their path
but i do not have the permission to do
so
just as the rich man did not have it
when he backed
abraham to send lazarus the popper
lazarus was not sent so that those who
sinned
might be worthy of punishment and those
who went on the ways of god
might be worthy of salvation he that
is unrighteous let him do
unrighteousness yet more
and he that is filthy let him be made
filthy yet more
and he that is righteous let him do
righteousness yet
more and he that is holy let him be made
holy yet
more apocalypse 22 11
with these words he disappeared
editor note earlier in the book
chapter 2 we have quoted the teaching of
blessed augustine that ordinarily it is
only the saints who are able to have
contact with the living
while ordinary sinners are bound in hell
and cannot come out however it does
happen as in the present case
that god allows a soul from hell to
appear to the living
for some special purpose some similar
appearances
are recorded in the book eternal
mysteries beyond the grave
as blessed augustine writes the dead of
themselves have no power to intervene in
the affairs of the living
care for the dead chapter 16 and appear
to the living
only by god's special allowance it
remains true
nevertheless that such appearances are
very rare
and the vast majority of the appearances
of the dead
most notably those that occur through
mediums
are the work of demons masquerading as
the dead
two a return from the dead in
contemporary greece
by archimandrite cyprian abbott of the
monastery of
saints cyprian and justina philly greece
here with i am sending you an account of
a person
i know who died and returned to life
which i think you will find
interesting as an example for your
series of articles
about four years ago we received a call
to take holy communion to an old lady
a widow living in a suburb of athens
she was an old calendarist and being
almost
bedridden was unable to get to church
though normally we do not undertake such
services outside the monastery
and would direct people to a parish
priest
nonetheless on this occasion i had a
special
feeling that i should go and having
prepared the holy gifts
i set out from the monastery i
found the old lady lying ill in a small
and poor
room having no means of her own
she was cared for by various kind
neighbors who brought her food and other
necessities
i set down the holy gifts and
asked her if there was anything she
wished to confess
she replied no there is nothing on my
conscience
from these past years which i have not
already confessed
but there is one grave scene from years
ago
which i would like to tell you even
though i have confessed it to many
priests i replied that if she had
already
confessed it she would not do so again
but she insisted and what she had to
tell
is as follows when she was young and
newly married some 35 years before she
became
pregnant at a time when her family was
in the greatest financial straits the
other members of the family pressed her
to have an abortion
but she refused absolutely eventually
however
due to the threat of her mother-in-law
she gave in against her will
and the operation was performed the
medical supervision of the illicit
operation was very primitive
with the result that she caught a
serious infection
and within the space of a few days died
without being able to confess her sin
at the moment of death which occurred in
the evening
she felt her soul part from the body
in the way that is usually described her
soul remained nearby
and watched the body being washed
clothed and placed in the coffin
in the morning she followed the
procession to the church
watched the funeral and saw the coffin
loaded into the hairs for transfer to
the cemetery
the soul was as though flying a small
height above the body
suddenly they appeared in the road to
deacons
as she described them in shining white
stickaria and
auraria one of them was reading a scroll
as the car approached he held up his
hand and the car
ground to a halt the driver got out to
see what was wrong with the motor
and in the meanwhile the angel started
to converse
the one holding the scroll which was
clearly the record of her scenes
looked up from his reading and said it
is sad
she has a very serious scene on her list
and is bound for hell since she did not
confess it
yes said the other but it is a pity that
she should be
punished as she did not want to do it
but was forced into it by her family
very well replied the first the only
thing to do
is to send her back to be able to
confess her
scene and repent of it with these words
she felt herself being drawn back into
her body
for which at that moment she felt an
indescribable disgust and repulsion
after a moment she came to and started
to knock on the inside of the coffin
which had been closed the scene that
followed
can be imagined after hearing her
history which i
have set forth in brief i gave her holy
communion
and departed giving glory to god who had
permitted me to hear it
being a matter of confession i cannot
tell you her name
but can inform you that she is still
alive
if you feel it would be edifying you
certainly have my permission to publish
it three the dead appear
in contemporary moscow by priest dmitry
dudkov
translated from his sunday talks on the
resurrection
saint joe brotherhood monreal 1977 pages
63
65 73 74 93
111 they say that
many are complaining now especially
women the dead are coming at night
a woman buried her husband yes she
suffered a lot
she wept she couldn't sleep at 12
midnight she heard someone putting a key
in the door
a scrapping of feet someone came to her
bed
valya it is i she jumped up in fear
yes before her was her dead husband
a conversation began the next night
she waited in great fear he came the
next night also
people told her you're dreaming educated
people
told her you're having hallucinations
because you are suffering
psychiatrists to her under observation
but what is this after all a person is
basically normal but here there is
something abnormal
hallucinations but what is a
hallucination
or is it simply some kind of apparition
here is a daughter her mother died long
ago
she isn't even thinking of her and
suddenly her mother comes at first alone
than with some kind of children a
previously happy daughter
now has become gloomy the daughter was
taken to a hospital and treated
but treated for what do we understand
what this is about
here is a woman who is very disturbed
and is thinking of
killing herself she is gloomy suddenly
someone comes in and goes up to her
vera what are you thinking of a
conversation begins a good
heartfelt conversation the woman calms
down
the woman who came goes away after she
leaves
the woman comes to herself and thinks
how did she come
isn't it late she looks at the clock it
is 2 am
she goes to the door it is locked the
next day she checks
did that woman really come to her she
had not visited those
people for a long time five years
the answer the woman who had come in the
night has been dead for a long time
that means she came from the other world
this woman feels good the first two
incidents are alarming causing fear the
last incident has a calming effect
unbelievers will say about both types of
incidents
a hallucination a disordered imagination
when people don't know what to say they
say oh hallucination
imagination but does this explain
anything let us give another example
a pilot crashes and his wife has a dream
give me two rubles the wife pays no
attention she has the same dream over
and over
she begins to be alarmed she asks why is
this happening
some say pay no attention but this
doesn't calm her
previously she had never gone to church
or thought about god
but now she turns to church people they
advise her to have a panicky dust served
she doesn't know how to do it they
explained to her she
orders a panikida and asks how much does
it cost
to rubas and so here is the meaning of
the dream
give me two rubbers after the panikida
the dreams stopped in our time the
boundaries of this
world and of and the other world begin
to become to become confused footnote
compared the statement of saint gregory
the dialogue
over 1 300 years ago
see before pages 164 165
as the present world approaches its end
the world of eternity
looms nearer the end of the world merges
with the beginning of eternal life
the spiritual world is moving closer to
us manifesting itself through visions
and revelations
the end of this world's existence began
with the coming of christ
and sensitive souls are always seeing
how the other world is breaking into
this
world ahead of time and giving hands of
its existence
what i have related here is no invention
of mine
and not something recited from books
it is what has occurred in our own life
and
not so long ago we have ceased thinking
about the resurrection of the dead
and therefore the dead give us no repose
what is death is there life there
as long as everything seems all right
with us we do not think about these
questions but there are cases when
suddenly the boundaries of this world
are torn away and the man sees something
that
later overturns his whole consciousness
perhaps some of you have read in a pre
revolutionary book how a certain person
by the name of
yuk school suddenly found himself in the
other world
he later described all this himself
many excerpts from this book
unbelievable for many but
actually a true occurrence are given
above
and before this he had even been on
atheism he did not accept
life after death and laughter those who
did accept it
he saw his own body which he had left
and the people
gathered around it it seemed strange to
him why they had gathered there
after all he was not there but here
he wanted to tell them about this but
his
voice was lost in emptiness they didn't
hear him
he wanted to touch them with his hand
but his hand went
right through them without touching them
just imagine
what it would be like to be in such a
situation
we will not say what he saw but after
this
vision when returned again to his body
he abandoned all pleasures and dedicated
himself to god
such things happen in order to bring us
to our senses
today this isn't happening to us but it
will be
such people return to life in order to
finish
life righteously but will we return
god knows we will not
read of the terrors yuxical experienced
in trying to draw attention to himself
the world beyond the grave almost
touches ours it seems just a fraction of
a millimeter away
but we don't entirely come together and
this isn't the only such incident
i myself have heard of a man who is
still alive today
we experienced clinical death people
thought he was dead
but after his clinical death he told
them everything they had said
and how they moved in all details man is
not only this body
matter dust man is composed of body and
soul
and the soul does not die like the body
it sees and knows everything is there
life after death
or not in the end all this is taken on
faith
that there is life there we accept on
faith
that there is no life there we also
accept on faith
but in order to say for sure as the boy
mentioned above says one must go
there and as long as we have not gone
some have faith from which they rejoice
and do good deeds
while others just like the demons
believe and
tremble unbelievers all tremble before
the face of
death and no matter how many medicines
there might
be no matter how long one might prolong
earthly life you still will not escape
death one can escape death only through
faith in our lord jesus christ