Thursday, June 13, 2024

Anastasia/vision of her dead brother



In the life of an ascetic who passed away in the 20th century, a similar case is mentioned. This is about Saint Athanasia (Anastasia Logatcheva), a spiritual daughter of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. As we read in her biography:


"Anastasia had a brother named Paul. Paul once got drunk and hanged himself. Anastasia decided to pray fervently for her brother. After his death, she went to the Diveyevo Monastery of Saint Seraphim to find out what exactly she needed to do to improve her brother’s condition, as he had ended his life in an impious and dishonorable way...


She wanted to meet Pelagia Ivanovna and ask for her advice... Anastasia visited Pelagia. She told her to lock herself in her cell for forty days, to pray and fast for her brother, and to say one hundred and fifty times a day: 'Most Holy Theotokos, repose your servant.'


When the forty days were completed, Anastasia had a vision. She found herself in front of an abyss. At the bottom was a rock of blood. On the rock lay two men with iron chains around their necks. One of them was her brother.


Anastasia recounted the vision to Pelagia, who told her to continue fasting and praying.


Another forty days of fasting and prayer passed, and Anastasia saw the same vision. The same abyss and the rock on which the two men with chains around their necks lay. But this time, her brother was standing. He was walking on the rock, falling and getting up again. The chains were still around his neck.


Pelagia Ivanovna, to whom Anastasia turned again, told her to repeat the same exercise for a third time.


When the third forty-day period of fasting and prayer ended, Anastasia saw the same vision again. The same abyss, the same rock. But now there was only one man on the rock, unknown to her. Her brother had been freed from his bonds. He was nowhere to be seen. The unknown man was heard saying: 'You are fortunate. You have very strong intercessors on earth.'


Anastasia reported her third vision to Pelagia Ivanovna, who replied:

'Your brother has been freed from his torments. However, he has not entered the blessedness of Paradise.'


Many similar incidents are mentioned in the lives of Orthodox Saints and ascetics. If someone tends to interpret such visions literally, it should be noted that the images in which such visions usually appear, often in dreams, do not necessarily 'photograph' the way the soul exists after death. 


They are more about images that convey the spiritual truth of the improvement of the soul’s condition in the other world thanks to the prayers of those who remain in this world."



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