_On the decease of one of the right-believers, his kinsfolk straightway
send for the priest, who cometh to the house in which the remains of
him that hath fallen asleep lie, and putting on the epitrachelion, and
putting incense into the censer, censeth the body of the dead, and them
that stand by, and beginneth as customarily,_
Blessed be our God....
_And the bystanders begin,_
Holy God.... O most holy Trinity.... Our Father.... For thine is the
kingdom....
_And straightway they sing these troparia. Tone iv._
With the spirits of the righteous dead, O Saviour, rest thy servant’s
soul, keeping it in that blessed life which is with thee, thou lover of
mankind.
In thy resting-place, O Lord, where all thy Saints repose, O rest thy
servant’s soul; for thou alone art lover of mankind.
_Glory._
Thou art the God that wentest down to hades, and didst burst the
captives’ bonds: rest also thou thyself thy servant’s soul.
_Both now._
O only pure and spotless Virgin, who without seed didst bring forth God,
pray that his soul be sav’d.
_The deacon saith,_
Have mercy upon us, O God, according to thy great mercy, we pray thee,
hear, and have mercy.
Lord, have mercy, _thrice_.
Furthermore let us pray for the repose of the soul of the servant of God,
_name_, who hath fallen asleep, and that to him may be remitted every
transgression, voluntary and involuntary.
Lord, have mercy, _thrice_.
The mercy of God, the kingdom of heaven, and the forgiveness of his sins,
we ask of thee, O Christ, our immortal King and God.
Vouchsafe, O Lord.
_Deacon._ Let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
_The priest saith this prayer,_
O God of spirits and of every flesh, who didst tread down death, and
overcome the devil, and bestow life upon thy world; do thou thyself, O
Lord, rest the soul of thy servant, _name_, who hath fallen asleep, in
a place of light, in a place of refreshment, in a place of rest, whence
pain, and grief, and sighing are driven away; and every iniquity wrought
by him, in word, or deed, or in intention, as the good man-loving God,
do thou remit; for there is no man that shall live and shall not sin;
for thou alone art without sin, thy righteousness is an everlasting
righteousness, and thy word the truth.
_Exclamation._
For thou art the resurrection and the life, and the repose of thy
servant, _name_, who hath fallen asleep, O Christ our God, and to thee we
ascribe glory, with thine unbeginning Father, and with thy most holy, and
good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
_Deacon._ Wisdom.
_Choir._ The more honourable than the Cherubim.... _And the rest._
_And straightway the dismissal is made by the priest on this wise,_
He that hath dominion over quick and dead, Christ our true God, through
the prayers of his most pure Mother, of our venerable and god-bearing
fathers, and of all his Saints, place the soul of his servant, _name_,
departed from us, in holy tabernacles, and number it with the just, and
have mercy upon us, as being good and the lover of mankind.
_And then if all things be ready for the departure, the priest again
maketh the beginning,_
Blessed be our God....
_And we begin to sing_, Holy God.... _with fear, and with every
compunction_.
_And taking up the remains of him that hath fallen asleep, we go forth to
the temple; preceded by the priests with tapers, and the deacon with the
censer._
_And when they come unto the temple, then the remains are placed in the
porch, (or in the temple, as is here in great Russia the custom.)_
_And they begin,_