The attitude of the church towards the cremation of Orthodox people: is this allowed?

What happens in the crematorium

The process of burning the remains of a deceased person is called cremation, a word derived from the Latin cremare, which means “to burn.” Today, the process takes place not on funeral pyres, as in the old days, but in professional automated ovens, into which streams of gas heated to 1000 degrees Celsius are supplied. In one and a half to two hours, the flame destroys the body of the deceased down to small fragments of bones. They are poured into a cremator - a device that grinds bone remains into a powder. After this, the ashes are packed into a capsule and given to the relatives of the deceased.

Procedure for cremating a human body

The process of cremation of a person occurs according to the preliminary will of the deceased. It takes about one and a half hours. In the Russian Federation, the share of cremated burials is small and amounts to approximately 10%! (MISSING)But in large cities, mainly Moscow and St. Petersburg, this method of burial prevails over the traditional one. His share is 70%! (MISSING) Of course, before deciding to burn a body, you need to think about all the intricacies of cremation; you must weigh the pros and cons.

This procedure is carried out in specially designated places, crematoria. There are furnaces here, the temperature of which varies from 900 to 1100 °C. After the procedure is completed, the ashes are only 2-2.5 kg. First, it is placed in an iron capsule, which is subsequently sealed. You can also store ashes in an urn. The relatives of the deceased buy it themselves. Urns can come in a variety of designs and shapes. Crematorium staff move the ashes from the capsule to the urn.

Only relatives can collect the ashes. The shelf life of the urn in the crematorium is 1 year. Sometimes more. If the ashes remain unclaimed, after the expiration of the storage period, burial occurs in a common grave. Every crematorium has such burials.

Why do people choose cremation?

In the modern world, this way of disposing of a dead body is practical and hygienically justified. In large cities, it saves space and prevents the possible entry of decomposition bacteria into the groundwater system. There are a number of objective reasons why cremation remains the only possible way to bury a person:

• the laws of the state where the person died do not allow burial in the ground;
• transportation of the deceased to the burial place is associated with great difficulties or is impossible;
• will of the dying person, testament;
• burial in a cemetery with the purchase of a plot and digging of a grave is more expensive than the relatives of the deceased can afford;
• the intention to have a single family burial, where after death urns with the ashes of all relatives will be placed.

It is psychologically difficult for some people to come to terms with the fact that the body will smolder and decompose in the ground for a long time. Cremation seems cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing.

Reasons for the spread of cremation on Russian soil

The first crematorium in Russia appeared before the Revolution. The authorities of Vladivostok burned the bodies of the Japanese killed during the war, as well as those of them who lived in the city on a permanent basis. In modern Russian society, the tradition of burning a body after death is quite widespread, especially in large cities. There are several reasons for this:

• lack of space (urbanization has its negative sides, they affect not only the living, but also the dead; there is simply not enough space in cemeteries to bury everyone properly);
• relatives cannot care for the grave, live far away, or even in another country (you have to choose between cremation or burial);
• funerals are expensive (in fact, a grave site is provided free of charge, but this is not always the case, a coffin and other burial attributes cost a lot, cremation is cheaper);
• people forget traditions (more and more modern city residents do not observe Orthodox traditions, do not know them).

In Russia, the issue of burying a body in the ground is less acute than in overpopulated European countries. In France and the USA, Christianity (in the form of Catholicism and Protestantism) has a positive attitude towards the cremation procedure. Cremating a body is 5-10 times cheaper than burying it.

Funeral hall

Cultural paradigm

Corpse burning was common in the territory of pagan Rus', which did not yet know the Law of God. The chronicler Nestor tells how the dead were burned on funeral logs. The soul, together with the smoke, ascends to heaven - this is how the ancient Russian custom is explained. The unburnt bones were placed in a vessel and placed on poles along the roads.

In the Eastern tradition, cremation is practiced because they consider the flesh to be a prison for the soul; freeing it quickly is a blessing, but allowing it to rot is a sin.

Orthodoxy claims that man is created from the same matter as the earth, and therefore he must be buried there.

Fire burial

The tradition of burning corpses arose more than 9 thousand years ago. Previously, only representatives of privileged segments of the population were awarded such a ritual. The custom was especially widespread in Greece - it was believed that in this way the dead received cleansing of the soul. Many great emperors and heroes were buried in the fire: Gaius Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, Achilles, Hector, Patroclus.

The cremation of the body took place very solemnly, even magnificently. The deceased's weapons , belongings, and sacrificial animals also put on fire The ashes left after the ritual were stored in special vessels. They were made from different materials and varied in shape and size. Containers with remains could be buried in the ground, buried in family crypts, caves, or simply scattered ashes in the air.

This popularity of this burial method can be explained by a number of reasons:

burial grounds were subject to attacks by wild animals; there were no effective tools to dig deep graves; a large number of forests, which provided abundant materials for fires; climate features.

As time passed, additional factors appeared. Quite often, cremation was simply necessary as an opportunity to avoid an epidemic. History knows many examples of people resorting to fire after large-scale military operations, natural disasters, and during epidemics. With the advent of Christianity, the burning of human bodies began to be considered a manifestation of paganism.

We are sure that you will be interested in the article about the legend of the petrified Zoe.

Respect or violence?

In Christian canons, the human body is perceived as a divine vessel in which the soul rests during the days of earthly life. Heavenly revelation comes to man through the body. The Apostle Paul in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (chapter 3, v. 16) likens the bodily shell to the temple in which God lives. The attitude of a Christian towards the seat of the soul and Spirit should be reverent. When burying the deceased, his relatives express due respect. Priests regard the burning and crushing of remains in the crematorium as disrespect and even violence.

Cremated or buried?

The deceased or his relatives must choose to be buried in the ground or cremated, if the last will has not been voiced. An Orthodox person predominantly chooses the first option. It allows everyone to accompany a person on his final journey, observing ancient customs and traditions (funeral procession, laying wreaths on the grave, tying the coffin bearers in a special way, wakes, visits to the cemetery on Memorial Day).

If the burial is contrary to the laws of the country or is impossible due to the lack of funds for the funeral, then the already difficult situation should not be aggravated. Cremation in the Orthodox religion is not considered a reason for excommunication from the Church. It is impossible to speak badly and condemn a person who cremated a relative.

It can be tolerated and become the only way out that the Church will not condemn. The deceased does not care, the soul loses contact with the body. After the Last Judgment, God will resurrect all the worthy, including those whose bodies were burned. Many prominent representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church insist on this. But there is still no single correct solution. The church does not agree to allow cremation, but it cannot not allow it.

Columbarium

For the last battle

Attention to Russian traditions in dealing with the dead is also the reason why cremation is not approved in Orthodoxy. A person must be buried in the guise that the Almighty created. In a traditional funeral, the coffin is placed in the grave with the deceased's feet facing east, with their face facing that way. This is a symbol of the fact that the deceased goes from sunset to eternity and awaits the second coming of the Lord. Having risen at the resurrection of the dead, a man with a cross that is located on his grave goes to the camp of Christ for the last battle with evil.

Soul after cremation: eternal hell or a method of purification

Cremation does not affect the state of the soul. If a person led a righteous lifestyle, did not sin or repented of sins, he has the same opportunity to go to Paradise as a deceased person who found his last refuge in the earth.

The soul leaves the earth and parts with the body completely on the 3rd day after death. The deceased no longer cares what happens to his physical shell. The Kingdom of Heaven awaits him; the living must deal with earthly affairs. Corpse laying is an ancient tradition, observance of which gives confidence that nothing ends to the relatives of the deceased, but not to himself. The cremation procedure and the Orthodox Church are engaged in an endless dispute.

Fire will not cleanse a sinful soul; when planning to perform cremation for this very purpose, it should be understood that Christians do not perceive flame as a way of liberation from sin. If the deceased was a great sinner, then the only way to earn forgiveness is to repent at the time of confession. If a person died without repentance and relatives fear for the fate of his immortal soul, then they should pray tirelessly, go to church, and light candles for the repose.

Will Father come to the crematorium?

The priest will serve the funeral service, because the main condition for the funeral of an Orthodox person is a prayer for the deceased for the forgiveness of sins and the granting of the heavenly kingdom. However, the clergy will definitely remind relatives of how the Orthodox Church views the cremation of the dead. It is prohibited to bring an urn containing ashes into the temple. If for some reason it was not possible to perform a funeral service for the deceased before cremation, an absentee funeral service in the church is ordered.

The essence of the document “On the Christian burial of the dead”

The burial of the body of a deceased person, as it has been accepted since the early times of the existence of the Church, is one of the most important aspects of its existence. Based on this, the Synod, through the memorandum “On the Christian burial of the dead,” proclaims the following:

• the body of a Christian is the temple of God, hence the special attitude towards it;
• The custom of burying a Christian in the ground is associated with the belief in the resurrection of the dead in their bodily (physical) shell; it is already more than one thousand years old:
• God has the power to bring all people back to life, regardless of whether the body has been preserved or not (the church does not see anything wrong with cremation, but calls on believers to observe centuries-old traditions);
• cremation is not considered a desirable procedure, it is not approved, but is acceptable in a number of cases (another method of burial is prohibited by the law of the country where the deceased lived, the body cannot be transported to their homeland);
• clergy are obliged to tell the relatives of the deceased about the negative attitude of the Orthodox religion to the burning of the body;
• ashes after cremation should be buried in the ground;
• The Church does not leave a single Christian without prayers, therefore, priests pray for people whose bodies were cremated in the same way as for those whose bodies were not discovered due to a flood, earthquake, or other disaster.

If the funeral service cannot be performed over the body of the deceased, it can be held in absentia. Cases of this are discussed in the memorandum. The Church calls on the relatives of the deceased to take part in joint prayer in the temple if the body was burned; sometimes such joint prayer is the first experience of communication with God for a person.

Despite the negative attitude of the Church towards cremation, the Church recognizes this rite as necessary in a number of cases. If the deceased was cremated, there is no need to be upset about the impossibility of performing a ceremony over his body or reading funeral prayers. A Christian who honors Orthodox traditions can be recited; all prayers appropriate to the occasion can be read.

Unyielding

The position of the Russian Church Abroad is more categorical. The problem of whether it is possible to cremate an Orthodox Christian is solved by an unequivocal ban. The ROCOR Council of Bishops declared the burning of bodies a non-Christian act and called on the clergy not to serve a memorial service for the dead whose flesh was going to be cremated. If the deceased bequeathed to be burned, the relatives are released from the obligation with a special prayer.

The uncompromising attitude of the ROCOR is consistent with the choice of the Greek Orthodox organization, which stated that the bodies of God’s children cannot be cremated and that it will not perform a funeral service for those who bequeathed an ungodly ritual.

On the attitude of Orthodoxy to cremation and the possibility of the resurrection of bodies

— Father, often in the hustle and bustle, 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 familiar with this problem...

- Yes, sure. Often modern people who lose their loved ones are faced with the question of how to bury these dear people. Before the revolution there was no such problem. 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 (pogosts). And the city residents had enough resting place. It never occurred to anyone to start a business selling land for their final refuge. Even the poorest found their final rest under the cross in the land of their ancestors. But times have changed. Urbanization, seventy years of godless power, cynicism and separation from traditions led to the fact that the old Orthodox traditions of burial in the ground were greatly supplanted by new ones, incomprehensible to Russians, running counter to our culture and rituals.

— When did this destruction of traditions begin?

— For many hundreds of years, the dead in Rus' were buried only in the ground. And the first crematorium in Russia appeared under the Bolsheviks in 1920. People brought up in Russian culture considered it savage to burn people in ovens. Many Russians perceived with surprise and fear the construction of the mausoleum on Red Square, which also diverged from our traditions. The construction of a cemetery right next to the Kremlin wall, as well as the organization of a columbarium in the wall itself, in which urns with ashes were built right into the wall, was another absurd and wild innovation of the Soviet government. People who did not have Russian culture, connections with the people, or sufficient understanding of the essence of traditions staged this bacchanalia and violence against common sense. But the human essence is that people get used to everything. Over the course of 70 years of Soviet power, we got used to this. Columbariums and crematoria have been part of our lives for generations.

“But, despite the fact that Soviet times ended ingloriously, this alien tradition still remains!” And to this day the crematoria are operating at full capacity, burning the bodies of Orthodox Christians... How to explain this? Why didn’t this alien tradition go away along with the Soviet legacy?

“Unfortunately, even now, when churches are being revived, Christians continue to be burned in the fiery furnace. And this happens largely because there is still no real Orthodox faith, loyalty to traditions, understanding of Orthodox teaching, or the necessary knowledge. But that's not all. Another big reason is that business came to cemeteries, land for burials became expensive, and it became scarce. In addition, there are many poor people who simply cannot afford to buy this land in a convenient location. And in some cases, not only the poor are deprived of the opportunity to be buried in a Christian manner, but even quite wealthy people. To bury a person in the ground, in many cases nowadays you just need to be a rich man. Often in Moscow, these pieces of land for a final refuge cost thousands of dollars. And this is in our vast country, rich in land like no other!

- Father, in general, what will change if a person is burned? After all, any protein compound decomposes, including the body of any of us. What difference does it make how it is laid out?

— The difference is fundamental in this case. Of course, Orthodox Christians also died in fires, for example. Orthodox Christians drowned, and then their burial place became a lake, ocean or sea. That is, at all times, in some cases, it turned out that an Orthodox Christian cannot be buried in the ground. And, of course, the body decomposed in different ways in all cases (but in some, rare cases, the body does not decompose - when the Lord leaves incorrupt the remains of holy saints, which are called holy relics as sources of God's grace).

But in this case, what is important is not how the body ends its life, but what is important is WHAT ATTITUDE we have towards this body. And if Buddhism, Hinduism and other eastern religions, from where the tradition of burning bodies came, treat the body as a prison of the soul, which must be quickly burned after the soul leaves and thrown away like an old unnecessary rag, then for Christians the human body is the temple of the soul, which will in due time be restored at the resurrection. This is a completely different attitude towards the body, although on the surface it seems that the method of burial is not important - everything will turn to dust anyway.

— That is, a person may not be resurrected if his body was cremated?

— A complete and wonderful answer to this question can be found in the words of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'. The Patriarch said:

“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 with soul, but also with body. If we allow cremation, then we symbolically renounce this faith. Of course, we are talking here only about symbols, for a human body buried in the ground also turns into dust, but God, by His power, will restore everyone’s body from dust and corruption.”

— So, in any case, God can recreate the body during the resurrection?

- Of course, everything is possible with the Lord. He created the whole world out of nothing. He will also be able to resurrect a person, recreate his body from the smallest atoms. With the Lord nothing is impossible. And of course, you don’t have to worry that the Lord might not work out something because of cremation. This is absurd. If it is His will to resurrect, then the resurrection will certainly take place. Only here the point is not that there may be difficulties with the resurrection (this is completely impossible to assume), but that we sadden the Lord with our attitude towards the body that He gave us.

Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev wrote about this: “The Lord is free to resurrect any body, and from any element He is able to bring it back to life. Another thing is that burial in the ground is more humane, more rich in biblical symbolism and generally more edifying and comforting for loved ones. The Church recommends avoiding cremation of bodies not because of the fear that cremation will affect the fate of the deceased, but because it leaves scars in the souls of those who accompany the person to his last earthly abode..."

Of course, this applies to cases where these burning actions are dictated by distorted desires, contemptuous attitudes towards traditions and faith. In those cases where relatives did not have the opportunity to bury them in a Christian manner, due to various circumstances, I think we will not upset God. He sees our problems, tossing and desires.

— Father, what, from your point of view, can be considered such circumstances?

- These are different circumstances... As I already said - lack of money to buy a place in the cemetery. This often happens nowadays due to poverty. There is either no money to buy a grave, or you can only buy land in a cemetery where you can’t get to it. But if, as if out of poverty, they are cremated, and then a huge and expensive monument is erected at the burial site, instead of which even several graves could be bought. We’re not talking about poverty here, that’s deceit.

There are also often cases when, according to sanitary rules, it is impossible to bury a body in the grave of a close deceased person (daughter to mother, grandmother to grandfather, etc.). To bury a body in the same grave, according to sanitary rules, a lot of time must pass. But you can bury the urn. And many cremate their relatives, so that people dear to each other during life lie together in the grave. Also, as if with each other. But here it is important to understand that the dead do not live in the cemetery. Only bodies (or ashes) lie in the cemetery, and souls are in other abodes. Therefore, whether close people are buried together or in different cemeteries is of no fundamental importance for their souls. If people loved each other during their lifetime, went to God, lived according to their conscience, then they will be together in any case, even if they are buried in different countries. But if one of the spouses led a pious life, and the second, for example, was a fighter against God, then even though their bodies can be buried nearby, their souls will still be far from each other.

So cremation and sub-burial in a relative grave can be humanly understood, but it is still better to take these points into account when choosing a burial method.

— What if you need to be cremated and buried in the same grave just for convenience? It often happens that it is simply convenient to bury in one grave. It’s easier to come, clean up, and ask to serve a memorial service. All in one place…

- And this is understandable. Indeed, how can an elderly woman living in Moscow go to one cemetery near Moscow to her mother’s grave, to another to her husband’s grave, and to a third to her uncle’s grave? Of course, it’s hard for her and costs money. And if you don’t have the strength to travel to all the cemeteries that are far from each other, then you can understand these people in such cases. But still we should try to find any opportunity for a Christian burial

— It happens that a deceased person himself made a will or spoke about his desire for his body to be cremated after death. What should we do in this case for relatives who want to send a person off in a Christian way, but understand that the will of the deceased is sacred. They are faced with a difficult choice. What is the best thing for them to do in this case?

- If the deceased himself wanted cremation , and was not guided by the desire to help his relatives avoid financial or other difficulties associated with burial, but was guided by the desire to simply disappear so that nothing remained of him, this is scary. But if a person who chose someone else’s tradition did not proceed from some conditions that forced him to make this decision, but deliberately made a choice contrary to Christian traditions, this is completely bad. That's just terrible.

“And if such a person left the desire to be cremated, he bequeathed to bury him that way.” What to do in this case?

— Of course, it is not good to violate your dying will, but in this case it is better to violate it. By violating such a daring will, we save the soul of the deceased from sin. And the Lord will credit us with the truth for such a violation.

— What do you think about the desire of the deceased to scatter (scatter) the ashes over the forest, sea, dacha, work, etc.?

“We should treat this as a wildness alien to us Orthodox.” I believe that there is nothing bad in this for a Hindu, this is his tradition, his understanding. But we are not Hindus! And for us there is no word other than “savagery”.

— Is it possible to perform a funeral service for a person who will be cremated, or to perform a funeral service in absentia for someone whose body has already been cremated?

- Of course, it’s possible. There is a certain near-Orthodox superstition that supposedly one cannot perform funeral services for those who have been cremated. This is another absurdity that was invented and spread by people who do not understand the essence of Orthodox teaching. The Church does not deprive the souls of the deceased of their funeral prayers because of this or that method of burial! It is obvious! A funeral service is a prayer for the soul, and the funeral service only relates to the soul of a deceased person. The method of burial in this case has practically no significance.

But when there is the opportunity and means to bury a person properly in the ground, and relatives, for their own convenience, choose cremation, then the sin is not on the deceased, the sin is on the relatives.

— Questions of a different kind often arise related to cremation. What to do with an icon in the hands of a deceased person who is being cremated? What to do with the blessed land? What to do with the whisk and prayer of permission in the hand of the deceased before cremation?

— If the deceased was buried before cremation, then before the cremation itself the icon must be removed from the coffin. The chaplet and the prayer of permission are burned along with the body. The earth must be scattered over the coffin before cremation (if this was not done in the temple).

If the funeral service was performed in absentia, after cremation, then while burying the urn in the grave, it is necessary to scatter the consecrated burial soil in a cross shape directly over it. In this case, you need to read the Trisagion. If the urn is placed in a columbarium, then the earth must be scattered over any grave where a Christian is buried (but do not place the blessed earth in the columbarium!)

- Well, what if it already happened that they were cremated? Either there was no other choice, or they themselves did not believe in an afterlife before, or they did not know that this was not possible. And now loved ones are tormented by the question of how this can affect the afterlife of the soul of a dear person. This fear for the soul of a loved one is very strong. How can cremation affect the state of mind of a loved one? How terrible a sin is this?

“I will quote the words of the ancient Christian writer Minucius Felix, who said: “We are not afraid of any damage in any method of burial, but we adhere to the old and better custom of interring the body.” That is, if it happens that a person’s body is cremated, then there is no need to make a great tragedy out of it, which leads to the fact that we not only mourn our loved one, but also mourn the method of burial in which we buried him.

Each human action contains a certain symbol. Key moments such as birth, baptism, funeral service, death and burial are no exception. What is cremation? This is a process during which a person’s body is sent into the fire, into the fiery furnace, a direct image in the Gospel - “they will be thrown into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” But this, of course, does not mean that he will go to hell. Just as it does not mean that a person buried in a Christian manner will go to Heaven. It would be too easy. We would not have to do anything, strive to correct life, but would only need to create conditions for proper burial. But we, of course, understand that the Lord will judge the soul of the deceased not by the method of burial, but by his deeds during life. It’s just that this act, cremation, sometimes reveals that the words of the Gospel are not dear to us (this only applies to those cases when a person consciously goes to cremate a loved one, and not under the influence of circumstances)

But even if we did this, now we cannot return anything. And we won’t change anything in the past with tears or nerves. We will not be able to recreate a body from cremated ashes in order to bury it in a Christian manner. And we should not punish ourselves for burying a person dear to us in this way. But we must repent, ask the Lord God for forgiveness for our wrong actions. And it’s also good to ask the deceased for forgiveness: “Mother, I’m sorry that this happened.” And through this forgiveness one humbles oneself, and through humility one approaches God, including in prayer for the departed. That is, to put it simply, there is no need to tear your hair out over what has already been done. But it is very necessary to correct a past mistake with your own repentance and humility. After all, what is most important to God is our spiritual state, our help to our neighbors and prayer for the deceased. And when we repent in confession for this, the Lord will forgive us. And there will be no need to shed tears because of our mistake. And we must understand that if we follow the path of prayer, repentance and humility for a committed sin, then even our sinful actions, according to God’s Providence, turn into good.

- How serious is this sin? Did the person who resorted to cremation of a loved one violate the doctrine and statutes of the Church? Can he consider himself a member of the Church after this?

- Of course, he can think so, no one excommunicates him from the Church for this. The Church does not categorically prohibit cremation. The Church has strong opinions, but they are lenient. And this has even less to do with the doctrine itself. Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Alexey Ilyich Osipov says this about it:

“From the point of view of Orthodox doctrine, it does not matter whether a person was buried or cremated. The traditional method of burial is significant only in terms of pious tradition, since it is associated with certain church actions and a deeper perception of the human body. An urn is one thing, and another thing is the deceased, whom we lower into the ground, into this river of earthly oblivion. We seem to preserve this person without distorting his body. There are certain points here that are undoubtedly more correct compared to cremation, but they do not concern the essence of faith.”

©

Opinions of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church

A sign of trust in God

Patriarch Kirill believes that burning the dead is not accepted in Christianity, because this act symbolically expresses disbelief that our bodies will be resurrected and transformed in the image of the Savior. Convinced Christians not only should not agree to cremation themselves, but they are obliged to dissuade others from doing so.

The dead don't bother us

Archpriest Vladimir Golovin sees in cremation the desire to get rid of the corpse quickly and without problems. It reminds us that traditionally the deceased was placed in a red corner and they took turns praying for him; this was caring and expressed love. This is what true Christian conversion should be.

Whose will is more important

Priest Igor Silchenkov claims that the fashion for burning bodies is a fight against God, an attempt to put one’s own will above the divine. The task of every confessor is to exhort parishioners not to make such a mistake.

The flesh doesn't want to burn

Archpriest Andrei Tkachev is convinced that cremating a deceased person is committing an outrage. In an interview during a meeting with readers, the altar server recalled an experiment by St. Petersburg researchers who attached sensors to the skull of a corpse sent to the furnace and discovered that the body was sending a signal of fear in front of the firebox doors. “Vegetatively, the cells of the deceased continue to live, which is why his nails and hair grow. The body does not want to burn, because it was not created for this, because it was taken from the earth, and you will return to the earth,” concluded Andrei Tkachev.

God will not punish

Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov believes that the method of burial does not affect the afterlife. Each of us will be responsible for how we lived and what we believed. Time makes adjustments to the heritage of centuries; trust in the Savior, love and mercy remain enduring in Christianity.

History of the cremation ritual

For the first time, the idea of ​​cremation, as one of the ways to bury a body and get rid of it after death, arose among people who lived in the Middle Paleolithic (300-30 thousand years before our modern world). Cases of burning were initially, obviously, rare, but already in the Iron Age (1200 BC - 340 AD) people were cremated almost everywhere. This ritual even prevails over the disposition of a corpse:

• Cremation was practiced by the inhabitants of ancient India (Buddha's body was burned, the ashes were placed in stupas and sent to different parts of the country).
• The bodies of the dead were burned by the inhabitants of Ancient Greece (they believed that fire would allow a person to be cleansed and live on in the afterlife).
• The Romans adopted the tradition of lighting a funeral pyre from the Hellenes (they kept the ashes in a columbarium).
• Cremation is mentioned in the Old Testament, but it was practiced by pagans.

Nowadays, cremation is as common as before. But if the Greeks and Romans most often burned bodies at the stake, now the dead are placed in a special oven and taken to a crematorium (with the exception of residents of India).

In Western Europe, cremation was practiced until the spread of Christianity. In 785, Charlemagne banned the ritual of burning bodies as contrary to Christian moral standards. People who violated the ban faced the death penalty, so cremation again gave way to disposition of corpses, which was widely practiced until the mid-18th century.

In 1869, medical luminaries from around the world gathered in Florence to pass a resolution calling for the resumption of the practice of cremation. This was necessary to do to preserve people's health. Decaying bodies are sources of infection. The high mortality rate led to an increase in the number of cemeteries. They were located in close proximity to residential buildings. A few years later, the first cremation oven was invented, the British created the Cremator Association, and the first crematoria were built in England and Germany, including those for burning animals.

But Christians, and above all Orthodox Christians, have a largely negative and wary attitude towards the existence of furnaces for burning bodies and this process itself. The Orthodox religion opposes the cremation of baptized people.

Violent death

Those killed in a shootout, from stab wounds, poison, or as a result of being hit by a car cannot be cremated. Their bodies act as important evidence in a criminal case, and therefore their safety must be maintained until the end of the investigative actions. Burying with a coffin is not prohibited, but only after an autopsy, taking the necessary tests, and conducting a forensic medical examination. The ban on burning is quite justified: if it is necessary to further clarify the circumstances of the death, the remains can be exhumed at any time.

The list of documents for the burning ceremony includes a mandatory certificate from law enforcement agencies. If the police have any suspicions that the death was unnatural or a version of suicide is put forward, then the corpse is sent to the emergency medical department for an autopsy and clarification of the causes of death. Only after establishing the details and excluding violent acts against the deceased will a cremation permit be issued.