The Ordeal of Blessed Theodora
The Ordeal of Blessed Theodora
Hello, our dear visitors!
What is ordeal? And who are publicans? When does a deceased person begin to go through ordeals, and how many ordeals will each person need to go through after his death? Let's try to familiarize ourselves with these terms and try to understand what awaits us after death?
A publican is a collector of taxes. Consequently, the tollhouse is a place for collecting taxes. In the case of posthumous ordeals, the role of publicans is played by demons who lay claim to the ownership of a particular human soul and in every possible way prevent its passage to Paradise.
The ordeal of Blessed Theodora, described in the life of the tenth century saint, St. Basil the New (his celebration takes place on March 26, according to the new style - April 8), constitute a description of the posthumous state of the human soul.
At each ordeal, and there are 20 ordeals in total, demons tempt the deceased person, frighten him in every possible way, showing him a list of unrepentant sins at confession; they are trying to take possession of his soul, on the grounds that this person, during his earthly life, was subject to certain sins.
We bring to your attention a brief retelling of the Ordeals of Blessed Theodora, explaining to us what kind of ordeals exist, and for what unrepentant sins of ours a person can remain in them forever. Careful familiarization with the ordeals will be useful for us, for more thorough preparation for confession, for testing our conscience, and for us to gain a repentant mood.
This is what blessed Theodora told about when she appeared after death to her disciple, St. Vasily the New Rev. Gregory (Ch.M. March 26):
“When the hour of separation from the body came for me, I saw many demons in the form of black Ethiopians (blacks, black people) standing near my bed. They gnashed their teeth as if they wanted to devour me. They unrolled scrolls in which all my sins were written down. My poor soul was in fear and trembling. The sight of demons was worse for me than death itself. I turned here and there, but I could not help but see them and hear their voices. Exhausted to the end, I finally saw two bright Angels of God who approached me in the form of beautiful young men. Their clothes shone with light, and they were girded on their chests with golden belts. Approaching my bed, they stood on the right side, quietly talking to each other, and I was happy and looked at them cheerfully. At the sight of them, the demons shuddered and retreated. Then one of the Angels sternly told them: “O shameless, damned and evil enemies of the human race! Why are you always in a hurry to come to the dying and with your screams you confuse the soul that is being separated from the body? Don’t rejoice, you won’t find anything for yourself here: God had mercy on this soul, and you have nothing in common with it!” The demons screamed furiously and began to show records of the evil deeds I had done from my youth, saying: “We don’t have anything to do with her? Whose sins are these? Wasn’t she the one who created them?” - shouting in this way, they waited for my death. And then the last breath left my lips, the bright Angels took my soul in their hands. I looked back and saw that my body was lying without feeling or movement. Just as if someone had taken off his clothes and looked at them, so I looked at my body and was very surprised at it. While the Angels were holding me, the demons surrounded us and shouted: “This soul has many sins, let him answer for them!” The Holy Angels collected everything that I had ever done that was good, the smallest good deeds, one after another, St. The angels gathered and prepared to oppose my evil deeds. The demons, looking at this, gnashed their teeth at me and wanted to immediately snatch me from the hands of the angels and bring me down to the bottom of hell. At this very time, the Reverend Father Vasily suddenly appeared (with whom, after the death of her husband, Reverend Theodora lived in the service, who devoted herself to serving her neighbors and prayer and accepted monasticism before her death) and said to St. To the angels: “Holy Angels! This soul served a lot for the repose of my old age, and therefore I prayed to God for her, and God gave her to me.”
Having said this, he took out from his bosom a kind of bag of gold and gave it to the Angels with the words: “This is the treasure of my prayers before the Lord for this soul. When you go through airy ordeals and crafty spirits begin to torment her, then redeem her with this from her debts.” After this he became invisible, and St. The angels took me, and we went east through the air.
When we walked from the earth to the heights of heaven, we were first met by the airy spirits of the 1st ordeal, at which the sins of idle talk, that is, reckless, nasty conversations, are tortured. We stopped, and many scrolls were brought out in front of us, in which were written down all the words that I had spoken indecently and recklessly from my youth, and especially if they expressed something shameful or blasphemous, as is often the case in the language of young people. I saw written down there all my idle words, shameless songs, disorderly screams, laughter and laughter. With all this, the small spirits denounced me, pointing out the time and place when, where, with whom I engaged in vain conversation and angered God with my obscene words, not considering it a sin, and therefore did not confess to my spiritual father and did not repent. I was silent, as if speechless, not being able to answer, because the evil spirits convicted me correctly. When I was silent, ashamed and trembling with fear, St. The angels added some of my good deeds, and filled up what was missing from the treasure given by Father Basil, and with this they ransomed me. “When will the Angels present good deeds for the justification of the soul,” says St. John of Damascus in the Word about those who fell asleep in the faith - and the evil spirits will remember the same number of sins to condemn her and there will be balance, then God’s love for mankind will prevail. The same mercy of God sometimes makes up for the lack of good deeds against the preponderance of evil ones.”
From there we went higher and approached the 2nd ordeal - lies, in which every false word is tortured, that is, perjury, invoking the name of God in vain, false witness, failure to fulfill the vows given to God, insincere and untrue confession of sins, and the like. The spirits of this ordeal are evil and ferocious; they stopped us and began to test me in detail. But I was convicted by them only of the fact that sometimes I lied about unimportant things and did not consider it a sin. But perjury, perjury and other important iniquities were not found in me.
We have reached the 3rd ordeal, torturing condemnation and slander. Then they stopped us, and I realized how grave the sin of judging one’s neighbor is and how great the evil is to slander someone, dishonor, blaspheme, scold and laugh at the shortcomings of others. Such sinners are tortured by fierce demons as opponents of Christ, who have anticipated the right of judgment over others. But, by the grace of Christ, a few of these sins were found in me; all the days of my life I tried to refrain from them.
We reached the 4th ordeal - gluttony, and immediately evil spirits ran out to meet us. Their faces were similar to the faces of voluptuous gluttons and vile drunkards. Walking around us like dogs, they immediately showed us the count of all the cases of my overeating, when I ate secretly, or beyond the need, or without praying in the morning, or at least without protecting myself with the sign of the cross when I ate in St. fasting before the service. They also presented all the cases of my drunkenness, they even showed the very bowls, glasses and other vessels from which I got drunk at such and such a time, at such and such a feast, with such and such interlocutors. And they showed all my gluttony in detail and rejoiced, as if they had already got me into their hands. I trembled, seeing my reproof, and did not know what to answer in spite of it. But St. The angels, having taken enough from the gifts of St. Vasily, put it against my sins and ransomed me. Seeing the ransom, the evil spirits cried out: “Woe to us! Our efforts have been lost!” - and threw their notes about my gluttony into the air.
I dared to say to my guides: “It seems to me that St. Angels, that no one living on earth knows what is happening here and what awaits the soul after death.” But the Angels answered me: “Does not the Divine Scripture testify to all this to people? Only people addicted to earthly vanity neglect it, forgetting the fear of God. However, whoever is merciful to the poor and helps the wretched easily receives forgiveness of his sins from God and, for the sake of his mercy, goes through all the ordeals without stopping. And whoever does not try to cleanse his sins with alms, it is impossible for him to avoid the dark tax collectors, who bring the souls of those who have sinned to hell and keep them in bonds until the terrible Judgment of Christ.”
In such a conversation, we reached the 5th ordeal - laziness, where sinners are tortured for all the days and hours spent in idleness. Parasites who lived on the labors of others, but did not work themselves, and mercenaries, who took wages but did not fulfill the duties they had assumed, are also detained here. Here those who neglect the glorification of God and are lazy on Sundays and holidays to go to church for Matins, Liturgy and other services are also tortured. There, a general negligence of both worldly and spiritual people and carelessness about their souls is experienced, and many from there are relegated to the abyss. And I was tested there a lot, and it would have been impossible for me to be freed from debts if St. The angels did not make up for my shortcomings with the gifts of St. Vasily.
At the 6th ordeal - theft, although we stopped for a while, but, having given a little ransom, we went further, because theft did not occur to me, except for very unimportant cases in my childhood.
The 7th ordeal - love of money and stinginess, we passed without delay, because, by the grace of God, I never in my life cared about much acquisition and was not avaricious, I was content with what God gave, and was not stingy, but what had, diligently distributed to the poor.
Rising even higher, we met the 8th ordeal - extortion, where those who give money for illegal interest and all those who profit at the expense of their neighbors, bribe-takers and appropriators of others are tortured. The torturers, not finding covetousness in me, gnashed their teeth in frustration, and we, thanking God, went higher.
9th ordeal - untruths, where unrighteous judges are tortured, who out of self-interest acquit the guilty and condemn the innocent, as well as people who do not give mercenaries the agreed payment or in trade use power or measure incorrectly, and in general everyone who commits any injustice, we, by mercy God, we went through safely.
The 10th ordeal is envy, we went through without paying anything, because I have never been envious. They are immediately tortured for dislike, brotherly hatred, unfriendliness and hatred, but, by the mercy of Christ God, I turned out to be innocent of these sins, and although I saw the rage of the demons gnashing against me, I was no longer afraid of them - and we, rejoicing, went higher.
The 11th ordeal of pride, where arrogant spirits are tortured for vanity, arrogance, contempt for others and grandeur, for failure to give due honor to parents, government and authorities appointed by God, and for disobedience to them, we also passed freely.
At the 12th ordeal - anger and rage, the aerial torturers, although very fierce, received little from us, and we moved on, rejoicing in the Lord.
At the 13th ordeal - resentment, where those who harbor malice towards their neighbor in their hearts and repay evil for evil are tested without mercy, the mercy of the Lord saved me, because there was no resentment in me, here we did not pay anything and, rejoicing over Lord, let's move on.
Then I dared to ask the Angels who were leading me: “Tell me: how do these terrible rulers of the air know in such detail all the evil deeds of people, not only obvious, but also secret?” “Every Christian,” answered the Angels, “after St. baptism receives from God a Guardian Angel, who instructs him in every good deed and records all his good deeds, for which a person can receive mercy and reward from God. And the prince of darkness also appoints one of the evil spirits so that, walking after a person, he encourages him with his machinations to evil deeds and writes down everything bad that a person does. Such an evil spirit carries all the sins of a person through ordeals, and that is why they are known to the demons. When the soul is separated from the body and wants to go to its Creator in heaven, then evil spirits prevent it on this path, showing it (like you) the sins it has committed. If a soul has more good deeds than sins, then they cannot hold it, and if there are more sins, then they hold the soul for a while, shut it in prison so that it does not see God, and torture it as much as the power of God allows them, until that soul, through the prayers of the Church and the alms of neighbors, receives forgiveness. If such a soul turns out to be so sinful and unclean before God that there will be no hope of salvation for it, then evil spirits will immediately bring it down to the abyss of hell. There the lost souls are kept until the second coming of the Lord and then, after being united with their bodies, they will suffer together with the devils in fiery Gehenna. Only enlightened saints ascend through ordeals and are tested by them. faith and baptism, but non-believers do not come here at all, because even before separation from the body, their souls belong to hell, and when they die, the demons, without any testing, take their souls as prey that belongs to them and bring them down into the abyss of hell.”
Talking like this, we reached the 14th ordeal - murder, in which one is tortured not only for robbery, but also for every wound, for every blow inflicted, for punching with anger and pushing. Having given a little something here, we moved on.
We passed by the 15th ordeal - sorcery, charm, poisoning, summoning demons. By the grace of God, the demons did not find anything in me here, and we moved on, accompanied by the evil cry of the demons: “When you come to the ordeal of fornication, we will see how you are freed from there!”
As we rose higher, I also dared to ask the Angels: “Do all Christians go through these ordeals and is it possible to go through them without trials?” The angels answered: “There is no other way for souls ascending to heaven, everyone follows this road, but not everyone is as tortured as you and sinners like you, who make an incomplete confession of their sins, hiding their shameful deeds from their confessor out of false shame. Whoever sincerely tells in confession all his evil deeds and regrets what he has done, his sins are invisibly covered by God’s mercy. And then every repentant soul comes here, the aerial torturers, having opened their books, do not find anything written in them, and such a soul, rejoicing, ascends to the throne of God. It helped you a lot that you stopped sinning mortally a long time ago and spent the last years of your life virtuously, and the prayers of St. Vasily, whom you served a lot.”
The prince of the 16th terrible ordeal - fornication, where prodigal dreams are tortured, mental pleasure in that, lustful views, vicious touches and passionate touches, was dressed in unclean and stinking clothes, and many demons stood near him. Seeing me, they were surprised that I had already gone through so many ordeals and, bringing out notes about all my fornication, they denounced me, pointing to persons and places, at the time, with whom, when and where I sinned in my youth. I was silent and trembled with shame and fear, but St. The angels said to the demons: “She has long since abandoned fornication and has recently lived in purity, abstinence and fasting.” And the demons answered: “And we know this, but she insincerely confessed her prodigal sins to her confessor and did not receive from him the proper commandment about satisfaction for sins, therefore she is ours! Either leave it to us, or redeem it with good deeds.” The angels contributed many of my good deeds, and even more from the gifts of St. Vasily, and I barely got rid of severe misfortune.
In the 17th ordeal - adultery, where the sins of people living in marriage, but not maintaining marital fidelity, desecrating their bed with fornication, also fornication and violence are tortured, the fornication of persons who dedicated themselves to God, but did not maintain purity, is strictly tortured. And I owed a lot during this ordeal; the evil spirits had already exposed me and wanted to snatch me from the hands of the Angels, and the Angels, having argued with them for a long time, barely redeemed me - not so much with my good deeds, which put everything here to the last, but with the treasure of my father Vasily, of whom they also put a lot on the scales against my iniquities and, taking me, went further.
The prince of the 18th ordeal - the sins of Sodom, in which all unnatural sins, incest and other nasty deeds committed secretly, which a person is ashamed and afraid to even remember, are tortured, was more disgusting than all demons, stained with pus and stench, so are all of him servants, the stench from them was unbearable, the wickedness was unimaginable, the rage and cruelty was inexpressible. Having surrounded us, but, by the grace of God, not finding anything in me, they ran away from us in shame, and we moved on.
And they told me St. Angels: “Have you seen, Theodora, the terrible and vile ordeals of prodigal people? Know that few souls pass through them without stopping and ransoming, because the whole world lies in the evil of temptations and defilement, and all people are voluptuous. Few people protect themselves from the impurities of prodigals and mortify their carnal lust. Therefore, many people, having reached the ordeal of prodigy, die here. The leaders of the prodigal ordeals boast that they, more than all other torturers, fill the fiery abyss of hell with the souls of people. And you thank God that you went through the tortures of fornication, through the prayers of St. your father Vasily, and you will no longer see fear!”
After this, we came to the 19th ordeal - heresies, where wrong wisdom about faith, apostasy from the Orthodox confession of faith, unbelief, doubt about faith, and censure of sacred things are tortured. I went through this ordeal without testing, and now we were not far from the gates of heaven.
But we were met by the evil spirits of the last, 20th ordeal - unmercifulness and cruelty. The torturers here are cruel, and their prince is cruel, seemingly dry and dull. If someone performed the greatest feats, exhausted himself with fasts, prayed unceasingly and maintained bodily purity, but was unmerciful, such a person from this final ordeal is cast into the abyss of hell and does not receive mercy forever. But we, by the grace of Christ, passed comfortably through this place, with the help of the prayers of St. Vasily."
So, our dear readers, we must try to get rid of all our sins even in our earthly life at the Sacrament of Confession. And do as many good deeds as possible!
God help us all!
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Theodora Tsaregradskaya's story about aerial ordeals
At Rev.
Vasily was a novice of Theodore, who served him a lot; Having accepted the monastic rank, she departed to the Lord. One of the saint’s disciples, Gregory, had a desire to find out where Theodora was after her death, whether she had received mercy and joy from the Lord for her service to the holy elder. Often thinking about this, Gregory asked the elder to answer him what was wrong with Theodora, for he firmly believed that the saint of God knew all this. Not wanting to upset his spiritual son, Rev. Vasily prayed that the Lord would reveal to him the fate of blessed Theodora. And so Gregory saw her in a dream - in a bright monastery, full of heavenly glory and ineffable blessings, which was prepared by God for the Venerable. Vasily and in which Theodora was installed through his prayers. Seeing her, Gregory was delighted and asked her how her soul was separated from her body, what she saw at her death, how she went through the air ordeals. Theodora answered these questions like this: “Child Gregory, you asked about a terrible thing, it’s terrible to remember it. I saw faces I had never seen and heard words I had never heard. What can I tell you? I had to see and hear terrible things because of my deeds, but with the help and prayers of our father, the Monk Vasily, everything was easy for me. How can I convey to you, child, that bodily torment, that fear and confusion that the dying have to experience! Just as fire burns those thrown into it and turns them into ashes, so the pain of death in the last hour destroys a person. The death of sinners like me is truly terrible! Theodora's story
When I approached the end of my life and the hour of separation from my body had come, I saw many Ethiopians standing near my bed. Their faces were black as soot and tar, their eyes were like hot coals, and their gaze was so terrible that it was impossible to say. They looked at me angrily, gnashing their teeth, as if they wanted to devour me. Immediately they prepared papers, as if awaiting some kind of judge, and unrolled scrolls in which all my evil deeds were written down. My poor soul was in unspeakable fear and trembling. The appearance of the Ethiopians is terrible, and their voices cannot be heard.
Exhausted to the end, I finally saw two bright angels of God who approached me in the form of beautiful young men. Their clothes shone with light, and they were girded crosswise on their chests with golden belts. Approaching my bed, they stood on the right side, quietly talking to each other, and I was happy and looked at them cheerfully. At the sight of them, the Ethiopians shuddered and retreated. Then one of the luminous youths sternly said to them: “O shameless, damned and evil enemies of the human race! Why do you always rush to come to the dying and with your screams confuse the soul that is being separated from the body? Don’t rejoice, you won’t find anything for yourself here: God had mercy on this soul, and you have nothing in common with it!” The Ethiopians shouted furiously and began to show notes about the evil deeds I had committed since my youth, saying: “We have nothing to do with her? Whose sins are these? Didn’t she create them?” Screaming in this way, they waited for my death. And then death came, and the last breath left my lips, and the light-like angels took my soul in their hands. I looked back and saw that my body was lying without feeling or movement. Just as if someone had taken off his clothes and looked at them, so I looked at my body as if at clothes, and was very surprised at this.
While the holy angels were holding me, demons in the form of Ethiopians surrounded us and shouted: “This soul has many sins, let him answer for them!” And they began to show my sins, and the holy angels began to look for my good deeds and found through the grace of God everything that I had done with its help. They collected everything that I had ever done that was good: whether I gave alms to the poor, or fed the hungry, or gave drink to the thirsty, or clothed the naked, or brought a strange person into the house and calmed him down, or served the servants of God, or visited the sick and sitting in prison and consoled him.
Whether she went with zeal to the temple of God and prayed with tenderness and tears, or listened attentively to the church readings and singing, or brought incense and candles to the temple, or filled the church lamps with oil to illuminate the holy icons and kissed the icons with reverence. Or fasted and abstained on Wednesdays. heels and during all holy fasts, or bowed down and spent the night in vigil. Either she sighed to God and cried about her sins, or she confessed her sins before her spiritual father with heartfelt regret for them and tried to make satisfaction for them.
Or she did something kind to her neighbors, was not angry with her enemies, did not bear any resentment, and meekly endured annoyances and reproaches. She repaid evil with good, humbled herself, felt sorry for the misfortune of others and had compassion for the suffering, consoled the crying and gave him a helping hand, assisted someone in a good deed, and turned away from evil.
Or she herself turned my eyes away from vanity and kept my tongue from swearing, lying, slander and vanity - and all my other, even the smallest good deeds, one after another, the holy angels collected and prepared to put on the scales against my evil deeds. The Ethiopians, looking at this, gnashed their teeth at me, because they wanted to snatch me from the hands of the angels and bring me down to the bottom of hell. At this very time, the Reverend Father Vasily unexpectedly appeared there and said to the holy angels: “Holy angels! This soul served a lot for the repose of my old age, and therefore I prayed to God for it, and God gave it to me.”
Having said this, he took out from his bosom something like a bag of gold and gave it to the angels with the words: “Here is the treasure of prayers before the Lord for this soul! When you go through airy ordeals and crafty spirits begin to torment her, then redeem her with this from her debts.” After this he left, but the evil spirits, seeing the gift of St. Basil, at first stood in bewilderment, then raised lamentable cries and became invisible.
Then the saint of God, Vasily, appeared again, carrying with him many vessels of pure oil and precious myrrh, which he poured all over me, one after another, which made me filled with a spiritual fragrance and felt that I had changed and became very bright. And again the saint said to the angels: “When you, holy angels, have done everything necessary for this soul, then lead it into the abode prepared for me by the Lord, let it remain there.” After this he became invisible; and the holy angels took me, and we went east through the air.
First ordeal
When we walked from the earth to the heights of heaven, we were first met by the airy spirits of the first ordeal, at which the sins of idle talk, that is, conversations of reckless, nasty, disorderly, are tortured. We stopped, and many scrolls were brought out in front of us, in which were written down all the words that I had uttered indecently and recklessly from my youth, and especially if they expressed something shameful or blasphemous, as is often the case in the language of young people.
I saw written down there all my idle talk, foul language, all the worldly shameless songs, disorderly screams, laughter. With all this, the evil spirits denounced me, pointing out the time and place when, where and with whom I engaged in vain conversation and angered God with my obscene words, not considering this a sin, and therefore not confessing them to my spiritual father and not repenting. I was silent, as if speechless, not being able to answer, because the evil spirits correctly reproached me. When I was silent, ashamed and trembling with fear, the holy angels put in some of my good deeds, and filled up what was missing from the treasure donated by the Reverend Father Basil, and with this they ransomed me.
Second ordeal
From there we went higher and approached the ordeal of lies, in which every false word is tortured, that is, perjury, vain in the name of God, false witness, failure to fulfill vows given to God, insincere and untrue confession of sins, and the like.
The spirits of this ordeal are evil and ferocious; they stopped us and began to test us in detail. But I was convicted of only two things: first, that I sometimes happened to lie about unimportant things, and I didn’t even consider it a sin; secondly, out of false shame, I used to insincerely confess to my spiritual father.
But perjury, perjury and similar iniquities were not found in me, by the grace of Christ. At this ordeal, the holy angels put some of my good deeds against my sins, and more than that, the prayers of my spiritual father redeemed me - and we went higher.
Third ordeal
We have reached the ordeal of tormenting condemnation and slander. Then they stopped us, and I realized how grave the sin of judging one’s neighbor is and how great the evil is to slander someone, condemn, dishonor, blaspheme, scold and laugh at the shortcomings of others. Such sinners are tortured by fierce torturers as Antichrists who have anticipated the right to judge others. But, by the grace of Christ, a few of these sins were found in me, because all the days of my life I diligently tried not to condemn anyone, not to slander anyone, not to laugh at anyone and not to scold anyone. Only sometimes, listening to others as they condemn, slander or laugh at someone, did it happen to me to agree a little with them in thought or through carelessness to add my own word, and immediately I saw myself and stopped, but the torturers charged me with the very act of condemnation and slander. And then the angels, having redeemed me with the gift of the prayers of St. Basil, went higher with me.
Fourth ordeal
We reached the ordeal of gluttony, and immediately the evil spirits ran out to meet us in the hope of finding prey for themselves. Their faces were stingy, similar to the faces of voluptuous gluttons and vile drunkards. Walking around us like dogs, they immediately showed the count of all the cases of gluttony, when I secretly ate either beyond need, or in the morning, without praying and without protecting myself with the sign of the cross, I ate food or during holy fasts I ate before the church service.
They also presented all the cases of my drunkenness, they even showed the very bowls, glasses and other vessels from which I got drunk at such and such a time, at such and such a feast, with such and such interlocutors. And they showed all my gluttony in detail and rejoiced, as if they had already got me into their hands. I trembled, seeing such a denunciation, and did not know what to answer in spite of it. But the holy angels, having taken enough from the gift of St. Basil, put it against my sins and ransomed me. Seeing the ransom, the evil spirits cried out: “Woe to us! Our works and hopes are gone!” And they threw their notes about my gluttony into the air, and I rejoiced, and we moved on.
As we walked, the holy angels talked among themselves like this: “Truly, this soul has great help from the saint of God Vasily, and if not for his prayers, then she would have suffered much need in the air ordeals.” And I, having taken courage, told them: “It seems to me, holy angels, that no one living on earth knows what is happening here and what awaits the soul after death.” But the angels answered me: “Does not the Divine Scripture, read in churches and preached by the clergy, testify to all this?
Only people addicted to earthly vanity neglect this, and, considering daily overeating and drunkenness the greatest pleasure, they always eat without measure and get drunk, forgetting the fear of God. Having their belly instead of God, they do not think about the future life and do not remember what is said in scripture: Woe to you who are full now, for you will hunger, and to you who are drunk, because you will thirst. However, whoever is merciful and merciful to the poor and needy and helps those in need of help, easily receives forgiveness of his sins from God and, for the sake of his mercy towards his neighbors, goes through ordeals without stopping.
It is said in Scripture: alms delivers from death and thus cleanses all sin. He who does alms and righteousness will be filled with life. And whoever does not try to cleanse his sins with alms, it is impossible for him to avoid the dark tax collectors, who bring them down to hell and keep them in bonds until the Last Judgment of Christ. And you would not have escaped a cruel fate here if you had not received the treasure of the prayers of St. Basil.”
Fifth ordeal
In such a conversation, we reached the ordeal of sloth, where sinners are tortured for all the days and hours spent in idleness. Parasites who lived on the labors of others, but did not want to work themselves, and mercenaries who took wages, but did not fulfill the duties they had assumed, are also detained here.
Those who do not care about glorifying God and are too lazy to go to church on holidays and Sundays for morning services, the Divine Liturgy and other sacred services are also tortured there.
There, in general, despondency and negligence of both worldly and spiritual people are experienced, and everyone’s negligence about their soul is examined, and many from there are relegated to the abyss. And I was tested there a lot, and it would have been impossible for me to be freed from debts if the holy angels had not made up for my shortcomings with the gifts of St. Basil.
Sixth ordeal
From there we came to the ordeal of theft, where, although we were stopped for a while, but, having given a little ransom, we went further: because theft did not occur to me, except for very unimportant cases in my childhood, which occurred from unreason.
Seventh ordeal
We went through the ordeal of love of money and stinginess without arrest, because, by the grace of God, I never in my life cared about much acquisition and was not a lover of money, I was content with what God gave, and was not stingy, but what I had, I diligently distributed to those in need. .
Eighth ordeal
Having risen higher, we encountered the ordeal of extortion, where those who give money for illegal interest, and all others who profit at the expense of their neighbors, bribe-takers and appropriators of others, are tortured. The torturers, not finding extortion from me, gnashed their teeth in frustration, and we, thanking God, went higher.
Ninth ordeal
The ordeal of untruth has opened before us, where unjust judges are tortured, those who acquit the guilty and condemn the innocent out of self-interest, as well as people who do not give mercenaries the agreed payment or who use the wrong weight or measure in trade, and in general everyone who commits some kind of injustice. But we, by the grace of God, went through this ordeal comfortably and gave very little to atone for my sins.
Tenth ordeal
We went through the ordeal of envy without paying anything, because I never envied. They are immediately tortured for dislike, brotherly hatred, unfriendliness and hatred; but, by the mercy of Christ our God, I turned out to be innocent of these sins, and although I saw the fury of the demons gnashing against me, I was no longer afraid of them, and we, rejoicing, went higher.
Eleventh ordeal
We have also passed through the ordeal of pride, where arrogant spirits are tortured for vanity, arrogance, contempt for others and grandeur; here the souls of people are tortured for failure to give due honor to parents, the government and the authorities appointed by God, and disobedience to them. We put very little here for my redemption, and I was free.
Twelfth ordeal
Then we reached the ordeal of anger and rage, and although the aerial torturers there are very ferocious, they received little from us, and we went further, rejoicing in the Lord, under the cover of the prayers of my venerable father Vasily.
Thirteenth ordeal
For this, the ordeal of resentment has opened before us, where those who in their hearts harbor anger towards their neighbor and repay evil for evil are tested without mercy. The mercy of the Lord saved me here too, because I was not angry against anyone and did not remember the insults inflicted on me, but, on the contrary, always, according to my strength. showed love and kindness to those who offended me. defeating evil with good. We didn’t pay anything here and, rejoicing in the Lord, we moved on.
Then I dared to ask the angels who led me: tell me, how do these terrible rulers of the air know in such detail all the evil deeds of people, and not only obvious, but also secret? The angels answered me like this: “Every Christian after holy baptism receives from God a guardian angel assigned to him, who, invisibly guarding a person, instructs him day and night in every good deed and writes down all his good deeds for which a person could receive from The Lord has mercy and eternal reward in the Kingdom of Heaven.
And the prince of darkness, who wants to attract the entire human race to his destruction, also appoints one of the evil spirits so that, walking after a person, he will notice all his evil deeds and... encouraging him with his machinations to do such things, he wrote down everything bad that a person would do. Such an evil spirit carries all the sins of a person through ordeals, and that is why they are known to the princes of the air.
When the soul is separated and wants to go to its Creator in heaven, then the evil spirits forbid this, showing it the sins it has committed, and if the soul has more good deeds than sins, then they cannot restrain it; and if there are more sins in comparison with good deeds, then they hold the soul for some time, shut it up in the prison of ignorance of God and torment it as much as the power of God allows them to torment it, until that soul, through the prayers of the church and the alms of neighbors, receives forgiveness.
If any soul turns out to be so sinful and unclean before God that there is no hope of salvation for it, then evil spirits immediately bring it down into the abyss, where a place of eternal torment is prepared for them. There the lost souls are kept until the second coming of the Lord, and then, after being united with their bodies, they will suffer with the devils in fiery Gehenna.
And also note - said the angels - that only those who are enlightened by faith and holy baptism ascend this way and are tested in ordeals, and non-believers do not come here, because even before separation from the body their souls belong to hell and when they die, they are demons without any testing they take their souls as their proper prey and bring them down into the abyss.”
Fourteenth ordeal
Conversing like this, we reached the ordeal of murder, in which one is tortured not only for robbery, but also for any wound, for any blow inflicted on a neighbor, for panting with anger and pushing. Having given a little something here, we moved on.
Fifteenth ordeal
We passed by the ordeal of sorcery, charm, poisoning, and summoning demons. The local spirits look like reptiles, snakes and toads, they are scary and disgusting. By the grace of God, they did not find anything in me, and we went further, accompanied by the cry of demons: “You will come to the ordeal of fornication, we will see how you are freed from there!”
When we rose higher, I dared to ask the holy angels: “Do all Christians go through these ordeals, and is it possible to go through here without torture and testing at the ordeals?” The angels answered: “There is no other way for souls ascending to heaven, everyone goes this way, but not everyone is as tortured as you, but only sinners like you, who did not make a full confession of their sins, hiding it before their spiritual father out of false shame.” their shameful deeds. For whoever sincerely tells in confession all his bad deeds and regrets and repents of what he has done, his sins are invisibly blotted out by God’s mercy. However, it helped you a lot that you had long ago stopped sinning mortally and spent the rest of your life virtuously, and the prayers of St. Basil, whom you served a lot and diligently, especially helped you.”
Sixteenth ordeal
Conversing in this way, we approached the ordeal of fornication, in which not only all fornication is tortured, but also fornication dreams, mental pleasure in it, lustful views, vicious touches and passionate touches. The prince of this ordeal was dressed in unclean and stinking clothes, stained with bloody foam, and many demons stood near him. When they saw me, they were surprised that I had already gone through so many ordeals and, having brought out notes about all my fornication, they denounced me, pointing to persons, to the place, at the time - with whom, when and where I sinned in my youth.
I was silent and trembled with shame and fear, but the holy angels said to the demons: “She had long ago abandoned fornication and spent the last time of her life in purity, abstinence and fasting.” And the demons answered: “And we know that she stopped sinning a long time ago, but she insincerely confessed to her spiritual father and did not receive from him the proper commandment about satisfaction for sins, therefore she is ours! Either leave it to us, or redeem it with good deeds.” The angels contributed many of my good deeds, and even more from the gift of Saint Basil, and as soon as I got rid of severe misfortune.
Seventeenth ordeal
We have reached the ordeal of adultery, where the sins of people living in marriage, but not being faithful to each other and not keeping their bed undefiled, are tortured, as well as fornication and violence. Here the prodigal sins of persons who dedicated themselves to God and promised to live for Christ, but did not maintain purity, are strictly tortured. And I owed a lot during this ordeal. The evil spirits had already exposed me and wanted to snatch me from the hands of the angels, but the angels argued with them for a long time, presenting all my subsequent labors and exploits, and barely redeemed me - not so much with my good deeds, which laid everything down here, but with the treasure of my father Vasily , a treasure, which they also put a lot of on the scales against my iniquities - and, taking me, they went further.
Eighteenth ordeal
We have approached the ordeal of Sodomy sins, in which all sorts of unnatural sins, incest and other nasty deeds are tortured, committed secretly, which are shameful and scary to even remember.
The prince of this ordeal was more disgusting than all the demons, stained with pus and stench, so were his servants, the stench from them was unbearable, the wickedness was unimaginable, the rage and cruelty were inexpressible. They surrounded us, but, by the grace of God, not finding anything in me, they ran away from us in shame, and we moved on.
And the holy angels said to me: “You saw, Theodora, the terrible and vile ordeals of prodigal people! Know that few souls pass through them without stopping and ransoming, because the whole world lies in the evil of temptations and defilement, and all people are passionate.
Few people protect themselves from the impurities of prodigals and mortify their carnal lust. That’s why few people pass here freely; very many, having reached prodigal ordeals, die here.
The leaders of the prodigal ordeals boast that they, more than all the local torturers, fill the fiery abyss of hell with the souls of people. And you, Theodora, thank God that you have already passed through the tortures of fornication, through the prayers of St. Basil, your father, and you will no longer see fear.”
Nineteenth ordeal
After this, we came to the ordeal of heresies, where wrong wisdom about faith, apostasy from the orthodox confession of faith, unbelief, doubts about faith, censure of sacred things, and so on are tortured. I went through this ordeal without testing, and now we were not far from the Gates of Heaven.
Twentieth ordeal
But we were met by the evil spirits of the final ordeal - unmercifulness and cruelty. The torturers here are cruel, and their prince is cruel, seemingly dry and dull. Here the souls of the merciless are tortured without mercy.
If someone performed the greatest feats, exhausted himself with fasts, prayed unceasingly and maintained bodily purity, but was unmerciful, such a person would be cast out of this ordeal into the abyss of hell and would not receive mercy forever. But we, by the grace of Christ, passed comfortably through this place with the help of the prayers of St. Basil.
Thus, having freed ourselves from terrible ordeals, we joyfully approached, finally, the very gates of heaven. The heavenly gates seemed to be made of light crystal and shone marvelously. In them stood young men as bright as the sun, who, seeing me with the angels, rejoiced that by the mercy of God I had gotten rid of the air ordeals, and, welcoming us, led me inside. But what I saw there and what I heard, child Gregory, cannot even be expressed. I saw what the human eye has never seen, and I heard what the ear has never heard and what no one living on earth has ever imagined or imagined.
And I was brought to the throne of God’s unapproachable Glory, surrounded by cherubim, seraphim and many heavenly warriors, always praising God with ineffable songs.
Having fallen, I bowed to the invisible and incomprehensible God, and the heavenly powers sang a sweet song, glorifying God’s mercy, which is not defeated by human sins. And a voice came from the universe of glory, commanding the angels who brought me to show me all the monasteries of saints and then all the torments of sinners, after which they would place me in the monastery of St. Basil.
So, they took me everywhere, and I saw beautiful monasteries of the apostles, prophets, martyrdoms, hierarchs, and so on. All of them were of indescribable beauty and spaciousness, and everywhere I heard the voice of spiritual joy and joy, everywhere I saw the triumph of the saints. All of them, seeing me, rejoiced at my salvation and glorified God, who delivered me from the snares of the enemy.
After visiting the bright abodes, I was relegated to the underworld and saw there the terrible and unbearable torment of sinners. Showing them to me, the angels said: “Look, Theodora, from what torment the Lord delivered you through the prayers of his saint Vasily!” I heard the screams, cries and sobs of those suffering there. Some of them screamed terribly and cursed their birthday, but no one showed them mercy. From there the angels led me to this monastery visible to you and installed me here, saying: “Today St. Basil is creating a memory of you.” And I realized that then it was the fortieth day after my separation from the body, and on that day I came to this place of calm.”
REVEREND THEODORA OF CONSTANTINOPLE
When we ascended from the earth to the heights of heaven, we were first greeted by the airy spirits of the first ordeal, at which the sins of idle talk are tested. This is where we stopped. They brought us many scrolls, where all the words that I had spoken since my youth were written down, everything that was said by me thoughtlessly and, even more so, shamefully. All the blasphemous deeds of my youth were immediately written down, as well as cases of idle laughter, to which youth is so prone. I immediately saw the bad words that I had ever spoken, the shameless songs of the world, and the spirits reproached me, pointing out the place and time and persons with whom I engaged in idle conversations and angering God with my words, and did not at all consider it a sin , and therefore did not confess this to her spiritual father. Looking at these scrolls, I was silent, as if speechless, because I had nothing to answer them: everything that was written down by them was the truth. And I was surprised how they hadn’t forgotten anything, because so many years had passed, and I myself had forgotten about it a long time ago. They tested me in detail and in the most skillful way, and little by little I remembered everything. But the holy Angels who led me put an end to my ordeal at the first ordeal: they covered my sins, pointing out to the evil one some of my former good deeds, and what was missing from them to cover my sins, they added from the virtues of my father the Monk Basil and redeemed me from the first ordeal, and we moved on...
"Trials"
Days of remembrance: January 12
THE LIFE OF THE REVEREND THEODORA OF CONSTANTINOPLE
The Monk Theodora was a Greek by birth, had great wealth and lived at first in a Christian marriage. After the death of her husband, according to the commandment of the Lord, she “took up her cross” and accepted the monastic rank in order to follow Christ (Mark 8:34; Matthew 16:24). This was during the reign of Roman during the life of St. Basil the New, who lived in Theodora’s house, in a prayer cell specially arranged for him, and under whose leadership she led a pious life. Having thus reached old age, she died on the thirtieth day of December. And when the soul of the Venerable Theodora, after being separated from the body, was carried by the holy Angels, the Venerable Basil proactively gave them, to help her soul, some kind of capital for ransom, taking out the reliquary from his bosom.
That Vasily had a student named Gregory, who prayerfully asked Vasily:
-Where is Theodora?
And then one day, when Gregory was sleeping, a bright-looking young man appeared to him and said:
- Go quickly, the Monk Vasily is calling you to show you Theodora.
Gregory was immediately caught up to the gates of heaven, then he was led into holy places and there he saw the Monk Basil and Theodora, and they all rejoiced together. And Gregory asked:
- Madam Theodora! - How did you endure the terrible hour of death and how did you get rid of evil spirits?
She told the story in order:
“When I separated my soul from my body, I saw terrible Ethiopians who showed me a scroll with an outline of all my first deeds and squealed like pigs, gnashing their teeth at me. Then the Angels took me and carried me through the ordeal. The first ordeal was deceit; the second is slander; third - envy; fourth – false touchiness due to pride; fifth - anger with rage; sixth – pride; seventh - abuse and obscenity; eighth – covetousness and flattery; ninth - vanity; tenth - love of money, eleventh - drunkenness; twelfth – resentment; thirteenth - sorcery; fourteenth - sorcery and the use of talismans; fifteenth – gluttony and idolatry; sixteenth – adultery; seventeenth – murder; eighteenth – theft; nineteenth – fornication; the twentieth is unmerciful. And if in any ordeal for my justification the testimony of only my good deeds was not enough, then the Angels added to my good deeds from the gift of good deeds of St. Basil. So I went through all the ordeals without hindrance and was introduced to this blessed place. If the soul is sinful, it will be given over to those Ethiopians, and they, torturing it, will bring it to torment.
And immediately Gregory woke up and told us what he saw and what he heard in his state of sleepy admiration. We, hearing this, were amazed and thanked the great God and our Savior, who vouchsafed Theodore His inheritance in the heavenly abodes.
