Regardless of what reasons prompted a person to interrupt his own life, all religions without exception consider this step one of the most terrible sins. The sacred scriptures of both Christians and Muslims condemn human weakness, believing that life is a gift from God, which only the Almighty has the right to take away. In this regard, over the course of many centuries, people have developed a special attitude towards people who have committed suicide, and at the same time, certain traditions have developed when organizing funerals.
People commit suicide when they lose hope
Perhaps the best answer to the question of why people hang themselves, drown themselves and throw themselves out of windows may be the phrase: they don’t want to live like that. Exactly". There is hardly anyone in their right mind who would simply give up life.
Someone experiences incredible pain due to illness, someone has lost all joy, someone feels unnecessary in this world. There are many reasons.
Suicide is a consequence of the fact that a person has lost all hope. He knows that nothing good will happen, no one will help.
Orthodoxy sees suicide as a threat to the future of a person’s soul.
In this we can trace a certain degree of guilt of those around us, who did not notice and did not help. And every desperate person should know that even if he thinks that everyone has abandoned him, this is not so.
There are always people ready to help and listen. For example, a priest in a church, an elder in a monastery, Orthodox psychologists. After all, the task of faith is to give hope.
If you really want to avoid religious overtones, there are still psychologists and social services who are ready to respond and help a person in a difficult situation.
But suicide is not a solution. While you are alive, there is an opportunity to change something. Who said it would be better in the next world?
Why do relatives hide suicide?
The suicide of a loved one is a huge grief for the whole family. Often relatives are unaware of possible problems in a person’s life, and later he simply passes away. Relatives may hide the causes of death of a loved one from society for several reasons:
- fear of being judged by society;
- feeling of guilt that he did not help the deceased, did not save him;
- desire to carry out a traditional funeral service in the church. Since funeral services for Christians who have taken their own lives are prohibited, sometimes relatives simply decide to hide the fact of suicide so that the funeral will be “like everyone else’s.”
According to the Church, a suicide loses the chance of salvation
There is such a statement - suicide is the most terrible sin. In any other case, you can have time to repent if you live at least another second, and after suicide nothing will happen.
The soul finds itself in the next world with a grave sin and without the opportunity to atone for it.
Although, let’s make a reservation that nuances are possible here too. For example, Paisiy Svyatogorets once consoled one parent that his son, who threw himself from the fifth floor, had enough time to repent.
But let's return to the act of suicide itself. Why is he so bad? The fact is that a sinner by suicide rejects Christian principles, which means he withdraws himself from the bosom of the Orthodox Church and loses hope of salvation.
See also the article Is it possible to pray for those who commit suicide?
Alcoholism and drug addiction are suicide: the controversial opinion of the church
Previously, clergy refused to perform funeral services for the dead due to alcoholism, as well as diseases that develop as a result of the destruction of the liver by alcoholic beverages. However, today, alcoholism, like drug addiction, are considered sinful acts, but these conditions do not belong to the most serious violation of God's law - suicide. Alcoholics and drug addicts who came to church and decided to change deserve to be buried correctly - according to Orthodox canons.
Death from drugs can be considered suicide
Suicides are not buried according to Orthodox rites, they are not given funeral services or commemorated
Funeral without Orthodox paraphernalia
According to all traditions, there is no point in burying suicides. For some reason, loved ones think that they can “appease” the Lord with wreaths of prayers, crosses, and funeral services.
But that's not true. It is not the Almighty who rejects the suicide, but the man himself who removed himself from the bosom of the Orthodox Church by a sinful act. It is impossible to retroactively write him down as a repentant righteous person.
Of course, you can do harm and bury him just like everyone else, but such manipulations do not affect the fate of the soul.
Crosses and other Orthodox attributes are not used for funerals of suicides
No funeral service
Why aren't suicides released? Exactly for the same reason.
The Orthodox Church could take care of the soul at the moment of its earthly life, when a person was able to make decisions and implement his plans.
His final act is to remove himself from the Christian tradition. Now the soul is entirely in the power of God. The funeral service will not help her at all.
People bury themselves behind the cemetery fence less and less often.
Previously, this is how they preferred to bury suicides. Many cemeteries are consecrated lands adjacent to monasteries and churches.
Not burying a suicide in these places is not a punitive measure on the part of Orthodoxy. The opinion of the Church: it is even more correct for the body of a suicide not to be in the soil that was consecrated by the priests of the religion he rejected.
But the tradition of burying people behind the cemetery fence is becoming a thing of the past.
After all, cemeteries in Russia are common, even though they are predominantly Christian. Where should suicide victims be buried if not there? And it’s also unpleasant for relatives when their loved one seems to have been thrown out.
It is not customary to bury suicides in cemeteries, but there is usually no other place.
Suicides are not remembered
The reason is the same - there is no need, for the temple is aimed only at communication with those souls who have remained devoted to Orthodoxy throughout their lives. He has no power over others.
Accordingly, it is impossible to pray for a suicide. But there are rites for home prayer, their task is to provide comfort.
There are exceptions
There is a special attitude towards suicides who had mental illness.
The listed measures may not apply to them. But this issue must be resolved individually with representatives of the highest church clergy.
Psychologist's comment
Khalzanova Svetlana Borisovna
Practical psychologist
To cope with the death of a husband or wife, a child, or a parent who committed suicide, many loved ones still attend church, say prayers, and then feel remorse. As a result, such actions lead to an even greater dead end, since there is an unspoken rule - you cannot pray for the dead in this way, as well as loudly mourn them. Psychologists pay attention to such a factor as switching attention. If you change the focus of your perception of the situation, it turns out that you can survive it, even if not immediately, but it is real. The main thing is not to let yourself analyze and go deeper into the situation. She needs to be accepted as she is, and the pain must be lived through. Often this is facilitated by simple household chores, work, charity, for some it is suitable - rest, change of environment, etc.
The Bible touches on the topic of suicide 4 times, but does not evaluate this act.
It would seem that the topic of the afterlife should be very well presented in the Holy Scriptures. There are also the “Tibetan” and “Egyptian” books of the dead, where all the nuances of the posthumous life of the soul are laid out right on the shelves.
But Christianity is rather skimpy on the details of what will happen next. The Bible emphasizes how to properly live in unity with God. It is to live, but not to die.
Instructions for proper dying are nonsense for Orthodoxy.
Perhaps there is something like this in the stereotypical stories about the samurai code, but in our country life is declared to be God’s most generous gift, and therefore the very idea of rejecting it is not inherent in the authors of the Holy Scriptures.
Suicide is described only four times:
- Saul (1 Samuel 31:4);
- Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23);
- Zimri (1 Kings 16:18);
- Judas (Matthew 27:5).
It is impossible to draw clear conclusions from these stories. All four characters are men of disrepute who are condemned by Scripture.
Therefore, it is difficult to say whether their suicide is talked about negatively because the decision to give up their life is bad, or because in general any act of these people is obviously disgusting to the authors of the Bible.
Here, for example, is how Saul's suicide is described:
1 Samuel 31:4
“And Saul said to his armourbearer, Draw your sword and kill me with it, lest these uncircumcised come and kill me and mock me. But the squire did not want to, because he was very afraid. Then Saul took his sword and fell on him.”
There is no assessment of the action - only a statement of fact.
Judas Iscariot is one of four people whose suicide is described in the Bible (painting “Judas” by Nikolai Ge)
Drowned
In ancient times and the Middle Ages, for any Russian, drowning was a terrible, contrary to nature, and even somewhat shameful death. It didn’t matter much whether the person drowned himself or had an accident. According to the inhabitants of Rus', all drowned people turned into mermaids after death, so they could not be buried along with ordinary dead people.
Mermaids were restless souls, they used to wander along the banks of reservoirs at night and scare random passers-by. With such a stormy afterlife, they could disturb the “respectable” deceased, who had every right to find peace after death.
The Bible Condemns Suicide, But It Has Encouraging Statements
There are two equally common points of view on suicide.
1 point of view. A suicide cannot go to heaven
Everything is pretty transparent here. There are a number of reasons for this statement:
- Violation of the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” A suicide commits murder, although it is not aimed at someone else, but at himself. But, nevertheless, the commandment does not specify that you cannot kill only a person, or only another person. It is the most general and applies to suicides. And about those who broke the commandments, the Bible says:
Oi. 14:15
“Blessed are they who keep His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter into the city through the gates. And outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices iniquity.”
- Lack of opportunity to ride . To get to heaven, you need to repent of your sins. The best thing is in front of a priest, in confession. Then the person with a clear conscience is called upon to sin no more. But a suicide is deprived of this opportunity, and therefore remains a sinner.
- Insult to God. In addition to murder, a person also challenges God and tries to insult Him. This is an additional sin that also burdens the soul.
2 point of view. A suicide can go to heaven
The arguments for this point of view are a little more complex:
- A Christian can sin and still remain a believer . And, as we know, the Bible states that faith is a guarantee of eternal life. So the circumstances in the life of a suicide are one thing, and his relationship with God is another:
And he. 5:13
“I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that if you believe on the Son of God you have eternal life.”
- God's love is not conditioned by anything; death is powerless here . If God sees that a person has led a righteous life, then His love will be above all circumstances and forces:
Rome. 8:38-39
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord "
So, on the one hand we have the Law of God, and on the other, His faith and love. This contradiction was once resolved, according to the Gospel story, by Jesus Christ:
“He sacrificed himself out of love to keep the Law. So now, every person who accepts Christ as Savior will receive eternal life as if he were sinless.”
The fate of a suicide is in the power of the Almighty.
The problem is that we do not know how the relationship with God developed for each individual suicide, and therefore, as they say, “by default” we bury these people as if they left the Christian faith.
The Lord in the next world will deal with everyone personally.
Christian scriptures about when to remember those who committed suicide
Christian canons contain special mention of those who end their lives by suicide. This happened for the first time in 385. Then the Alexandrian Patriarch Timothy wrote the fourteenth canon. It was in the form of questions and answers. It spoke of the possibility of commemorating a suicide, but this can only be done when it has been established for certain that at that moment the person was beside himself.
The next church council in 452 established that the reasons for suicide lie in devilish malice, and therefore it is considered a crime. At another council, but held in 563, a ban was imposed on funeral services for people who committed suicide. They could not be buried according to the customs of the church, they could not follow the body to the grave, and over time, for such dead people, even digging a grave on consecrated ground was prohibited.
Orthodoxy does not classify Christ and martyrs as suicides
Suicide and the Church are things that are, in a sense, compatible.
Can we call a person a suicide who knows that his act will lead to death, but still brings himself to a tragic ending? Can.
Isn't that what some Christian martyrs did? They chose to die for their faith; they consciously appeared before the people who brought them death.
Even Jesus Christ himself knew perfectly well how His sermon would end. He reported this to his disciples more than once.
A suicide should be judged not by his act, but by his motive.
And here Orthodoxy tries not to use the definition of “suicide.” There is a clumsy approach - they say, the saints did not kill themselves, they had executioners.
But it's not about the executioners. It is more correct to look deeper: what distinguishes a suicide from a martyr is motive. The righteous loses his life, but saves dozens of others - sometimes physically, and sometimes spiritually, if he becomes an example.
Let's say the martyr Pelagia of Tarisia voluntarily entered the oven to avoid execution by the executioner. Nowadays she is revered by believers.
Martyr Pelageya of Tarisia - a suicide, but not a sinner
At the same time, it is not necessary to suffer for faith: it would be strange to call a person who sacrificed himself to save someone from a burning house a sinner.
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Black magic and the graves of suicides
In black magic, objects are often used with which a person voluntarily takes his own life. Also, dark sorcerers can use earth or other objects from the cemetery to perform rituals. Such magic is evil, black, it contains deadly energy. However, it is worth noting that not all sorcerers dare to engage in magic of this kind, since it can harm the sorcerer.
Black magic with the help of the grave of a person who committed suicide is used for such purposes as: inducing damage, fatal illness and torment. Also, with the help of a grave, they can cast love spells and rituals of communication with the other world.
Suicide is a very difficult event. A person who ends his life in this way experiences incredibly strong and terrible torment, both at the moment of committing and after physical death. In this article, the reader was able to learn the Orthodox canons and traditions associated with the burial of suicides.
