Our church has designated Saturday as the day for the memorial of the Holy Martyrs and all the departed. Saturday is a solemn day, as it is the day on which God imposed death on the transgressor.
There are two official soul Saturdays: the Saturday before the Sunday of Carnival and the Saturday before the Sunday of Pentecost. But there are also certain other Saturdays of the year that are called soul Saturdays according to local traditions.
The memorial is always performed with the Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy is the main part of the memorial, so we must offer two liturgies, oil, incense, wine, and koliva. The use of koliva is a custom that began in the 4th century and has a profound doctrinal symbolism. It symbolizes the resurrection of the bodies.
The memorial is performed on the 3rd day, the 9th day, the 40th day, and yearly. The three-day memorials are in remembrance of the Holy Trinity and the three-day burial of the Lord. The nine-day memorials are to remember the nine choirs of angels. The 40th day memorials are in remembrance of the Ascension of our Lord, and in time, to make it clear that our departed loved ones live as souls.
Memorials are not performed:
- From Lazarus Saturday until Thomas Sunday (during this period, only memorial services are performed without koliva).
- On all Feasts of the Lord.
- On Pentecost Sunday.
- On the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God.
On the day of the memorial service, it is good for family members to receive Holy Communion, after preparing properly.
Do memorials have any benefits?
The beginning of the Memorial is found in the Old Testament and the New Testament and in the Holy Tradition.
Old Testament: The Israelites asked God to forgive the sins of their deceased fathers (Neh. 9:2). Do not deny the last favor to your dead (Sir. 7:33). This favor is your prayer for him.
New Testament: The Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, prays for the soul of his faithful disciple, Onesiphorus (2 Tim. 1:18). Therefore, we see in the Holy Scriptures that the living pray for the souls of the deceased.
Living and departed, we continue to be united, because we are members of the Church, some of the militant, others of the triumphant. That is why we, the living, commemorate the departed. When we say “commemorations,” we primarily mean the remembrance that takes place during the Divine Liturgy. But every prayer, whether in the church or at the grave, is an expression of love for the deceased. It is a cry for God’s mercy on their behalf. Through commemorations, we fulfill our duty to the departed, and God has the final word. Commemorations are beneficial when accompanied by acts of charity.
When are they held?
During the early Christian centuries, memorial services were held in the evening because, according to the order of our Church, the day begins in the afternoon. Christians would gather in places where the martyrs were buried, such as the so-called catacombs, to celebrate the divine liturgy on the martyr’s tomb. It was believed that the faith in God was preserved through the blood of the martyrs. During the divine liturgy, prayers were offered to honor the memory of the saints and to remember the souls of the departed. It was also common in the later centuries, until the mid-fifteenth century, to hold memorial services in the evenings called “Pannykhides”.
These were solemn services, especially during the Great Lent, and it became a tradition to hold memorial services on Friday evenings, which continues to this day. In modern times, it is common to include the memorial prayers at the end of the divine liturgy. The practice of memorial services has always been closely related to the divine liturgy, whether they were held before the liturgy, as in the Pannykhides and vespers, or during the liturgy, as it is done today. This is because the divine liturgy is not only celebrated for the living but also for the departed, and it is the most important worship event of our Church, during which Jesus Christ gives Himself to the faithful “for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.”
To calculate the day on which we should perform a memorial service, we must include the day of the burial as well. It is appropriate to hold the memorial on this day unless it coincides with a day or period when memorials are not performed. Sometimes, it happens that there is no scheduled divine liturgy on that day, and we do not have the opportunity to schedule one with our priest. In that case, it would be advisable to perform it on the previous Saturday. For what is known as a three-day memorial, if there is no possibility for a divine liturgy, we can go to the church (or cemetery if the burial has already taken place) with a plate prepared with kollyva to perform a Trisagion with the priest.
Memorials are generally not held on Sundays. But even when they are held, the Trisagion Prayers and the Funeral Service are not chanted: “Remember, O Lord” and “With the Saints.” Sunday is the first and eighth day of the week and is dedicated to our Lord and His Resurrection, symbolizing the endless life that follows this present age. On Sunday, the believer is called to live the Resurrection of the Lord as his own personal participation in the Resurrection of the Lord. This is also the most important reason why the Fathers explicitly forbid Memorials on Sundays and have established them to be held on Saturday instead. This is also the meaning of the Hebrew word “Sabbath”: rest, because our departed brothers and sisters are resting, awaiting the day of the common Resurrection.
In the book of the Octoechos, the well-known “Paraklesis” which is chanted almost constantly throughout the year, references to the departed are made only on Saturdays and NEVER on Sundays. That is why the Church has determined that the general and annual Memorials for the departed take place on Saturdays, hence they are called “Psychosabbata” (Soul Sabbaths). It should be clarified that the “Trisagion”, that is, the prayer for the departed, can be offered any day and time of the year.
The Psychosabbaths
The established Soul Saturdays in our Church are two. One is on the Saturday before the Sunday of Carnival and the other is held on the Saturday before the Sunday of Pentecost. The Church ordained these to be done out of philanthropy and affection for all our piously departed brothers and sisters “from beginning to end” and for those who died on land or at sea, during times of war, in various accidents, or wherever else, and do not have someone to care for them and light a candle in their memory.
- The Soul Saturday before the Sunday of Carnival (Apokrias) is established because the next day, during the Divine Liturgy, the Gospel passage is read that refers to the way Christ will judge humanity during the Second Coming. This event, known as the Great Judgment, envisions all of us standing before the throne of the Great Judge. Through this reflection, we acknowledge that death is an event that concerns us all. We beseech the Lord to be merciful, showing compassion and patience, not only to us but also to our departed brothers and sisters. Together, we implore Him to place us among the children of His Heavenly Kingdom.
- The Soul Saturday before Pentecost Sunday follows the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. In this observance, we not only commemorate but also express the hope that our loved ones have not died but are sleeping. It signifies that love has not been conquered by death. While a part of us may have departed with them, buried in the earth, not only from those we personally knew but also from all who lived long before us, nothing has ended or been permanently lost. Christ is risen, and death has been defeated. Through His resurrection, Christ opens the way to eternal life, and we will be reunited with everyone before the God of spirits and all flesh. This reunion will not be only in spirit but also in the body. The ultimate enemy will be abolished, and our existence will meet the Light, beholding the sweet beauty of the face of Christ.
- We anticipate this joy by being members of the Body every time we participate in the Divine Liturgy. In it, we believe and live the continuous presence of the Kingdom of God, the meeting of the living and the departed, the saints and the sinners. However, during these two Saturdays, we feel our departed ones even closer, for it is not only us who have memories but the entire body of Christ. The recollection of names, prolonged under the sound of “Lord, have mercy,” reminds us that love extends not only to our close ones and relatives but to all who, in Christ, become our beloved and brothers.
- The Saturday on which we celebrate the miracle of Saint Theodore the Tyro with koliva is not a Soul Saturday. However, the koliva we offer is primarily in honor of the saint, and along with it, we remember our departed ones.
We also have individual memorial services, which concern all Christians when death visits them, and these are performed only on Saturday. In the case that someone dies on Friday and the three-day memorial coincides with Sunday, the Rubrics explicitly and categorically state that the three-day memorial (during Great Lent) is performed on Saturday, similarly the nine-day memorial is performed on the following Saturday, and the forty-day memorial must be performed when the number of days from the day of death is completed (including the day of death itself), always on a Saturday, before or after. The God-bearing Fathers of Mount Athos, Saint Sabbas, and other interpreters and liturgists tell us that: “If the forty-day memorial falls within Holy Week or the Leave-Taking of Pascha, the memorial is not performed within these days but only after the Sunday of Thomas, and also excluding Sundays and feast days. That is, on the Wednesday of Mid-Pentecost, the Wednesday before the Ascension, the Thursday of the Ascension, the Sunday of Pentecost, and the Monday of the Holy Spirit.”
What are koliva?
Koliva is a traditional Greek dish that has religious significance, commonly prepared and consumed during memorial services and religious festivals. It is made from boiled wheat grains that are sweetened with sugar or honey and flavored with spices such as cinnamon and cloves. Other ingredients, such as raisins, nuts, and pomegranate seeds, may also be added to enhance the flavors and textures. Koliva is often decorated with powdered sugar and topped with crosses or other religious symbols. It is believed to represent the cycle of life and is served as a symbol of remembrance and commemoration for the departed souls.
Saint Nikodemos the Athonite highlights that “boiled wheat is a symbol of the human body because it nourishes and sustains man, just as the Lord likened His divine Body to the wheat grain, saying that ‘unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.'” The Lord speaks about His resurrection and how the departed will be resurrected at the Second Coming. Through this correlation, the koliva symbolizes the resurrection.