Foreword by the Publisher
Archimandrite Nikon, the senior priest of the church of Saint Mary Magdalene in The Hague, often reminds in his sermons the congregation that 'We are born in order to die. This body, this outward form, is not given to us forever. Only our soul is eternal, and everyone has his own individual soul, without the possibility to reincarnate. The soul is given only one chance to save itself within a period of time determined by God'.
This book gives an idea of what happens to the soul after death and how we can prepare ourselves for that time.
The first part of the book tells how the living can help the souls of the dead achieve deliverance from sufferings, full or partial, and come closer to God. It should be noted that this deliverance is temporary, it will last till the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Last Judgment, when Christ will decide the further fate of each soul: whether it deserves eternal blessedness or eternal torment.
The core of the second part is the narrative of the monk Gregory, the disciple of the holy elder Basil the New, who lived in Constantinople in the first half of the tenth century. Gregory relates how in his dream he was visited by the soul of Theodora who was also the elder Basil's disciple. Theodora had been seeking God since a young age. When she reached middle age and was widowed, she became the elder Basil's spiritual daughter and was tonsured a nun. Theodora did Christian spiritual practices under St. Basil's guidance till her old age. After Theodora's death Gregory was eager to learn about her fate after death, probably in order to make certain that the elder had really gained God's grace. Gregory beseeched the elder, and once, in his dream Theodora appeared and told him about the ordeals her soul went through after being separated from the body.
It later had a great influence on Christian literature in many countries of Europe and in Russia. It was included in many collections of spiritual literature as well as in handbooks for priests. It was copied, expanded or shortened; ecclesiastics sometimes added to it their own ideas about human afterlife or their own spiritual visions of life beyond the grave. It should be noted that the ordeals which a monk's or a nun's soul undergoes after death are much more severe than those faced by lay people. As the hermit Theophane from the Solovetsky Islands said, if he had known how hard the fulfilment of monastic vows would be, he would not have received the full tonsure from fear of the heavy responsibility at the judgment after death. The person who makes monastic vows becomes in God's eyes equal to an angel, and unto whomsoever much is given, much shall be required (Luke 12:48). Therefore it may be advisable for the reader not to focus on specific details of ecclesiastics' experiences after death, or the conventions of this or that time, or the personality of the monk Gregory and later narrators writing about his vision. But he must try to accept this story as the heavenly forces' message, that without seeking Christ and the Mother of God, without the Church's support, the Christian soul can achieve salvation neither in life nor after death. The Christian should consciously prepare for the trials after death during his earthly life: through prayer, repentance and confession.
Marijcke Tooneman and Guram Kochi, Publishers
The Hague, May 2009
