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Liturgy > Commemoration of the Departed

The Burial Service (Funeral) for a Priest

Our Euchologion or Trebnyk ("book of needs") provides a special version of the funeral service to be used for a priest or bishop. Because of the great responsibility accorded to priests, this service is significantly longer than the more common funeral for a layman, and contains a number of ancient elements in the funeral which have been dropped from the layman's funeral, or are commonly omitted.

For information about the practical aspects of this service, including the music to be used, see Singing the Funeral Service for a Priest.

The service "in the home"

When a priest dies (according to the Trebnyk), after the body has been washed and dressed in ordinary clothes, several priests should vest him in all his priestly vestments. A panachida is said in the home (or funeral home), with a deacon censing the body continually through the litany. The priest's face is covered with an aer (the cloth used to cover the gifts of bread and wine during the Divine Liturgy), and the body of the departed priest is taken to the church for the funeral service.

The service in the church

When the funeral procession arrives at the church, the casket is set in the church facing East (toward the sanctuary), and candles are placed around it in the form of a cross.

Here is the order of the funeral service for a priest, from the Roman edition of the Malyj Trebnyk (Small Euchologion).

There are a few ritual peculiarities in a priest's funeral: oil from the shrine lamp is pour upon his face before he is buried, and his face is once again covered with an aer. During procession to the grave, instead of the usual processional hymn "Holy God", the irmosy of the Great Penitential Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete are sung. The graveside service itself is essentially the same as that for any Christ.

Clearly, this is a very long funeral service! It also contains a number of ancient elements which may have once formed part of the layman's funeral. But as we noted above, the grave responsibility a priest has for his ministry makes this level of prayer for him at the time of his death entirely fitting.

In the United States, it has become customary to divide this service into three parts:

• An evening vigil consisting of the stations and Gospel readings - the "first night"
• A second evening vigil consisting of the Canon, the Great Doxology, and the Hymns of St. John Damascene - the "second night"
• A requiem Divine Liturgy celebrated in the morning on the third day of services.

For more details, see Singing the Funeral Services for a Priest.

Recommended Reading

• Rev. Athanasius Pekar, OSBM. Funeral Services according to the Byzantine-Slavonic Rite (Pittsburgh: Byzantine Seminary Press, 1972; PDF).