The reason for the establishment of the Soul Saturdays (Parent Saturdays) lies in the spiritual struggle in which Christians are then engaged.
For if, according to the teaching of the holy Apostle Paul, without love we are nothing, then even the ascetic labor of fasting itself, if it is not accompanied by true mutual love, loses its meaning, and those who fast will not attain their goal; virtue itself will lose its power. Therefore the Church takes care that peace and love may exist among all her members.
Before entering upon the labor of fasting, the Church called upon all her members living on earth to show in deed that they remain in an unbroken union of love and in communion with the members of the Church who dwell in the world beyond the grave—both with the Saints and with the departed who have not yet attained perfection. In the same way now, during the continuation of this labor of fasting, and to show that we in no way depart from the commandment of the Founder of our Church, Jesus Christ, “love one another,” the Church invites her members to universal prayer for the departed, appointing the Saturdays of the second, third, and fourth weeks.
Thus the foundation of the establishment of these Saturdays is love.
Another reason for their institution is that during these days of the fast, except for Saturdays and Sundays, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated, and therefore the departed, as it were, are deprived of the benefit which remembrance at the Liturgy brings them. For this reason, in place of the Liturgy, the Church established special prayers for the departed on the Saturdays of the second, third, and fourth weeks.
The other Saturdays of Great Lent, which are dedicated to particular commemorations, are no longer called Soul Saturdays, and the commemoration of the departed on those days is carried out according to the usual order.
—Monk Mitrophan, How Our Departed Live and How We Too Shall Live After Death
On the Commemoration of the Departed
Nothing irrational, nothing unprofitable has been handed down by the preachers and disciples of Christ, nor received in succession by the Church of God; to perform the commemoration of those who have fallen asleep in the right faith during the Divine and most glorious Mystery is a work most pleasing to God and greatly beneficial.
If the all-seeing Wisdom of God does not forbid prayer for the departed, does it not mean that it is still permitted to cast a rope—though not always sufficiently secure, yet sometimes, and perhaps often, saving—for souls that have fallen away from the shore of temporal life but have not yet reached the eternal harbor? Saving for those souls which waver over the abyss between bodily death and the Last Judgment of Christ—now rising by faith, now sinking by deeds unworthy of it; now lifted up by grace, now cast down by the remnants of corrupted nature; now ascending through divine desire, now entangled in the coarse garment of earthly thoughts not yet fully laid aside…
—St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow
We believe that the souls of those who have fallen into mortal sins and at the hour of death did not despair, but repented before being separated from this present life, yet did not have time to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance (such fruits might have been prayers, tears, kneeling at prayer vigils, contrition, consolation of the poor, and the manifestation in deeds of love toward God and neighbor), that the souls of such descend into Hades and suffer punishment for the sins they have committed, yet not being deprived of hope for relief. And they receive relief by the infinite goodness of God through the prayers of priests and almsgiving offered on behalf of the departed, and especially through the power of the Bloodless Sacrifice, which the priest offers in particular for each Christian for his relatives, and which the Catholic and Apostolic Church offers daily for all.
—Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs
On the Commemoration of the Departed
The priest humbly entreats the goodness of God that He would forgive the departed the transgressions committed through human weakness, receive him into the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, into the place “where sickness, sorrow, and sighing have fled away,” overlooking in His love for mankind every sin committed by the one who has departed this life. For no one is without sin, as the prophets say.
—Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite
Is it not strange? When you give your daughter in marriage, you do not consider it a misfortune if her husband departs with her to a distant land and there lives happily; for the sorrow of separation is eased by the knowledge of their well-being. Yet here, when not a man but the Lord Himself takes your relative to Himself, you grieve and lament!
You weep because the departed has left you, but you do not think of those whom he has found.
—St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow
Live in God
On tombstones found in places where Christians were buried in the early post-apostolic centuries, one encounters inscriptions such as: “Live in the Spirit!” and “Live in God!”
How much joy is contained in such a wish from the living! What could be more blessed for them than to live in God?
“Live in God!” In this wish for the departed Christians expressed both their faith in the bright immortality of the Christian soul, which has been united with the ever-living God, and the joy of the unity of the living and the dead in God; for God is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him (Luke 20:38).
The union of the believer with God is experienced as the blessed joy of his soul. Union with God is at the same time communion of the Christian with all other believers. Abiding in Christ, we are in communion with all our departed relatives, our forefathers, and with all those whose dust has been scattered throughout the earth for hundreds and even thousands of years. Christ unites us all—both the dead and the living—and we all, the dead and the living alike, live in Christ. What joy it is to live in Christ!
But do we live in Christ? Alas—we do not.
What then do we need in order to live in Christ and for Christ to live in us?
There is one answer: we must not sin. What is vain, what is contrary to the Lord, what He hates—that you must not do. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5). Yet this is very difficult. The ascetics of piety undertook great struggles in order to kindle within themselves love for God and to draw near to Him. Unceasing prayer together with careful observance of the commandments of God brings us nearer to God (cf. Sirach 15:11), and we must walk in life “even as he walked.”
In order that Christ may abide with us and in us, love must grow within us. The more love there is in us, the nearer we are to God, and the more fully we shall abide with Him and in Him. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16).
Then and only then will we who are living truly be able to remain in communion with our departed ones.
Then we who are living, ourselves sanctified by Christ God dwelling within us, may also ask in prayer for others for mercy, sanctification, and salvation. And this prayer will not be in vain, because Christ Himself hears it and fulfills it, seeing with what zeal and with what love we seek forgiveness of sins for the departed and their repose with the saints.
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal. 6:7).
Do you wish to obtain rest with the Saints after death? Then already now, while living on earth, strive to lead a righteous life: Fulfill the commandments of God, give alms, partake of the Holy Mysteries in the Church of Christ, and praying for the forgiveness of your former sins, ask the Lord for the help of grace that you may sin no more.
Do you wish that others should pray for you when you are among the departed? Then pray now for the servants of God who have fallen asleep before you.
Our prayer for mercy toward others is bold and effective before God when we ourselves are found worthy of mercy from Him.
Lord, have mercy on us sinners! Grant, O Lord, that we may henceforth keep ourselves from sin! Grant that we may live according to Thy commandments and Thy will, and hear our prayer for the departed: forgive their sins and grant rest to their souls with the saints. Amen.
—Priest Michael, On the Repose of the Departed
From: Readings For Every Day of Great Lent, Ed. N. Shaposhnikova (Moscow: Danilov Monastery, 2025).
