Orthodox prayer for the departed
Memorial services for the dead, kept at set intervals after a death.
Death sets off a sequence of services: the brief Trisagion memorial at the time of death and again before the funeral, the funeral itself, then memorials commonly on the third, ninth, and fortieth days and at one year. Families often bring koliva, boiled wheat with honey, to memorials. Saturdays of Souls gather prayer for all the departed several times a year.
Orthodox practice prays for the dead persistently and on a schedule. The panikhida, a memorial service, is served after a death and then at intervals, commonly the third, ninth and fortieth days, and then at anniversaries.
Koliva, a dish of boiled wheat, is prepared for memorial services and blessed and shared. The wheat is explained by reference to the grain that falls into the ground and dies.
Particular Saturdays through the year are given to the commemoration of all the dead, when names are submitted and read aloud.
Does it have a text?
Fixed texts, in the service books, and again present in Hapgood's out-of-copyright 1906 translation. The kontakion sung at every one of these services, With the Saints give rest, is published here from its burial order. The prayer beginning O God of spirits is not: the book prints it under the rubric that the priest says it secretly.
When it comes up
Other forms of prayer in Eastern Orthodoxy
- The Divine Liturgy — The central Orthodox service, sung throughout and almost entirely fixed.
- The Orthodox daily cycle and prayer rule — Vespers, Matins and the hours in church, and a personal rule kept at home.
- The Jesus Prayer — A single repeated sentence at the centre of Orthodox contemplative practice.
- Prayer with icons — Prayer before images that are venerated rather than worshipped.
- Orthodox supplication and blessing services — Short services asking for help, healing or blessing outside the main liturgy.
This page describes a practice. It does not tell you how to perform it, or whether you should. Practice varies by region, community and household far more than a page like this can carry, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed anything here. The full dossier names its sources.
Content last changed 15 October 2026. Dates come from this page’s own revision history, not from the last time the site was deployed.