The Arizona sentinel., 1889-03-16
GREEK CHURCH RITES.
The Elaborate Ceremonies Of the Russian
Burial Service.

Burial Service.
1 have just been witness of the
Russian burial service, in the church,
over the remains of a Rus sian native,
the widow of an American trader who
died several years ago at Sitka- A
mass began in the women's chapel, in
the north transept, at ten o'clock in
the morning, in the presence of about
forty Russians and natives, mostly
women. The responses of the mass
were made by a choir, composed of
two venerable old men, standing at
the right of the chapel, facing the altar
screen, and a group of children, some
Russian and others Sitkan Indians
Those participating in these prelimi-
nary mortuary services either knelt
on the mating or prostrated them
selves with their faces resting on the
floor The mass was intoned by the
priest in Slavonic, and the responses
by the choir in the same tongue, while
the worshippers silently and constant
ly showed their participation by al
most continuously crossing themselves
on the breast and face with the right
hand, frequently using the left in con-
nection with the right for that pur-
pose.
The intonation of the mass seemed
more like a wall or refrain than any
thing else to which can liken it. The
Ind IL 1o4 hpiO Oh
colored shawls and gaudy blankets,
and wore black scarfs over their heads
instead of hats, hoods, or bonnets.
This service lasted an hour, when the
priest made an address of about ten
minutes in Russian respecting the de-
ceased, after which the sacred wafer
in the sacrament was given those who
advanced to the altar for that purpose.
Children far younger than those ad-
mitted to the confirmation in other
churches were allowed to receive the
sacramental water.
The ceremony over, the choristers
passed to the body of the church and
ranged themselves about the head OF
the open coffin, while the priest. after
exchanging his vestment for one OF
deep black, embroidered with broad
bands of silver lace, began a
requiem mass behind the al
tar screen, and the responses
were made in the body of the
church. At the same time deacon
placed three slender wax tapers, light
ed, around the head of the deceased, a
larger taper having been left burning
at the foot of-thc coffin ever since 1t
had been brought into the church. The
the coffin and the women on the left,
and the deacon then placed a similar
wax taper or candle in the right hand
of every man, woman and child among
the friends and relatives of the de-
ceased and the communicates of the
church.
The sky outside was clouded and
lowering, and the deepest possible
gloom pervaded the church, which,
with the scores of burning tapers,
made a peculiar picture. Especially
was this so when the tapers were
| fourished from side to side in making
the frequent signs of the cross during
this part of the mass. The priest ap-
preached the coffin from behind the
screen and passed around it score OF
times, waving the smoking censer and
intoning the mass amid the responses
of the choir.
This mass lasted for three quarters
of an hour, and then the four orphan
children of the deceased approached
and first kissed a small painted image
of Jesus reclining on the breast of the
dead mother and then her brow. Each
communicate and immediate friend OF
the deceased repeated this ceremony,
at the close of which pail was placed
on the coffin and its lid taken in charge
by two pall-bearers, who bore it out OF
the church while six other pall-bearers
| passed out with the uncovered coffin,
the priest with uncovered head and in
his vestments preceding the body to
the grave, where the mass was ended,
the lid replaced, and the coffin lowered
to the grave. A considerable portion
of the revenue of the church comes on
such occasions in payment for the
necessary candles for that part of the
ceremony, according to the wealth and
circumstances of the deceased person.
-Sitka Cor. n. Y. Times.