Though
liturgical prayers on behalf of the departed are reserved for baptized Orthodox
Christians only in the Orthodox Church, private prayer made on behalf of those
that reposed without holy Baptism or repentance may be seen in the lives of
several saints.
In the life of St.
Thecla, the first century martyr and follower of the Apostle Paul, we read of
her arrest in Antioch during which time she was kept in the custody of
Tryphina, a rich noblewoman who although now a Christian, her daughter
Falconilla reposed while they were pagans. One night Tryphina beheld her
daughter in a dream, who said: "My mother, love the stranger, Thecla.
Take her as your daughter in my place, for she is the handmaid of God. She
can entreat the Lord to place me with the righteous." When she awoke she
related the matter to Thecla and asked her to pray for her daughter.
Straightway, Thecla raised her hands in prayer, and uttered with tears:
"My Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the true and living God, hearken unto Your
handmaiden and grant rest to the soul of Falconilla in life eternal,
according to Your holy will."
St. John of
Damascus, in his "Homily for Meat-Fare Saturday", testifies
concerning this act of Thecla, saying: "Did not the Protomartyr save
Falconilla after the latter had reposed? Perhaps you may say that her prayer
was heard because she was a martyr. To this I reply that it was indeed
fitting that her prayer was heard since she was a martyr. But consider also
on whose behalf the supplication was made. Was it not for a pagan, an
idolater, altogether profane and estranged from the Lord?"
In this same homily,
St. John of Damascus goes on to bring up the example of St. Gregory the
Dialogist, Pope of Rome, of whom he writes: "One day, as Gregory the
Dialogist, Bishop of Old Rome (a man known to all for his holiness and
wisdom, of whom it is said that an angel from heaven served with him when he
celebrated the Divine Liturgy), was traveling along a paved stone road, he
halted and prayed to God, who loves the souls of men, to forgive the Emperor
Trajan his sins. The Saint straightway heard the voice of the most heavenly
God, which said to him, 'I have heard your supplication and shall grant
Trajan forgiveness, but I command you to cease your entreaties to Me on
behalf of the impure.' To the veracity of this account East and West alike
bear witness."
Other examples from
the lives of the saints where private prayer made on behalf of those reposed
outside the Church are St. Perpetua who prayed for her unbaptized brother Dinocrates,
and St. Theodora the Empress who prayed for her iconoclast husband Theophilos
the Emperor.
In each of the above
instances, through the fervent entreaty of the saint, Christ granted them a
vision where their request for the relief of the reposed was granted. It is
not possible to make a formal Church doctrine out of these saint's
expressions of love and affection for those that reposed in such precarious
spiritual states, but love transcends every barrier.
The following is a
model of a private prayer which might be said for a reposed non-Orthodox
person as suggested by the Elder Leonid of Optina, one who was experienced in
the spiritual life:
Have mercy, O Lord,
if it is possible, on the soul of Your servant (name), departed to eternal
life in separation from Your Holy Orthodox Church! Unsearchable are Your
judgments. Account not this my prayer as sin, but may Your holy will be done!
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By John Sanidopoulos
Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2015/09/praying-for-reposed-non-christians-and.html
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