-
Saying Prayers for the Dead over the Living:Ancient Custom, its Transformation and Significance in The Brothers Karamazov
- Slavica Publishers
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Saying Prayers for the Dead over the Living: Ancient Custom, its Transformation and Significance in The Brothers Karamazov Tatyana Buzina "Obychai pominoveniia za upokoi pri zhizni, ego transformatsiia i sviaz' s poikaiannoi distsiplinoi," in Dostoevskii: Dopolneniia k kommen tariiu, ed. T. A. Kasatkina (Moscow: Nauka, 2005), 555- 61. Scholarship has long been preoccupied with Dostoevsky's attitudes toward the Russian people. The writer's journalistic declarations about the Russian people as the God-bearing nation, the repository of the true Ch ristian spirit, and the principal hope for Russians who have lost their way and are cast adrift in a meaningless, Godless world, are so prominent that his constant polemics with Russian folk Christianity often remain overlooked. Yet a close scrutiny of the relationship between Dostoevsky's artistic expression and Russian folk religion reveals a persistent questioning rather than ardent acceptance on the writer's part. While direct statements like those of the elder Zosima still affirm the idea of the God-bearing Russian people, the action of the novel and the actions of its peasant characters demonstrate the violence that Russian folk religion does to the spirit of Christianity. A case in point is the chapter in The Brothers Karamazov entitled "Peasant Women who have Faith," with its fi ve small episodes illustrating different aspects of religious belief am ong the common people: the healing of a hysterical woman, the elder's conversation with a grieving mother, tl1e story of an old peasant woman, the confession of a young husband-killer, and a tiny scene with a peasant woman and her baby daughter Lizaveta. The grieving motl1er episode has been well studied, and the three other episodes are more or less transparent. The one w ith the old peasant woman, however, is far from accidental and meaningless: She said she was the widow of a non-commissioned officer, and lived close by in the town. Her son Vasenka was in the commissariat service, and had gone to Irkutsk in Siberia. He had written twice from there, but now a year had passed since he had w ritten. She did inquire about him, but she did not know the proper place to inquire. Caro l Apollonio, ed., The New Russian Dostoevsky: Readings for the Twenty·First Century, Bloomington, IN: Siavica Publishers, 2010, 249- 55. 250 T ATYANA B UZINA "Only the other day Stepanida Ilyinishna-she's a rich merchant's wife-said to me, 'You go, Prokhorovna, and put your son's name down for prayer in the church, and pray for the peace of his soul as though he were dead. His soul will be troubled,' she said, 'and he will write you a letter.' And Stepanida Ilyinishna told me it was a certain thing which had been many times tried. Only I am in doubt.... Oh, you light of ours! Is it true or false, and would it be right?" "Don't think of it. It's shameful to ask the question. How is it possible to pray for the peace of a living soul? And his own mother too! It's a great sin, akin to sorcery. Only for your ignorance it is forgiven you. Better pray to the Queen of Heaven, our swift defense and help, for his good health, and that she may forgive you for your error. And another thing I will tell you, Prokhorovna. Either he will soon come back to you, your son, or he will be sure to send a letter. Go, and henceforward be in peace. Your son is alive, I tell you." (14: 47)1 The commentators quote from A. G. Dostoevskaia's memoirs: "The story of our nanny, Prokhorovna, who had a son, Vasen'ka, who had gone to, or rather, had been exiled to Siberia. She had no letters from him for an entire year, and kept asking Fyodor Mikhailovich for advice as to whether she should have a service for the dead said for her son. F.M. dissuaded her and assured her that Vasen'ka would write to her soon, and indeed, a letter arrived in two weeks" (15: 533). This biographical reference, however, fails to explain the significance of the episode in the novel; it only indicates that the practice of saying memorial services for the living was alive and well in the nineteenth century. Before attempting to explain this episode I will turn to the history of the custom of saying prayers for the dead over the living. Quite often, certain outwardly...