The only case of liturgical intercession for the unbaptized is prayers and litanies for the catechumens. But this exception only confirms the rule, since the catechumens are precisely those people whom the Church does not consider strangers in the faith, since they have expressed a conscious desire to become Orthodox Christians and are preparing for holy Baptism. Moreover, the content of the prayers for the catechumens obviously applies only to the living. There are no prayer rites for deceased catechumens.
Blessed Augustine wrote: “There should not be any doubt that the prayers of St. Churches, saving sacrifices and alms benefit the dead, but only those who lived before death in such a way that after death all this could be useful to them. For those who have departed without faith, promoted by love, and without communion in the sacraments, the deeds of that piety are performed by their neighbors in vain, the guarantee of which they did not have in themselves when they were here, not accepting or accepting in vain the grace of God and hoarding for themselves not mercy, but wrath. So, the dead do not acquire new merits when those they know do something good for them, but only draw consequences from the principles they previously laid down” [6, p. 457].
In the Russian Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod for the first time in 1797 allowed Orthodox priests, when accompanying the body of a deceased non-Orthodox person in certain cases, to limit themselves only to the singing of the Trisagion. The “Handbook for Priests and Clerics” states: “The burial of people of other faiths according to the rites of the Orthodox Church is prohibited; but if a non-Christian confession dies and “there is no priest or pastor of either the confession to which the deceased belonged or another, then a priest of the Orthodox confession is obliged to escort the corpse from the place to the cemetery according to the rules outlined in the code of church laws,” according to which the priest should “conduct the deceased from the place to the cemetery in vestments and stole and lower him into the ground while singing the verse: Holy God.” (Decree of the Holy Synod of August 24, 1797)” [3, p. 1346].
Saint Philaret of Moscow notes in this regard: “According to church rules, it would be fair if the Holy Synod did not allow this either. In allowing this, he used condescension and showed respect to the soul that had on itself the seal of baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is no right to demand more” [3, p. 1347].
The reference book also explains the following: “The obligation for an Orthodox priest to bury a non-Christian confession is determined by the absence of clergy of other Christian denominations, which an Orthodox priest must be convinced of before he fulfills the request for the burial of a non-Christian (Church Bulletin. 1906, 20).
The Holy Synod, in a resolution dated March 10–15, 1847, decreed: 1) when burying military officials of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed confessions, the Orthodox clergy can, by invitation, perform only what is stated in the decree of the Holy Synod on August 24. 1797 (to be escorted to the cemetery with the singing of the Trisagion - Priest K.B.); 2) the Orthodox clergy does not have the right to perform funeral services for such deceased persons according to the rites of the Orthodox Church; 3) the body of a deceased non-Christian cannot be brought into the Orthodox Church before burial; 4) regimental Orthodox clergy, according to such ranks, cannot perform house funeral services and include them in church commemoration (Case of the Archives of the Holy Synod of 1847, 2513)” [3, p. 1346].
This standard of piety, which prohibits funeral services for non-Orthodox people, was observed everywhere in all local Orthodox Churches. However, in the middle of the 19th century, this provision was violated.” Patriarch Gregory VI of Constantinople in 1869 established a special rite of burial for the deceased non-Orthodox, which was also adopted by the Hellenic Synod. This rite consists of the Trisagion, the 17th kathisma with the usual refrains, the Apostle, the Gospel and the small dismissal" [9, p. 28].
In the very adoption of this rite one cannot help but see a deviation from the patristic tradition. This innovation was carried out among the Greeks in parallel with the adoption of a new so-called “Typikon of the Great Church of Constantinople”, published in Athens in 1864, the essence of which was to reform and reduce the statutory worship. The spirit of modernism, shaking the foundations of Orthodoxy, prompted the creation of similar orders in the Russian Orthodox Church. As Archpriest Gennady Nefedov noted, “just before the revolution, the Petrograd Synodal Printing House published a special brochure in Slavic script, “Service of Order for the Deceased Non-Orthodox.” This rite is indicated to be performed instead of a requiem, with the omission of the prokemna, the Apostle and the Gospel" [9, p. 29].
This very “Service over the deceased non-Orthodox” appeared in our Church as a manifestation of the revolutionary-democratic and renovationist mentality that captivated the minds of other theologians and clergy at the beginning of the 20th century. Its text cannot be justified at all from a church-canonical position. The text of this “Service of Order” in the Trebnik contains a number of absurdities.
So, for example, at the beginning of the “Service of Order” it is said: “If for the sake of a certain blessed guilt, it will be opportune for an Orthodox priest to perform the burial of the body of a deceased non-Orthodox” [12, p. 342]. We have already shown above that the church canons do not allow any “blessed guilt” here.
After the usual prayerful beginning, the “Service of Ceremony” cites Psalm 87, which contains, in particular, the following words: Who will tell the story of Thy mercy in the grave, and Thy truth in destruction; Thy wonders will be known in darkness, and Thy righteousness in forgotten lands (Ps. 87:12-13). If we clarify that the Church Slavonic word food means “is it really possible,” the Psalm will become a denunciation of those who read it over the non-Orthodox dead.
After this, Psalm 119 is given, praising those who walk in the Law of the Lord (Ps. 119:1). Saint Theophan the Recluse, in his interpretation of this Psalm, cites a patristic judgment: “Not those blessed who stain themselves with sin in the corruption of the age, but those who are blameless in their path and walk in the Law of the Lord” [14, p. 12].
In fairness, it should be noted that in the editions of the Trebnik of the last ten to fifteen years this “Sequence of Orders” is no longer published.
From the point of view of the Orthodox traditional attitude to the issue under consideration, the position of the monk Mitrofan, who published the book “Afterlife” in 1897, should be considered correct. Let's give a few quotes from it.
"Our St. The Church prays for the departed as follows: "Rest, O Lord, the souls of Thy servants who have reposed in the faith and hope of the resurrection. Rest, O Lord, all Orthodox Christians." This is for whom the Church prays and with whom she is in inextricable union and communion. Consequently, there is no union and communion with the dead non-Christians and non-Orthodox... For a true Christian, except suicide, no kind of death dissolves the union and communion with the living - with the Church... The saints pray for him, and the living also pray for him, as for a living member of a single living body.”
“Let us ask, can everyone in hell receive liberation through our prayers? The Church prays for all the dead, but only those who die in true faith will certainly receive liberation from hellish torment. The soul, while in the body, is obliged to take care of its future life in advance, it must deserve that upon its transition to the afterlife, the intercession of the living can bring it relief and salvation.”
“Sins that constitute blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, that is, unbelief, bitterness, apostasy, unrepentance and the like, make a person eternally lost, and the intercessions of the Church and the living will not help such dead people at all, because they lived and died outside of communion with the Church. Yes, the Church no longer prays for such people” [8, p. 52, 133, 134].