Almsgiving in Memory of the Departed #
“It is good and proper to perform Liturgies for them (the departed),
to offer sacrifices, almsgiving, and generous nourishment of the poor.”
— Book on the Faith, ch. 13
Commemorative prayer for the dead is strengthened by almsgiving. Almsgiving offered during one’s lifetime pleads for the forgiveness of sins. After a person’s repose, their loved ones distribute alms both from the departed’s estate and from their own labor. It is an ancient and universal Christian custom to make offerings to churches and monasteries, to give money, clothing, and food to those in need.
Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, commenting on the Gospel, writes: “Let us make friends for ourselves among the poor… so that, when we die and depart from this life, they may receive us there into the everlasting dwellings.”
Today, especially in large cities, it can be difficult to distinguish those who are truly in need from idle beggars. The Church offers consolation: if alms fall into the hands of someone unworthy, Christ receives them invisibly. Nevertheless, one should strive to give to those who are truly in need. A discerning Christian can recognize the needy not only among those who stretch out their hands, but also among those who silently endure want, poverty, loneliness, and illness. Blessed Simeon advises giving alms through experienced and trustworthy spiritual fathers: “Then the giver will not fall into vanity, and the alms will be distributed in the best possible way.”
It is important that alms be given from righteous labor—then they are pleasing to God and salvific. But if, to the great misfortune of the departed, the inheritance they left behind was acquired by unworthy means (deceit, usury, theft), then their relatives should not hesitate to give from their own honest property. The tax collector Zacchaeus, mentioned in the Gospel, as a sign of repentance, gave half of his possessions to the needy, and from the remainder repaid fourfold those whom he had wronged.
Almsgiving is most needful from those whom God has seen fit to bless with wealth and possessions. The holy fathers continually taught this in their sermons addressed to the powerful of this world. The illustrious names of merchant families—Morozov, Soldatenkov, Solovyov, and many others—are inscribed in the noble history of the Old Believers, who considered it their sacred duty to establish hospitals for the poor, schools for the underprivileged, and homes for orphans and the elderly.