“O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory? Christ is Risen, and you are overthrown! Christ is Risen, and the demons are fallen! Christ is Risen and the Angels rejoice! Christ is Risen, and Life reigns! Christ is Risen, and not one dead remains in the tomb!”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“Life without Christ is not life but death, whereas death for the sake of Christ is not death but life.”
Saint Zenobius the Martyr
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“But now that the Saviour has raised His Body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the Resurrection.”
Saint Athanasios the Great
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“Oh if you only knew what joy, what sweetness awaits a righteous Soul in Heaven!”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“Our grief over the death of our close ones would be inconsolable and boundless if the Lord had not given us Eternal Life. Our life would be meaningless if it ended with death. What benefit, then, would there be from virtue or good deeds? They would be right who say, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’ But man was created for immortality.”
Saint John Maximovich
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“If God has taught you a Spiritual knowledge of created beings, you will not doubt the words of Scripture concerning the Blessings held in store.”
Saint Thalassios the Libyan
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“Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs, He is bestowing life.”
Paschal Troparion
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“Beside all this, a more wonderful Grace is bestowed upon the Saints in Heaven: for they know not only them with whom they were acquainted in this world, but also those whom before they never saw, and converse with them in such familiar sort as though in times past they had seen and known one another: and therefore when they shall see the Ancient Fathers in that place of perpetual bliss, they shall then know them by sight, whom always they knew in their lives and conversation. For seeing they do in that place with unspeakable brightenss, common to all, behold God, what is there that they know not, that know Him Who knoweth all things?”
Saint Gregory the Great
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“Death doesn’t exist. Don’t fear death… With Christ, death becomes the bridge which we will cross in an instant in order to continue to live in the Unsetting Light.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“Christ is Risen, my joy!”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“It is said that in the Life to Come the Angels and Saints ever increase in gifts of Grace and never abate their longing for further Blessings. No lapse or veering from virtue to vice takes place in that Life.”
Saint Gregory of Sinai
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“We were created to live on Earth unlike animals who die and disappear with time, but with the high purpose to live with God not for a hundred years or so but for Eternity.”
Saint Innocent of Alaska
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“Death teaches us to love one another as a matter of urgency, so as not to leave this life embittered with one another. A person who believes in the Resurrection of Christ considers that whilst the lights may switch off with death, this is not because all things have ended and become lost. Rather, the sweetness of a new dawn has arrived and something beautiful and new is about to commence.”
Archbishop Makarios of Australia
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“We must understand that the human person in reality does not die. Death is simply a transfer from one life to the other.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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“…It is no less impossible for us not to taste as bitter the death of those whose life for us was such a source of sweetness.”
Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
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“When the son returned to his father from a distant land, how great was his joy at reuniting with him and seeing his face! How heartfelt the welcome and embrace of his father! Imagine then the what blessing it will be for the honourable Soul to return from this world, to leave behind its faraway land and its vale of tears, to reunite with its Father in Heaven, to see His Holy face, to bow before the radiant Throne of His Glory, and is met by His Holy embrace!”
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
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“Death is not scary for those who wait for the Lord. Scary is for the one who lives as if there is no Eternity.”
Saint Theophan the Recluse
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“Christ, the ‘Captain of our Salvation’, transfigured death from a weapon to destroy human nature into a weapon to destroy sin.”
Saint Maximus the Confessor
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“My Soul languishes here on earth and longs after the things of Heaven. The Lord came down on earth to raise us to where He Himself dwells, together with His Holy Mother who served Him on earth for the sake of our Salvation, and all the Disciples and followers of the Lord. The Lord calls us thither, despite our sins. There shall we see the Holy Apostles in glory for their preaching of the Gospel. There shall we see the Holy Prophets and prelates – the teachers of the Church. There we shall see the Venerable Fathers, who wrestled in fasting to humble their Souls. There those who assumed folly for Christ’s sake are glorified because they overcame the world. There all those who mastered themselves will be glorified, who Prayed for the world, bore the burden of the whole world’s sorrows, for theirs was the love of Christ, and love cannot suffer a single Soul to perish. It is there that the Soul would take up her abode but naught unclean shall enter there, where those who enter in arrive by way of great tribulations and chastening of the spirit, and many tears. Only children, who have not lost the Grace of Holy Baptism enter therein without affliction, and there in the Holy Spirit they know the Lord.”
Saint Silouan the Athonite
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On the day of his death a Cherubim appeared to him with a multitude of Angels and said: “Arise, O follower of the Lord, and come with us into Eternal Life.” The Cherubim indicated to him the throngs of Saints who had come out to meet him: “Behold the assembly of Apostles, behold the throng of Prophets, behold the multitude of Martyrs, behold the choir of Holy hierarchs, fasters, monks and righteous men. Give unto me now your Soul, which I was commanded by God to preserve during its Earthly life.” With the words, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit,” Saint Makarios departed to the Lord…
Saint Makarios the Great of Egypt
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“When the trumpet of the Resurrection sounds, then Heaven will present its inhabitants for a glorious reunion with their bodies, which come to life at ‘the voice of the Son of God’ (John 5:25), just as the four-day-dead and stinking Lazarus heard it and came back to life.”
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov
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“What have we to fear from death, my joy? For us, there will be only Eternal bliss.”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy. Human life was condemned because of sin to unremitting labour and unbearable sorrow and so began to experience the burden of wretchedness. There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of Grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing.”
Saint Ambrose Bishop of Milan
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“All who have lived according to God still live unto God, though they have departed this life. For this reason, God is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, since He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living [Mt. 22:32]”
Saint Gregory the Theologian