October 20, 2023: Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexios holds a funeral prayer for Palestinians who were killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)

I’m loving learning about Eastern Orthodox funeral customs.

✨☦️ A μ o γ o ς ☦️✨

😇🙏 😇🙏 😇🙏 😇🙏

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Byzantine column from Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey)

"Being religious doesn't make you a better person!"

Yes we know. If anything, we are worse, because we fail even though we should know better.

Georg Karl Franz Cornicelius (German, 1825-1898) Christ Tempted by Satan, 1888

Damaskinos of Athens was the Archbishop of Athens and All of Greece during World War II. During the German occupation of Greece he used his position to save Jewish Greeks from danger at the hands of the Nazis by issuing thousands of baptismal certificates. He also published a letter known as the "Appeal of Damaskinos" protesting the deportation of Greek Jews to Auschwitz.

When the local SS commander Jurgen Stroop threatened to shoot him for his actions he replied,

"According to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church our prelates are hanged, not shot. Please respect our traditions."

An elderly Palestinian Christian lights a candle during mass in the Greek Orthodox Dormition of the Virgin Mary Church in the West Bank village of Aboud, November 7, 2010. UPI/Debbie Hill

Orthodox funeral services are gorgeous and they are so reverent when it comes to the deceased.

Do Orthodox goth chicks even exist 😞

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