Do Your Own Reading on the Soul after Death

In the last several articles, I have written about the soul after death. Please do not just read what I have written. These are the sources I used, many of which you can read online. I can all but assure you that you will receive spiritual edification by reading any of these.

Life of Venerable Theodora of Constantinople - This is probably the best source, the most edifying, eye-opening, and likely to bring about the good fruit of repentance and prayer.

Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation - Read sections XII, XIII, and XIV.

St. Gregory of Tours's History of the Franks - Look for "Death of the holy bishop Salvius" (which is book 7, chapter 1). You will save time if you search the page for that phrase or maybe just "Salvius".

On Earth We're Just Learning How to Live by Archpriest Valentin Biryukov. Our family loves this book. We have used it as our lenten reading at least twice. Easy read, yet packed full of stories that will build up your faith. One of the many stories he tells is that of Claudia Ustyuzhanina who died, and came back to tell her "great, living sermon from God".

“Unbelieveable for Many, but Actually a True Occurrence” by K. Uekskuell. Honestly, I have not made it all the way through this one, but it comes down to us through reliable Orthodox sources, and is probably of similar spiritual benefit to the above experiences.

"Life after Death" by St. John Maximovitch. It has been quite a while since I have read this one, but I remember it being helpful. Not only is it from a saint of our own times and who understands the wild array of confusing sources to which we have access, but he has some very sober reminders to be careful not to apply this too literally, but to take away the beneficial spiritual lessons. He also includes a list of other saints lives you can read for more context.

The Soul after Death by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose). If you really want to dig deeper into this topic, Fr. Seraphim tries to approach the topic of the soul after death from a wide variety of perspectives, bringing in recorded experiences from Christian, non Christian, and pagan environments.

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