Robert Wagman

CHAPTER XIV

When they see corpses like this—corpses which after death are discovered in the graveyard undecomposed and swollen, with their skin stretched like a drum, Greeks say that they are the bodies of people who have been excommunicated and that they would dissolve immediately, once absolution is granted. So says also the Nomocanon, ch. 80, of ‘excommunicated individuals; in particular, of those who have been excommunicated by a bishop and are found undecomposed after death’,

Concerning the excommunicate, whom bishops have excommunicated, and after death their limbs are found incorrupt.  Some people are excommunicated, justly, reasonably, and legitimately, by their bishops as violators of God’s law and die excommunicate before they can receive absolution, and not long after their burial their bodies are found decomposed, with all bones separated from one another. Reply: O wonder! Truly this is a fearful and amazing thing, how, although they were rightly excommunicated by their bishop, their bodies were somehow not found intact and undecomposed, like those of other excommunicated individuals—a wondrous and dreadful happening. Our Lord did indeed say: Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound [in heaven]. So it is most amazing when someone who has been legitimately excommunicated is found decomposed after death, with all his parts laying loose. This is the solution of the divine teachers. He who has been rightfully, reasonably and legitimately excommunicated by his bishop and is found decomposed after death, does not have any hope of salvation; not because he has broken the divine law, but inasmuch he has not, repented and penitent, obtained absolution from the bishop who has excommunicated him. That is why he was found decomposed, so that he cannot entertain any hope of salvation at all, since he has been already given his share of eternal punishment. Those who are discovered with the signs of excommunication—that is, those whose bodies do not decompose and stay intact, require absolution in order to be free from the bond of excommunication. For just like the body is found bound on the earth, the soul is bound also, and is punished at the hands of the Devil. When a body receives absolution and is freed from the bond of excommunication, with God’s consent the soul is also freed from the grasp of the Devil and finally finds eternal life, neverending light, and ineffable happiness.

Listen now to a much more detailed (unless you would prefer to say sillier) treatment of the same matter, in ch. 81,

On dead persons, when their bodies are found intact and with no hair at all.  When a body is found intact in the grave and with no hair at all, know that it is ambiguous whether the deceased has been excommunicated or not. Nevertheless the corpse needs to be taken out from its resting place and transferred to another tomb. When some time has passed, if the corpse is decomposed, all is well; but if it remains undecomposed, know that it is the body of an excommunicated person and that it requires absolution in order to be freed from the bond of excommunication.

If you are not bored, there is even more about excommunicated people, namely how to find out, after their death, who has excommunicated them. This is by the author of the St. Sophia manuscript, ch.78,

About the excommunicate, how to determine after death by whom he was excommunicated.  All these things about the excommunicate are found in the book of St. Sophia.  If one has been bound by an injunction or a curse, only the front part of his body does not decompose. If one has been struck by anathema, he has a yellow color and his fingers are contracted. But if one has a white color, he has been excommunicated by the divine law. [Omitted from the Latin: ‘Earlier  he says and shows [how to find out] who issued the excommunication.’] As for the excommunications of priests, he does not give any explanation as to what they are.

NOTES

Forthcoming