The Brothers Karamazov

Chapter 1

The Breath of Corruption

T

HE body of Father Zossima was prepared for burial

according to the established Ritual. As is well known,

the bodies of dead monks and hermits are not washed. In

the words of the Church Ritual: ‘If any one of the monks

depart in the Lord, the monk designated (that is, whose

office it is) shall wipe the body with warm water, making

first the sign of the cross with a sponge on the forehead of

the deceased, on the breast, on the hands and feet and on

the knees, and that is enough.’ All this was done by Father

Paissy, who then clothed the deceased in his monastic garb

and wrapped him in his cloak, which was, according to cus-

tom, somewhat slit to allow of its being folded about him

in the form of a cross. On his head he put a hood with an

eight-cornered cross. The hood was left open and the dead

man’s face was covered with black gauze. In his hands was

put an ikon of the Saviour. Towards morning he was put in

the coffin which had been made ready long before. It was

decided to leave the coffin all day in the cell, in the larger

room in which the elder used to receive his visitors and fel-

low monks. As the deceased was a priest and monk of the