The Emperor Paul, on hearing this report caused the following proclamation to be issued.
“We Paul, &c. having been certified by a special report of the most holy synod, of the discovery that has been made in the Convent of Spasso Sumovia, of the miraculous remains of the most venerable Feodose, which miraculous remains distinguish themselves by the happy care of all those who have recourse to them with entire confidence, we take the discovery of these holy remains as a visible sign, that the Lord has cast his most gracious eye in the most distinguished manner on our reign. For this reason, we offer our fervent prayers and our gratitudes to the Supreme Dispenser of all things, and charge our most holy synod to announce this memorable discovery throughout all our empire, according to the forms prescribed by the holy church, and by the holy fathers, &c. the 28th, September 1798.”
OBSERVATIONS
ON THE
DANGER OF BURYING IN CHURCHES
AND
CONFINED CHURCH-YARDS.
It is to be feared that the ancients had juster and more rational ideas, relative to the disposal of the dead, than the moderns seem in general to possess. The cemeteries in populous and crowded cities are, for the most part, not only offensive, but destructive, and engender diseases. Quiet, remote, and unfrequented places, if properly secured, are certainly the most suitable for the purposes of interment. The practice of burying in churches, or near them, has not the least foundation in holy writ; on the contrary, we know, that under the Mosaic dispensation, the bodies of the dead were considered as a pollution to the priest and the altar; and the custom which prevails at present, was introduced by the Romish clergy, who pretended that the defunct enjoyed great and peculiar privileges by having their remains deposited in consecrated ground.
The Germans have begun to remove the burying-place a mile or two from every city or town, by which means they have abolished, or paved the way towards abolishing, all the nonsensical epitaphs and laughable inscriptions, which generally abound in church-yards, and too often disgrace the memory they mean to celebrate; and have substituted for the offensive cemetery an agreeable kind of garden, more calculated to inspire calm devotions than sentiments of horror.
Vide Render’s Tour through Germany.
In the voyages and travels of Dr. Hasselquist, a Swedish physician, he observes, concerning burials in churches and towns: “The burying places of the Turks are handsome and agreeable, which is owing chiefly to the many fine plants that grow in them, and which they carefully place over their dead. The Turks are much more consistent than the Christians, when they bury their dead without the town, and plant over them such vegetables as by their aromatic smell can drive away the fatal odours with which the air is filled in such places. I am persuaded that by this they escape many misfortunes which affect Christians from wandering and dwelling continually among the dead.”