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Chapter 1

The Breath of Corruption

HE body of Father Zossima was prepared for burial
Taccording 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

The Brothers Karamazov