Please join us for a special Zadusnice Memorial Service taking place Saturday, October 10, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. at St. Sava Church, Merrillville, IN.
We encourage anyone to attend. There is no need to bring anything special to this service other than your memories and prayers for your loved ones. However, we do encourage you to write down a list, if you wish, of departed family members and friends to bring with you to the service so that we may remember all of them.
The purpose of the memorial service is to bring comfort to both the living and the dead. As is sung in the concluding song – Memory Eternal – it also helps us keep the memory of the loved one alive.
Zadusnice, also known as Saturday of Souls or All Souls’ Day, is a day commemorating the faithful departed, particularly but not exclusively one’s relatives. This special observance takes place on a Saturday, a traditional day for prayer for the dead, because Christ lay dead in the Tomb on Saturday.
For the Zadusnice observance, there is normally a Panikhida (memorial service) served on the Saturday morning for which Koliva (a dish made of boiled wheatberries and honey) is prepared and placed in front of the cross or icon with a lit candle, before which the Panikhida is served.
After the service, the priest blesses the koliva and it is then eaten as a memorial by all present.
Zadusnice Memorial Service takes place four times per year. If you are not available this Saturday, we encourage you to save-the-date for November 7 to join us for the next Zadusnice Memorial Service .
We also encourage you to join us at any of our events at St. Sava by visiting our online calendar at https://www.saintsava.net/calendar/.