Our church did not have the anathema rite, I was wondering if any one knows if Lev Tolstoi is still under anathema and was he mentioned during the service of the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
Who knows if Lev Tolstoi is still under anathema?
Moderator: Mark Templet
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Dear Liudmilla,
Well, one could argue that excommunications and anathemas against people only apply when they're alive. Somebody was asking the Russian Orthodox Church to lift the excommunication of Leo Tolstoy but the church and I think his family both said that's impossible. All anyone can do is commend him to the mercy of God. (Tolstoy may have called for a priest but died before he came.) AFAIK Tolstoy isn't mentioned by name in the anathemas at Orthodoxy Sunday night Vespers.
Interestingly, Tolstoy's freethinking hasn't kept the foundation named after him in Rockland County, NY (started by his daughter) from being a center of the post-World War II Russian immigration or (AFAIK) ROCOR from having anything to do with it. (I think there is a church on or near the grounds.) Then again it may be named after somebody else in that family or the family as a whole.