Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov

Supplement to “On Death”

19th c. · Ascetical work · English translation, 2026

54,945 words · 4.6 hr read· Moderate

Source edition: Святитель Игнатий (Брянчанинов). Полное собрание творений. — СПб., 1865–1886 (дореволюционное издание, переизд.).

Cover art: Pyramid of Skulls — Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906) (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

When On Death was faulted for preaching more than it explained, its author answered with this companion book. In two closely argued articles St Ignatius Brianchaninov defends the ground on which the treatise stood: that angels, demons, and the human soul, though called "spirits," are not the pure immateriality of God but have a fine, ethereal nature; and that paradise and hell are real. Reasoning from the Fathers against the confident conclusions of modern Western thought, it is his most theological work — and the one that drew him into a famous disagreement with St Theophan the Recluse.