Marie Lopoukhine

This article presents the account of a near-death experience lived by Father Arseny, an Orthodox spiritual figure who survived long years in the Soviet Gulag camps. The text, translated from Russian by Michel and Marie Lopoukhine, belongs to the testimonial and hagiographic genre: written from the memories of Father Arseny and several eyewitnesses, it recounts with precision the medical circumstances of his clinical death and the visions he claims to have passed through. The central idea is that this experience constituted for Father Arseny a spiritual revelation about the hidden faith of his fellow detainees and about his own imperfection. On a theological level, the narrative illustrates Orthodox eschatological themes — separation of soul and body, Marian intercession, vision of souls — while also offering a historical testimony on clandestine religious life in the Stalinist camps.