Prayer for the dead

This article presents the French translation of an Orthodox akathist for the departed, a liturgical text now impossible to find, published in 1948 by the Société d'Études orthodoxes Balzon, d'Allonnes et Cie. It is a hymnographic work structured in thirteen kontakia and twelve oikoi, Byzantine poetic and liturgical forms alternating between brief strophes and more expansive developments. The central idea is the universality of intercession for the dead: the prayer extends to the departed of all times, to the unbaptized, to suicides, to victims of violent death and even to enemies, grounding this boldness in divine mercy and patristic references, notably Isaac the Syrian and Macarius of Egypt. The theological contribution lies in the articulation between eschatology, universal redemption and the efficacy of ecclesial intercession, offering a rare testimony to Orthodox funerary piety in the French language.