Kollyva Ministry Committee

Memorial Services & Kollyva
Kollyva, a blessed offering of boiled wheat, is prepared for Memorial Services in remembrance of the departed, especially the 40-day memorial. A Trisagion is a shorter memorial prayer service offered in church or at the gravesite without Kollyva. Please contact the church office at 978-531-0777 to schedule a Memorial Service.

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Kollyva for Mercy Meals
Kollyva for the Mercy Meal following a funeral may be ordered through a parishioner volunteer. Please contact Niki at 978-578-7292for information or orders.

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With heartfelt gratitude, we extend our deepest appreciation to the devoted Ladies of the Kollyva Committee for their countless hours of faithful volunteer service. Week after week, often behind the scenes, they lovingly prepare each memorial tray—boiling the wheat, drying it, carefully assembling every ingredient, and beautifully decorating each offering with reverence and care.

Their ministry is far more than a labor of love; it is a sacred expression of faith, honoring the memory of our departed loved ones while providing comfort and support to grieving families.

Through their extraordinary dedication and generosity, every dollar of profit from this ministry has been returned to our parish. Over the years, these contributions have supported numerous capital improvements and ministries, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts to Saint Vasilios Church.

We thank these remarkable women for their unwavering commitment, selfless service, and enduring love for our parish family. May our Lord continue to bless them with strength, good health, and Many Years as they carry forward this beautiful ministry of faith and love.

“God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.” Hebrews 6:10

KOLLYVA

St. Theodore Saturday

The tradition of blessing and eating Kollyva at the end of the first week of Great Lent is connected with an event in the reign of Julian the Apostate in 362 AD. The tradition states that the Emperor knew that the Christians would be hungry after the first week of strict fasting, and would go to the marketplaces of Constantinople on Saturday, to buy food. Therefore he ordered that blood from pagan sacrifices be sprinkled over all the food that was sold there, making it "polluted sacrificial food" (food "polluted" with the blood of idolatry), in an attempt to force upon the people the paganism of which he was an ardent supporter.

However St. Theodore the Tyro appeared in a dream to the Patriarch of Constantinople Eudoxios, ordering him to inform all the Christians that no one should buy anything at the market, but rather to boil the wheat (already called Kollyva) that they had at home and eat it sweetened with honey.

As a result, this first Saturday of Great Lent has come to be known as Theodore Saturday. After the service, the Kollyva is distributed to all who are present and, after Holy Communionand the antidoron, is the first food eaten after the strict fasting of the first week.

Since then Kollyva, having become connected with celebrating the memory of saints, are brought to church and are ordained by the priest during memorial prayers known today as Memorial Services.

Symbolism

The Kollyva are symbolic of the resurrection of the dead on the day of the Second Coming of the Lord. St. Paul said, "what you sow does not come to life unless it dies" (I Corinthians 15:36), and St. John, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24).

Thus, as the wheat is buried in the soil and disintegrates without really dying but is later regenerated into a new plant that bears much more fruit than itself, so the Christian's body will be raised again from the very corruptible matter from which it is now made; however, it will be raised not in its previous fleshy substance but in an incorruptible essence which "will clad the mortal body with an immortal garment", in the words of St. Paul (I Corinthians 15:53).

The Kollyva then, symbolize the Apostolically rooted hope in the resurrection of the dead as the only eventuality that gives meaning and attains the longed perfection on the part of the individual who takes his life to be a divinely ordained meaningful living forever.^[3]

The 16th century Archbishop Gabriel of Philadelphia^{[note 6]} wrote that the Kollyva are symbols of the general resurrection, and the several ingredients added to the wheat signify so many different virtues.^[4]

Occasions of Use

Memorial Services

During memorial services (requiem services), the family or friends of the departed will often prepare a Kollyva which is placed in front of the memorial table before which the service is chanted, while submitting a list of first names of the deceased loved ones to the priest. Memorial services are served on the third, ninth, and fortieth days after the repose of an Orthodox Christian, as well as on the one-year anniversary.

In addition, there are several Soul Saturdays (Psychosabbaton) during the church year, including the two Saturdays prior to Great Lent, the first Saturday of Great Lent, and the Saturday before Pentecost, during which general commemorations are made for all the departed, as well as on Radonitsa, the second Tuesday after Pascha.

These prescribed times are still observed in most Orthodox places.