Aerial toll houses (also called " telonia", from the / ''telonia'',

customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

) are a belief held by some in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

which states that "following a person's death the soul leaves the body, and is escorted to

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

s. During this journey the soul passes through an aerial realm, which is inhabited by wicked spirits (

Ephesians 6 Ephesians 6 is the sixth and final chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians in the New Testament of the Christianity, Christian Bible. Traditionally, it is Authorship of the Pauline epistles, believed to be written by Paul the Apostle, Apostle Paul ...

:12). The soul encounters these demons at various points referred to as ''toll-houses'' where the demons then attempt to accuse it of

sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

and, if possible, drag the soul into

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

". A number of the Eastern Orthodox

saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

, modern elders and theologians have openly endorsed it, but some theologians and bishops have condemned it as

heretical Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...

and

gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

in origin. Aerial toll houses are part of the

particular judgment Particular judgment, according to Christian eschatology, is the divine judgment that a departed (dead) person undergoes immediately after death, in contradistinction to the general judgment (or Last Judgment) of all people at the end of the w ...

Teaching

The most detailed account of the aerial toll-houses is found in the of

Basil the Younger Saint Basil the Younger (died 26 March 944/952) was a Byzantine Greek holy man and visionary. He is the subject of a Greek hagiographical biography, the ''Vita sancti Basilii iunioris'', written by his pupil Gregory. Although the ''Vita'' portray ...

, found in the ''Lives of Saints'' for 26 March. In this rendering, Theodora, spiritual student of Basil, appeared to another student, the pious and holy layman Gregory. According to the story, Gregory had prayed to God and asked him to inform them of what happened to Theodora after her death. God answered his prayers (according to this account) by sending Theodora herself to Gregory; and told him, in great detail, about her journey through the toll houses. According to Theodora's teaching, every Christian has a demon who tempts him or her. These demons keep a record of every sin of thought or action they succeed in tempting a person to commit, though repented sins are erased from the demonic records. On the third day after the soul separates from the body, according to this account, it is carried by angels towards Heaven. On the way, souls must go past twenty aerial toll-houses. Each toll house is populated by demons devoted to particular sins. At each toll-house, demons demand that souls "pay" for their sins by giving an account of compensatory good deeds. If the soul is unable to compensate for a sin, the demons take it to

Toll houses

There are twenty toll-houses, though the number is not dogmatic and different sources list varying numbers. On the first aerial toll-house, the soul is questioned about the sins of the tongue. The remaining are, in order: * Lies * Slander * Gluttony * Laziness * Theft * Covetousness * Usury * Injustice * Envy * Pride * Anger * Remembering evil * Murder * Magic * Lust * Adultery * Sodomy * Heresy * Unmercifulness

Origin

Mentions of toll houses can be found in the

hymnology Hymnology (from Greek ὕμνος ''hymnos'', "song of praise" and -λογία ''-logia'', "study of") is the scholarly study of religious song, or the hymn, in its many aspects, with particular focus on choral and congregational song. It may be m ...

of the Church, and in stories of the lives of some saints and their writings. Prayers mentioning the aerial accusers can be found in Liturgical texts and official E. Orthodox books like the Slavonic ''Great

Euchologion The Euchologion (Greek: ; Slavonic: Трeбник, ''Trebnik''; ) is one of the chief liturgical books of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches, containing the portions of the services which are said by the bishop, priest, or ...

'' (''The Great Book of Needs''): "do thou banish from me the commander of the bitter toll-gatherers and ruler of the earth ..O holy

Theotokos ''Theotokos'' ( Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are or (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-beare ...

" (Ode 8, Troparion 3).The Great Book of Needs
St Tikhon's Monastery Press Other church hymns say that the souls have to "pass through the rulers of darkness standing in the air." In the Greek and Slavonic ''Euchologion'', in the canon for the departure of the soul by St. Andrew, the following words are found in Ode 7: "All holy angels of the Almighty God, have mercy upon me and save me from all the evil toll-houses". In the Canon of Supplication at the Parting of the Soul in ''The Great Book of Needs'' are found the following references to the struggle of a soul passing through the toll houses: "Count me worthy to pass, unhindered, by the persecutor, the prince of the air, the tyrant, him that stands guard in the dread pathways, and the false accusation of these, as I depart from earth" (Ode 4, p. 77). "Do thou count me worthy to escape the hordes of bodiless barbarians, and rise through the aerial depths and enter into Heaven" (Ode 8, p. 81). The toll house doctrine can be found for example in the Life of

Saint Anthony the Great Anthony the Great (; ; ; ; – 17 January 356) was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from Saint Anthony (disambiguation), other saints named Anthony, such as , by various epithets: , , , , , a ...

written by

Athanasius of Alexandria Athanasius I of Alexandria ( – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th patriarch of Alexandria (as Athanasius ...

, in the life of Basil the New and Theodora, in the homilies of

Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria (; or ⲡⲓ̀ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲕⲓⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲥ; 376–444) was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He was enthroned when the city was at the height of its influence and power within the Roman Empire ...

, or in a discourse of Abba Isaiah. Some authors of the ''

Philokalia The ''Philokalia'' (, from ''philia'' "love" and ''kallos'' "beauty") is "a collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters" of the mystical hesychast tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. They were or ...

'', "an authoritative anthology of writings on the

prayer of the heart The Jesus Prayer, also known as The Prayer, is a short formulaic prayer and is especially esteemed and advocated in Eastern Christianity and Catholicism. There are multiple versions of this prayer, however the most widely used version is as follo ...

", taught about the toll houses. For example, instructs to "reflect on the dreadful reckoning that is to come, how the harsh keepers of the toll homes will bring before as one by one the actions, words and thoughts which they suggested but which we accepted and made our own". The same way, Saint John of Karpathos wrote: "When the soul leaves the body, the enemy advances to attack it, fiercely reviling it and accusing it of its sins in a harsh and terrifying manner. But if a soul enjoys the love of God and has faith in Him, even though in the past it has often been wounded by sin, it is not frightened by the enemy's attacks and threats." "The tradition of the tollgates was firmly established throughout the east long before the end of late antiquity, although it received typically Byzantine elaboration in the tenth-century Life of Basil the Younger (d. 944)." Gennadios Scholarios, Patriarch of Constantinople from 1454 to 1464, "stated that the trial of the 'tollgates' was, in fact, the Byzantine equivalent of

purgatory In Christianity, Purgatory (, borrowed into English language, English via Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman and Old French) is a passing Intermediate state (Christianity), intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul ...

, minus the fireworks".

Contemporary situation

Support

The 19th-century saint

Ignatius Brianchaninov Ignatius Brianchaninov or Ignaty Brianchaninov (secular name, born Dmitry Alexandrovich Brianchaninov; rus, Дмитрий Александрович Брянчанинов, , dmʲitrʲɪj ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ brʲɪnʲtɕɪˈnʲinəf; 15 F ...

insisted on the truthfulness of the teaching.

Seraphim Rose Seraphim Rose (born Eugene Dennis Rose; August 13, 1934 – September 2, 1982), also known as Seraphim of Platina, was an American priest and hieromonk of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia who co-founded the Saint Herman of Alaska Monas ...

claims the teaching is taught in some forms in

hagiographical A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

and other spiritual texts from quite early in the history of the Church. A number of contemporary church figures support the teaching on toll-houses, including Ephraim (Moraitis),

Constantine Cavarnos Schemamonk Constantine Cavarnos (1918, Boston – March 3, 2011, Florence, Arizona) was an American philosopher, Byzantinist, and Eastern Orthodox monk. Early life and education Cavarnos was born in Boston in 1918. He graduated from Harvard Uni ...

, Fr. Seraphim (Rose), Met.

Hierotheos (Vlachos) Hierotheos Vlachos (; born Georgios Vlachos, , 1945) is a Greek Orthodox metropolitan and theologian. Biography He was born in 1945 in Ioannina, Greece. He graduated from the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki and was ordaine ...

John of Shanghai and San Francisco Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco (; born Mikhail Borisovich Maximovitch, ; June 4, 1896 – July 2, 1966) was a prelate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia who is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is als ...

Justin Popović Justin Popović ( sr-cyr, Јустин Поповић, , secular name Blagoje Popović, sr-cyr, Благоје Поповић; 6 April 1894 – 7 April 1979) was a Serbian Orthodox theologian, archimandrite of the Ćelije Monastery, Dostoyevs ...

in his ''Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church'',

Nikolaj Velimirović Nikolaj Velimirović (Serbian Cyrillic: Николај Велимировић; – ) was a Serbian Orthodox prelate who served as Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča from 1920 to 1956. An influential theological writer and a highly gifted orator, h ...

, and Michael Pomazansky.

Criticism

The Eastern Orthodox theologian

David Bentley Hart David Bentley Hart (born February 20, 1965) is an American philosopher, theologian, essayist, cultural commentator, fiction author, and religious studies scholar. Reviewers have commented on Hart's baroque prose and provocative rhetoric in over on ...

considers this teaching to be a

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

, and the Eastern Orthodox theologian Adnan Trabulsi opposes the toll houses teaching. Eastern Orthodox theologian Dr Paul Ladouceur considers the ''Life of Saint Basil'' to be a forgery; furthermore, he writes that the toll-house teaching "is not the sole strand of thinking on the afterlife within the Orthodox tradition. It is not unusual in Orthodoxy to have different and even apparently overlapping elements within the overall tradition, on matters on which there exist no formal church dogmas. It is thus misleading and erroneous to present toll-house theology as 'the teaching of the Orthodox Church' when in reality it is only part of Orthodox tradition concerning the afterlife." Likewise, Religious Studies Professor Stephen J. Shoemaker wrote: "The truth of the matter is that the state of the dead was never precisely defined in the Orthodox tradition, and just as in other matters related to the afterlife, 'the Byzantines had no ‘system’ around the last things.

Eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of Contemporary era, present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic and non-Abrah ...

remained for them an open horizon within theology He also stated that the belief in toll houses was "an error" which "must be regarded as an opinion, even if sometimes a popular one in sometimes popular times and places, rather than a fundamental element of the orthodox Christian faith." He stated that since " ch a doctrine was almost unknown during the first millennium, and even during the second, it remains but one vision of the fate of the soul among other alternatives"; he adds that since the only references to this belief during the first millennium are to be found in St. Athanasius' ''Life of Anthony'', in an homily "widely regarded as spurious y attributed to Cyril of Alexandria, and in "pious tales attributed to a certain Macarius and Anastasius of Sinai", the doctrine "fails spectacularly" to pass the test of the

Vincentian canon The ' or ''Commonitory'' is a 5th-century Christian treatise written after the council of Ephesus under the pseudonym "" and attributed to Vincent of Lérins. Has good notes. It is known for Vincent's famous maxim: "Moreover, in the Catholic Churc ...

. He adds that moreover the E. Orthodox prayer for the dead does not mention toll houses. Shoemaker states that the belief that when the soul leaves the body it is met by angels and demons who fight to get the soul and that the outcome of the fight is greatly influenced by the sins of the soul, is a separate belief to that of the toll houses. He says this belief, contrarily to the toll houses belief, was "expressed by a number of

astern This list of ship directions provides succinct definitions for terms applying to spatial orientation in a marine environment or location on a vessel, such as ''fore'', ''aft'', ''astern'', ''aboard'', or ''topside''. Terms * Abaft (prepositi ...

Orthodox writers across the ages", but that it remains an opinion "among many other

Orthodox opinions about what happens to the soul after it leaves the body."

Puhalo and Azkoul

The

Holy Synod In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox ...

of the

Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (), also called Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia or ROCOR, or Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). Currently, t ...

had a session on "a controversy raised by Deacon Lev. ," the main opponent of the toll-house teaching. The resolution stated the Holy Synod "demands the cessation in our magazines of controversy", "this controversy must be ended on both sides", and "Deacon Lev Puhalo is forbidden to lecture in the parishes." Michael Azkoul argues that

is its only contemporary theological proponent. Rose, an American Orthodox hieromonk and theologian, wrote a book on the subject, ''The Soul After Death''. While Ignatius Brianchaninov, John Maximovich, Rose and Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos endeavored to demonstrate that this teaching is derived from patristic and other church sources, his opponents, among them Azkoul and Archbishop (a retired hierarch in the

Orthodox Church in America The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church based in North America. The OCA consists of more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In ...

, who had previously been defrocked from the

Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (), also called Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia or ROCOR, or Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Pat ...

), found his conclusions questionable. However, two dedicated chapters in the book ''The Departure of the Soul According to the Teaching of the Orthodox Church'' allegedly reveal for the first time over 100 falsifications, misrepresentations, and errors in Puhalo's and Azkoul's writings. Puhalo reportedly falsified reproduction of several ancient icons and falsified translations of the writings and lives of several saints, while Azkoul is said to have falsified several patristic texts. Both writers' works are asserted to contain an inordinate number of gross misrepresentations and errors, all attempting to support their allegedly incorrect opinions about the Eastern Orthodox teaching on the toll-houses.