We meet many people at the monastery doors and in letters whose first request is simple and tender: “Please, remember us in your prayers.” In the Church, remembrance is never a formality. It is an act of love. When we place a name before God — quietly, faithfully, day after day — we entrust that person to the mercy that never fails.
Two long-loved practices help us keep such remembrance steady and attentive: the Sorokoust and the Sleepless Psalter. What follows is a brief introduction for those unfamiliar with these practices, meant to help our readers understand what these are and why they matter — not as curiosities of another tradition, but as living ways the Church bears one another’s burdens in Christ.
Sorokoust is a term from the Slavic Orthodox tradition meaning a forty-day cycle of prayer offered for someone’s welfare or repose. Etymologically it is Slavic, from sorok (“forty”) + usta (“mouths”), hence the familiar gloss “forty mouths,” a vivid way of speaking about sustained communal remembrance.
In the Greek-speaking Church, a forty-day pattern of remembrance has long been kept: memorial prayers for the departed culminate on the fortieth day (often called the forty-day memorial), and the term sarakostē (modern Sarakosti) denotes “the fortieth,” commonly a forty-day period. The consonance between Greek sarakostē and Slavic sorokoust is incidental in form yet related and meaningful in substance: both point to the Church’s ancient forty-day rhythm of remembrance and renewal.
In our usage, sorokoust means a forty-day remembrance at the Divine Liturgy for a person — whether living, for health and salvation, or departed, for rest and forgiveness.
At the Liturgy’s preparation (the Proskomedia), the priest remembers by name those entrusted to prayer and takes a small particle from the prosphora (the offering bread). After Holy Communion, these particles are placed into the Chalice with a prayer for forgiveness and mercy. When this remembrance is kept each day for forty consecutive Liturgies, we call it a Sorokoust.
Why forty? In Scripture and in the Church’s life, forty marks a complete span of spiritual labor and transition: Moses on Sinai, the Lord’s fast in the wilderness, the forty days from the Resurrection to the Ascension. The Church, with a mother’s heart, prays intensely for the newly departed until the fortieth day, when a memorial is kept; and she often continues thereafter. Sorokoust simply gathers this care into a deliberate rhythm: every day, at the holy table, a name is offered to God.
Sorokoust is kept for the living and for the departed alike. For the living, it is requested for those under treatment, in grave decisions, amid trials, or in thanksgiving after deliverance. For the departed, it is kept with the same steadfast care. In all such cases, the meaning is the same: a sustained appeal to the Lord’s compassion; a stretch of days in which the Church refuses to let go of the one we love.
Although Sorokoust literally refers to forty days, in practice Orthodox churches often allow these commemorations to be extended far beyond a single 40-day period. In essence, these longer offerings are achieved by repeating the 40-day prayer cycle or by continuously keeping the person’s name on the diptychs (prayer list) at Liturgy throughout the extended period. The term "Sorokoust" in this context is honorary – it denotes the type of prayer (forty-day liturgical remembrance) even if it’s multiplied or continually renewed.
In our monastery, this continued spiritual support can be extended beyond the first forty days — for six months, one year, or even ten years — so that a name remains steadily present at the Liturgy over a long season. This does not change the nature of the prayer; it deepens the fidelity with which it is offered.
Alongside the Liturgy stands another ancient labor of intercession: the Sleepless Psalter. In this rule, the Psalter (the 150 psalms) is read aloud without interruption — day and night — by readers taking turns. The reading follows the Church’s inherited order (the twenty kathismata, each divided into three stases), with brief commemorations made at the appointed places. When the bell summons us to the regular services, the continuous reading yields; when the service ends, the psalms begin again. Thus, within the heartbeat of the monastic day, the psalms become a quiet river of prayer that never runs dry.
This is not about novelty. The psalms are the Church’s prayer and they school the heart in hope, repentance, and thanksgiving. Kept unceasingly, with names before the Lord, they serve as a constant intercession for the living and the departed. One sister hands over to another, and the remembrance goes on.
The Sleepless Psalter is considered a paraliturgical or extra-liturgical devotion. Because it’s outside the prescribed canonical services, it is possible to commemorate non-Orthodox Christians during it. Thus, it becomes a bridge of prayer reaching beyond the visible boundaries of the Church.
As with the Sorokoust, a name may be included in this continuous reading for a defined period — forty days, six months, one year — or for a longer span such as ten years. The meaning is simple: through day and night, the Church keeps watch and intercedes.
Both the Sorokoust and the Sleepless Psalter proceed from one conviction: in Christ, love remembers. The Church does not measure prayer by volume or emotion but by faithfulness. A daily remembrance at the Liturgy; an unbroken recitation of the psalms — these are steady, concrete ways of loving our neighbor before the face of God.
They also teach us the sobriety of prayer. We do not attempt to describe the hidden things of God or to promise outcomes. We ask. We commend. We tell the truth about our need and about His mercy. We believe the Lord hears, and we entrust the rest to Him. For the newly departed, this means the Church walks with them — praying, giving alms, keeping memorials — especially until the fortieth day and beyond. For the living, this means we do not merely say “we will pray for you,” but we actually do: quietly, daily, for as long as is needed.
These practices also keep us grounded in the life of the Church. Sorokoust ties remembrance to the Eucharist, where our prayer is gathered into the one Sacrifice of Christ. The Sleepless Psalter surrounds the hours with the word of God — not as background, but as breath. Both teach patience: prayer that does not hurry, does not grasp, does not draw attention to itself. They are, in a modest way, kenotic — a self-emptying of time and attention for the sake of another before God.
Because the number often invites questions, a short note may help. In the Bible and in the Church’s experience, forty is not a superstition; it is a pedagogy. It marks a full span of watching and waiting, of repentance and preparation, of crossing over from one state to another. When a Christian reposes, the Church keeps this forty-day watch with love and hope. When we pray for the living over forty days, we are simply adopting the same discipline: not a quick remedy, but a patient offering of days to God.
If you would like us to remember someone by name, we will be glad to do so. You can share names for Sorokoust (forty days at the Divine Liturgy) or for the Sleepless Psalter (continuous psalm-reading), and — if you wish — ask that this remembrance continue for six months, one year, or ten years.
Please write the names as you would like them remembered, indicating whether each is for the living (“for health and salvation”) or for the departed (“for the repose”).To request prayer, kindly use our prayer request form:
We will add the names to our lists and begin the remembrance without delay.
We live by the promise that no one is forgotten before the Lord. The Church’s remembrance is not loud; it is faithful. Whether through forty days at the Liturgy or through the psalms read without ceasing, we place a name in the merciful hands of Christ and keep it there. This is our small obedience; this is our consolation. If you desire such remembrance for those you love — or for yourself — let us keep watch together in prayer.
“May their memory be eternal. And to the living — many years.”
