Patristic Testimony on the Tollhouses: the

Eastern Fathers
Conversation 2, Part 2
When the holy fathers praised the Son of God’s ascetic labor on the cross, they directed their
attention to the fact that Jesus Christ died on the Cross without touching the earth; that is, between
heaven and earth. And liturgically interpreting these circumstances, they say that Christ conquers
the master (devil) in his own palace.
Those who have parted their bodies do not rise so easily to the heavens as the neo-Protestants and
our own renovationists would have it. There is a good deal of testimony in the holy fathers about
the aerial tollhouses. For example, St. Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria, in his “Life of
St. Anthony the Great” describes the following:
One day, at the beginning of the ninth hour, when the venerable one (Anthony), began to pray
before taking food, he was suddenly taken up in the Spirit and carried by the angels to the
heights. The aerial demons tried to prevent his ascent; the angels who argued with them
demanded that they state their reasons for preventing Anthony, for he had no sins. The
demons tried to expose sins he had committed from his very birth, but the angels shut the
mouths of the slanderers, telling them that they should not enumerate his sins committed
since his birth, which have already been blotted out by Christ’s grace. But let them present the
sins—if there are any—he committed after he became a monk and dedicated himself to God.
While making their accusations the demons pronounced many brazen lies; but since their
slander was unfounded, a free path was opened to Anthony. He then immediately came to
himself and saw that he was standing in the same place that he had stood for prayer.
Forgetting all about food, he spent the entire night in tears and lamentations, pondering on the
multitude of mankind’s enemies, on the struggle with such an army, and the difficult path to
heaven through the air.[1]
Here St. Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria, tells us that when our prayer is raised to
God, the evil spirits under the heavens strive to stop it. Not only is the soul’s ascent to the Kingdom
of Heaven complicated—like a certain hovering—but prayer itself will be complicated, as it breaks
through to the Heavens only with difficulty. And if there were no helpers—the angels, and primarily
our guardian angel and the saint whose name we bear—then it would be hard for us to persevere in
this difficult battle.
The reason for the devil and demons’ hatred for us

The Slavonic word, mytarstvo [“tollhouses”], comes from the word mytar (Greek τελώνης; Latin
publicanus). A publican is a tax collector. In a certain sense the demons play the role of certain
spiritual creditors. In that part of our lives where we sin, we, voluntarily or involuntarily, have
identified ourselves with them. They see a part of themselves in us, and consider that we are as if
indebted to them.
On the other hand, since for the devil and the demons, who were formerly angels (created from the
light of “immaterial fire”,[2] compare: Ps. 103:4), access to the heavenly mansions is completely
closed, they can out of envy try to prevent us (who are made of dust) from entering. St. John
Damascene wrote, “An angel is of rational nature… It is not capable of repentance, because it is
bodiless. For man received repentance due to the infirmity of his body.”[3] On the other hand, their
envy of man is originally conditioned upon the fact that the devil “is the angel out of these angelic
powers who stood at the head of the earthly ranks, and whom God had entrusted with guarding the
earth… he became proud against God Who created him, wanted to oppose Him, and was the first to
fall from blessedness, finding himself in evil.”[4]
Thus, we can see several reasons for the hatred that the devil and demons have against mankind:
1. They were created from immaterial light (flames), and we were created from dust.
2. For the very reason that their nature is higher, repentance is closed to them; while for us, for the
sake of our bodily infirmity, repentance is open.
3. The devil and demons lost both the Heavenly Kingdom and authority over the earth, while man,
who is born on earth, can enter the Kingdom of Heaven (in the heavens).
Thus, the only way to get their revenge against us for their losing both heaven and earth is to halt us
in the aerial tollhouses, in the space between heaven and earth.
When a sinner tries to pass through the tollhouses, they (the demons) try to detain what they
consider their own. For God is the Source of holiness, and there is no sin in Him. But the sinner
who has not purified himself for sanctity has a certain part of his life that definitely belongs to
satan, the devil, and demons of all stripes. And they demand what is theirs, saying, “He is ours; he is
a fornicator, a murderer, a drunkard, a slanderer, an evil-doer.” And they demand like tax collectors
what they count as justly theirs.
Here a question arises: If a person is a sinner, then why doesn’t he desire what is natural for him? If
he is a sinner it means that he is full of sins; it means that he has evil as a part of his life, like
something welded to his nature. Why then does the soul nevertheless reach for God? Because God
is his Creator. Every soul instinctively perceives God, regardless of whether he believes in Him or
not, whether he’s Orthodox Christian or not, or even whether he’s a total atheist. The soul hungers
and thirsts for God. In the Scripture is written: For in him we live, and move, and have our being
(Acts 17:28).
There exists a connection between the Creator and the creation; any part of creation exists only
because God continues to have a dialogue with it. Through Him we live, move, and exist; and if
God were to cease His dialogue with any part of creation, all creation would momentarily cease to
exist. Therefore the holy fathers say that even in hell, forms of mutual existence between the
Creator and the creation will continue, because nothing can exist outside of God. It is written, If I go
down into hades, Thou art present there… And I said: Surely darkness shall tread me down… For
darkness will not be darkness with Thee, and night shall be bright as the day; as is the darkness
thereof, even so shall the light thereof be (Ps. 138:8, 11-12). But the perception of God in hades can
only increase the torment of the suffering sinner, suffering from the torments demanded of him by
divine Love, “in the fire of his own diabolic egoism, recognizing his own sins, eaten away by fiery
worms of desperation and the gnawing of conscience.”[5]
Testimony of the Eastern fathers on the tollhouses
St. Ephraim the Syrian: “When the reigning powers approach, when the terrible army comes, when
the divine confiscators command the soul to move out of the body, when, drawing us out by force,
they lead us to the inescapable judgment, then seeing them the wretched man… comes to a totally
shaken state, as from an earthquake, and trembles all over… The divine confiscators, pulling out the
soul, ascend through the air where stand the directors, authorities, and rulers of the world of enemy
forces. These are our evil accusers, strange tax collectors, accountants, and tribute takers; they meet
us on the way, describe, peruse, and enumerate the sins and handwriting of the whole person, the
sins of youth and old age, voluntary and involuntary, committed in deed, word, and thought. There
is great fear, great trembling of the poor soul, indescribable want that it then suffers from the
countless multitude of dark enemies surrounding it and slandering it in order to keep it from
ascending to heaven, settling into the light of the living, and stepping into the country of life. But
the holy angels who have taken the soul carry it away.”[6]
St. Macarius the Great: “When the human soul leaves the body, a great mystery takes place. For if
it is guilty of sins, the legions of demons, evil angels, and dark powers take this soul and drag it to
their side. For if a man while still alive and in this world submitted, gave himself over, and was
enslaved to them, then won’t they possess him and enslave him even more when he leaves this
world? As for the other, better portion of the people, it all happens differently. That is, angels, the
holy spirits, surround the holy slaves of God and protect them even in this life. And when their
souls are parted from their bodies, the ranks of angels receive them into their company, into bright
life, and thus lead them to the Lord.”[7]
St. Maximos the Confessor: “What man like me, defiled by the impurity of sin, is not afraid of the
presence of holy angels who at God’s behest can take by force a person having to leave this life;
take him wrathfully and against his will? What man who is aware of his evil deeds is not afraid to
meet the cruel and merciless evil demons?”[8]
St. John Chrysostom: “There much prayer is needed, many aides, many good deeds, and great
intercession from the angels while passing through the aerial spaces. If when we travel in a foreign
country or city we need a guide, then how much more do we need guides and aides to lead us past
the invisible rulers of the world or this air, called persecutors, publicans, and tax-collectors!...”
Speaking for reposed Christian infants, Chrysostom elegizes and theologizes: “The holy angels
peacefully separated us from our bodies, and we freely escaped the rulers of the air. We had reliable
leaders! The evil spirits did not find what they were looking for in us, and didn’t see what they
wanted to see. Seeing an undefiled body they were put to shame; they did not find wicked words in
us and fell silent. We passed by and humiliated them; we passed through them and trampled them
down; the net is broken, and we were delivered. Blessed is the Lord, Who has not given us a prey to
their teeth! (Ps. 123:6-7). When it was finished the angels who led us rejoiced; they kissed us who
were justified, and said with gladness, ‘Lambs of God! We glorify your arrival here; the ancestral
paradise is open to you; the bosom of Abraham is offered to you. The right hand of the Master has
received you; His voice has summoned you to His right side. He has looked upon you with well-
disposed eyes; He has written you in the Book of the Living.’ And we said, ‘Lord! Righteous Judge!
You have deprived us of earthly blessings—do not deprive us of the heavenly. You have taken us
from our fathers and mothers—take us not from Your saints. The mark of Baptism has been
preserved whole on us—we present our bodies to You pure because of our infancy.”[9]
Next: Testimony of the Western fathers of the Church on the tollhouses
Archpriest Oleg Stenyayev
Translation by Nun Cornelia (Rees)
Pravoslavie.ru
07 / 11 / 2016
[1] St. Ignatius (Branchaninov), Works, vol. 3 (“Christian Life” fund: 2002), 210-211.
[2] This is St. John Damascene’s expression.
[3] St. John Damascene. Exact presentation of the Orthodox Faith, Book 2, chap. III (Moscow:
Sretensky Monastery Publishing, 2003), 84.
[4] Ibid., chap. IV, 90.
[5] St. Justin (Popovich), Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church: Eschatology (Moscow: Publishing
Dept. of the Moscow Patriarchate, 2005), 54.
[6] Cited from Metropolitan Makary (Bulgakov), Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (St. Petersburg,
1853) 5:80.
[7] Ibid., 81-82.
[8] Ibid., 84.
[9] Cited from St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), A Homily on Death. The Aerial Tollhouses (St.
Petersburg, 2011). See footnote: “Margarite. Homily on patience and thankfulness and how we
should not weep inconsolably over the dead.” St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote, “This homily is
to be read on the seventh Saturday after Pascha and at every burial of the dead. Western
critics consider that this homily does not belong to Chrysostom, but from ancient times it was
consecrated by the Eastern Church for reading at the divine services.”

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