For Christians, death was the passage from an earthly life to another, eternal one. Many customs associated with death and burial in the Byzantine period originated from the Greco-Roman antiquity, and some have been preserved even to this day in the Orthodox East.

The best possible death for someone was considered the one finding the man at home, with his family surrounding him, expressing him their love and forgiveness and ready to listen and accept his final wishes (like the dying of Digenis Akritas). In many cases, just before dying, the dying man made ​​his will to a notary and called a priest for his last confession and communion. Generally, people were dying much younger in comparison with our time. In fact judging by the many obituaries that have been preserved, it seems that many people died at infantry or at a young age.

A series of ritual acts followed the advent of death, which comprised the closing of the deceased’s mouth and eyes and the washing of his corpse with water and flavored wine. Then they wrapped his corpse with white linen bands or with white cloths following the tradition of the first years of the Roman Empire, or they dressed him in his finest cloths, depending on both his social and economical status. In some cases, they placed a coin on the mouth of the deceased in order for him to pay for the journey to the other world. In continuation, they put the dead person in a coffin or somewhere else (like a table or a bed) with his head facing to the west. The hands of the deceased were crossed at the chest or the abdomen and he was holding an icon. They embellished the deathbed with tree branches and herbs, like in antiquity. When the deceased was an archpriest he was wearing all his vestments, while priests and monks wore their black robes and were put in the coffin holding the Bible or a psalter.

They used to awake the dead, staying with him all night long before the funeral. During the wake the close relatives manifested very strongly their grief, often reaching an exaggerating point. They were tearing up their clothes, pulling their hair, screaming, hitting their fists to their face and head. All these provoked the intervention of the Church Fathers that tried to tone down these acts. Lamentations, which are mournful songs that excluded the virtues of the dead, were among the most common way of expressing grief.

In rare cases these songs were chanting by professional lamentation chanters. The exaggeration that was observed in them though, brought their banning by order of the Doge of Venice, issued in the 14th century, according to which the treat of imprisonment and the payment of a fine awaited those who would not obey.
 
After the vigil of the deceased and after twenty-four hours passed since his death, the deceased was led to the church where the funeral was held. The coffin was transferred by relatives, friends and even professional bearers to the final resting place. The funeral procession was also accompanied by priests, chanters and a crowd of people holding lighted candles in their hands. Among them were members of the guild where the dead person belonged to. At evening after the funeral, the family of the deceased used to prepare a meal for the relatives, friends and clergy.
 
The burial of the dead was mandatory, even in war time, as it was defined in the military texts containing instructions for the military men.

The form of the tomb depended on both the social and economical status of the deceased. The most simple and economic one was a simple pit in the ground, covered by stone slabs or tiles. Some graves had built walls like a box (cist) and were covered by a stone or an arch. On the ground of the grave, a cross and a plate (tombstone) with the name and the age of the deceased were placed. The richest graves, reserved for the emperors, were the sarcophagi, large boxes (coffins) made of marble, stone or clay, with sculpted or painted decoration on them.

The memorial prayers for the repose of the soul of the dead took place on the third, ninth and fortieth day, and at the completion of one year of their death. Initially, at the memorial services food was offered to the poor and also to the friends and relatives of the deceased. Later these meals were replaced, especially in the Greek East, by boiled wheat, consisting of wheat mixed with pomegranate seeds, almonds, walnuts, raisins and pine nuts, which are also offered today.

The declaration of mourning for the Byzantines was an inviolable custom that was expressed in various ways. Besides cutting their hair, which often occurred during the wakefulness of the deceased, the close relatives of the dead used to wear black clothes -kings wore white- and avoided wearing jewellery. Also, they refrained from washing, they wore dirty clothes and they fasted for some time. The heavy mourning period in Byzantium, following the roman custom, lasted nine days, while the normal one lasted at least one year.