Abstract
The article discusses the transformation of burial practices and forms of handling the dead body during the Enlightenment period. This is a key period, when for the first time in Christian era an enlightened state adopted a whole set of measures the aim of which was to marginalize interaction between the worlds of the living and the dead – in the name of preserving public health.
Thus alongside the priest, the doctor now won a central place at the deathbed. The notorious “burials in sacks” represent only a part of a large set of measures, which interfered with thousand-year old traditions and sensibility of the population of (not only) our country.