Who carries the soul once it has departed from the body?

In the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus, when Lazarus died, righteous angels came and bore his soul to the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:22). St. John Chrysostom says that the souls of the wicked are borne by evil angels after their death. In his twenty-second homily St. Macarius says that groups of demons and powers of darkness take the soul of the wicked.¹¹⁷⁸ And St. Cyril of Alexandria remarks that at a pure soul’s departure, “it is borne by holy angels through the air and ascends … the holy angels guide the soul and present the good deeds of the soul.”¹¹⁷⁹

1178 St. Macarius the Great, Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St. Macarius the Egyptian , trans., A. J. Mason (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1921) 22: p. 171.

1179 See St. Cyril of Alexandria, On the Departure of the Soul (De Exitu Animi) 14 (PG 77:1073).