No. We don’t use those categories the way Roman Catholics do.
That answer probably sounds too simple if you’re coming from a Catholic background. You’ve been taught that some sins kill sanctifying grace in the soul (mortal sins) while others merely wound it (venial sins). It’s a tidy system. But Orthodoxy approaches sin differently.
We talk about sin as sickness, not legal categories. Some sins make you sicker than others. Some are like a head cold. Others are like stage-four cancer. But we don’t divide them into two neat boxes with technical definitions about what severs your relationship with God and what doesn’t.
What we do instead
Orthodox theology recognizes that sins differ in seriousness. Obviously. Murder isn’t the same as losing your temper at your kids after a twelve-hour shift at the refinery. Adultery isn’t the same as a fleeting lustful thought you didn’t pursue. The Church Fathers wrote extensively about degrees of sin based on several factors: how deliberate the act was, how much you consented to it, whether it’s become habitual, and what damage it does to your soul and your communion with God and others.
St. John Chrysostom and other fathers often distinguished between a passing temptation, a thought you entertain briefly, and a fully deliberate act you plan and carry out. They understood human weakness. They also understood that some sins flow from deep-rooted passions (the eight deadly thoughts, as the desert fathers called them) while others are momentary failures.
But here’s the key difference from the Catholic framework: we’re not primarily asking “Did this sin kill sanctifying grace or just wound it?” We’re asking “How sick is this person’s soul, and what does he need to get well?”
Confession as hospital, not courtroom
When you go to confession in an Orthodox church, you’re not presenting your case before a judge who’ll determine whether you’ve committed a mortal sin and lost your salvation. You’re going to a hospital. The priest isn’t a judge. He’s more like a physician’s assistant, and Christ is the physician.
You confess your sins. The priest listens, offers counsel, might give you a penance (not as punishment but as medicine, maybe extra prayer, fasting, reading something specific, acts of mercy). Then he pronounces Christ’s forgiveness over you. You’re restored to full communion. You receive the Eucharist.
The whole process is therapeutic. We’re treating the disease, not tallying up legal infractions.
This doesn’t mean we take sin lightly. If anything, we take it more seriously because we see it as an ongoing battle, not a one-time legal problem. You can’t just confess a mortal sin, get absolution, and consider the slate wiped clean in some mechanical way. You’re working with your priest and your spiritual father to identify the passions underneath your sins and uproot them over time. That’s the work of a lifetime.
What about serious sins?
Some sins are obviously more serious. The canons of the Church historically prescribed longer periods of penance for things like murder, adultery, apostasy. In the early Church, public sinners sometimes couldn’t receive communion for years while they demonstrated repentance.
We don’t usually practice that severity today, but the principle remains: some sins wound you more deeply, damage the community more severely, and require more intensive spiritual care. A priest might tell someone struggling with a serious habitual sin to refrain from communion for a time, not as punishment but because receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is dangerous (as St. Paul warns in 1 Corinthians). That’s pastoral medicine, not legal penalty.
But even then, we’re not saying “You committed a mortal sin and are now in a state of mortal sin until you confess.” We’re saying “You’re very sick right now, and we need to help you heal before you can fully participate in the Eucharist again.”
Why this matters for you
If you’re coming from a Catholic background, this might feel less structured. You might miss the clarity of knowing exactly which sins are mortal and which aren’t. But most people find the Orthodox approach more humane. It treats you as a whole person, not a legal case. It recognizes that your struggle with anger after your divorce is different from your neighbor’s struggle with anger, even if you both yell at people.
If you’re coming from a Protestant background, this might feel like too much emphasis on confession and penance. You might worry we’re adding works to grace. But we’re not. We believe Christ’s grace heals us through the mysteries of the Church. Confession isn’t earning forgiveness. It’s receiving the medicine Christ offers through His Body, the Church.
Fr. Thomas Hopko used to say that in Orthodoxy, we’re being saved. Not we were saved (past tense, done deal) and not we hope to be saved someday (purely future). We’re in the process right now. And that process includes ongoing repentance, regular confession, the Eucharist, prayer, fasting, and the whole life of the Church.
Sin is real. It makes us sick. Some sins make us sicker than others. But Christ is the physician, the Church is the hospital, and confession is one of the ways we receive His healing. That’s what you need to know.
