Delighting in the Smell of Death?

I’m rereading Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov this year, in a marvelous new translation from Michael R. Katz. A lengthy portion of the book centers on the memories and teachings of Father Zosima, a saintly elder in a Russian Orthodox monastery who serves as a spiritual hero to the novel’s protagonist, the novice Alyosha Karamazov.Shortly after the elder Zosima—revered for his holiness and wisdom—dies, his body begins to decay rapidly. Unlike other holy men and women whose corpses were said t