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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > D > Prayers for the Dead


PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD

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This subject will be treated under the following three heads:

 * General statement and proof of Catholic doctrine
 * Questions of detail
 * Practice in the British and Irish Churches


GENERAL STATEMENT AND PROOF

Catholic teaching regarding prayers for the dead is bound up inseparably with
the doctrine of purgatory and the more general doctrine of the communion of the
saints, which is an article of the Apostle's Creed. The definition of the
Council of Trent (Sess. XXV), "that purgatory exists, and that the souls
detained therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but especially by
the acceptable sacrifice of the altar", is merely a restatement in brief of the
traditional teaching which had already been embodied in more than one
authoritative formula — as in the creed prescribed for converted Waldenses by
Innocent III in 1210 (Denzinger, Enchiridion, n. 3 73) and more fully in the
profession of faith accepted for the Greeks by Michael Palaeologus at the Second
Ecumenical Council of Florence in 1439: "[We define] likewise, that if the truly
penitent die in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by worthy
fruits of penance for their sins of commission and omission, their souls are
purified by purgatorial pains after death; and that for relief from these pains
they are benefitted by the suffrages of the faithful in this life, that is, by
Masses, prayers, and almsgiving, and by the other offices of piety usually
performed by the faithful for one another according to the practice [instituta]
of the Church" (ibid., n. 588). Hence, under "suffrages" for the dead, which are
defined to be legitimate and efficacious, are included not only formal
supplications, but every kind of pious work that may be offered for the
spiritual benefit of others, and it is in this comprehensive sense that we speak
of prayers in the present article. As is clear from this general statement, the
Church does not recognize the limitation upon which even modern Protestants
often insist, that prayers for the dead, while legitimate and commendable as a
private practice, are to be excluded from her public offices. The most
efficacious of all prayers, in Catholic teaching, is the essentially public
office, the Sacrifice of the Mass.



Coming to the proof of this doctrine, we find, in the first place, that it is an
integral part of the great general truth which we name the communion of saints.
This truth is the counterpart in the supernatural order of the natural law of
human solidarity. Men are not isolated units in the life of grace, any more than
in domestic and civil life. As children in Christ's Kingdom they are as one
family under the loving Fatherhood of God; as members of Christ's mystical body
they are incorporated not only with Him, their common Head, but with one
another, and this not merely by visible social bonds and external co-operation,
but by the invisible bonds of mutual love and sympathy, and by effective
co-operation in the inner life of grace. Each is in some degree the beneficiary
of the spiritual activities of the others, of their prayers and good works,
their merits and satisfactions; nor is this degree to be wholly measured by
those indirect ways in which the law of solidarity works out in other cases, nor
by the conscious and explicit altruistic intentions of individual agents. It is
wider than this, and extends to the bounds of the mysterious. Now, as between
the living, no Christian can deny the reality of this far-reaching spiritual
communion; and since death, for those who die in faith and grace, does not sever
the bonds of this communion, why should it interrupt its efficacy in the case of
the dead, and shut them out from benefits of which they are capable and may be
in need? Of very few can it be hoped that they have attained perfect holiness at
death; and none but the perfectly holy are admitted to the vision of God. Of
few, on the other hand, will they at least who love them admit the despairing
thought that they are beyond the pale of grace and mercy, and condemned to
eternal separation from God and from all who hope to be with God. On this ground
alone it has been truly said that purgatory is a postulate of the Christian
reason; and, granting the existence of the purgatorial state, it is equally a
postulate of the Christian reason in the communion of saints, or, in other
words, be helped by the prayers of their brethren on earth and in heaven. Christ
is King in purgatory as well as in heaven and on earth, and He cannot be deaf to
our prayers for our loved ones in that part of His Kingdom, whom he also loves
while He chastises them. For our own consolation as well as for theirs we want
to believe in this living intercourse of charity with our dead. We would believe
it without explicit warrant of Revelation, on the strength of what is otherwise
revealed and in obedience to the promptings of reason and natural affection.
Indeed, it is largely for this reason that Protestants in growing numbers are
giving up today the joy-killing doctrine of the Reformers, and reviving Catholic
teaching and practice. As we shall presently see, there is no clear and explicit
warrant for prayers for the dead in the Scriptures recognized by Protestants as
canonical, while they do not admit the Divine authority of extra-Scriptural
traditions. Catholics are in a better position.


ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE

Omitting some passages in the Old Testament which are sometimes invoked, but
which are too vague and uncertain in their reference to be urged in proof (v.g.
Tobias, iv, 18; Sirach 7:37; etc.), it is enough to notice here the classical
passage in II Machabees, xii, 40-46. When Judas and his men came to take away
for burial the bodies of their brethren who had fallen in the battle against
Gorgias, "they found under the coats of the slain some of the donaries of the
idols of Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all plainly saw,
that for this cause they were slain. Then they all blessed the just judgment of
the Lord, who had discovered the things that were hidden. And so betaking
themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed
might be forgotten...And making a gathering, he [Judas] sent twelve [al. two]
drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the
dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection (for if he had
not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed
superfluous and vain to pray for the dead), and because he considered that they
who had fallen asleep in godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is
therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be
loosed from sins." For Catholics who accept this book as canonical, this passage
leaves nothing to be desired. The inspired author expressly approves Judas's
action in this particular case, and recommends in general terms the practice of
prayers for the dead. There is no contradiction in the particular case between
the conviction that a sin had been committed, calling down the penalty of death,
and the hope that the sinners had nevertheless died in godliness — an
opportunity for penance had intervened.



But even for those who deny the inspired authority of this book, unequivocal
evidence is here furnished of the faith and practice of the Jewish Church in the
second century B.C. — that is to say, of the orthodox Church, for the sect of
the Sadducees denied the resurrection (and, by implication at least, the general
doctrine of immortality), and it would seem from the argument of which the
author introduces in his narrative that he had Sadducean adversaries in mind.
The act of Judas and his men in praying for their deceased comrades is
represented as if it were a matter of course; nor is there anything to suggest
that the procuring of sacrifices for the dead was a novel or exceptional thing;
from which it is fair to conclude that the practice — both private and
liturgical — goes back beyond the time of Judas, but how far we cannot say. It
is reasonable also to assume, in the absence of positive proof to the contrary,
that this practice was maintained in later times, and that Christ and the
Apostles were familiar with it; and whatever other evidence is available from
Talmudic and other sources strongly confirms this assumption, if it does not
absolutely prove it as a fact (see, v.g., Luckock, "After Death", v, pp. 50
sq.). This is worth noting because it helps us to understand the true
significance of Christ's silence on the subject — if it be held on the
incomplete evidence of the Gospels that He was indeed altogether silent — and
justifies us in regarding the Christian practice as an inheritance from orthodox
Judaism.

We have said that there is no clear and explicit Scriptural text in favour of
prayers for the dead, except the above text of II Machabees. Yet there are one
or two sayings of Christ recorded by the Evangelists, which are most naturally
interpreted as containing an implicit reference to a purgatorial state after
death; and in St. Paul's Epistles a passage of similar import occurs, and one or
two other passages that bear directly on the question of prayers for the dead.
When Christ promises forgiveness for all sins that a man may commit except the
sin against the Holy Ghost, which "shall not be forgiven him, neither in this
world nor in the world to come" (Matthew 12:31-32), is the concluding phrase
nothing more than a periphrastic equivalent for "never"? Or, if Christ meant to
emphasize the distinction of worlds, is "the world to come" to be understood,
not of the life after death, but of the Messianic age on earth as imagined and
expected by the Jews? Both interpretations have been proposed; but the second is
far-fetched and decidedly improbable (cf. Mark 3:29); while the first, though
admissible, is less obvious and less natural than that which allows the implied
question at least to remain: May sins be forgiven in the world to come? Christ's
hearers believed in this possibility, and, had He Himself wished to deny it, He
would hardly have used a form of expression which they would naturally take to
be a tacit admission of their belief. Precisely the same argument applies to the
words of Christ regarding the debtor who is cast into prison, from which he
shall not go out till he has paid the last farthing (Luke 12:59).

Passing over the well-known passage, 1 Corinthians 3:14 sq., on which an
argument for purgatory may be based, attention may be called to another curious
text in the same Epistle (15:29), where St. Paul argues thus in favour of the
resurrection: "Otherwise what shall they do that are baptized for the dead, if
the dead rise not again at all? Why are they then baptized form them?" Even
assuming that the practice here referred to was superstitious, and that St. Paul
merely uses it as the basis of an argumentum ad hominem, the passage at least
furnishes historical evidence of the prevalence at the time of belief in the
efficacy of works for the dead; and the Apostle's reserve in not reprobating
this particular practice is more readily intelligible if we suppose him to have
recognized the truth of the principle of which it was merely an abuse. But it is
probable that the practice in question was something in itself legitimate, and
to which the Apostle gives his tacit approbation. In his Second Epistle to
Timothy (1:16-18; 4:19) St. Paul speaks of Onesiphorus in a way that seems
obviously to imply that the latter was already dead: "The Lord give mercy to the
house of Onesiphorus" — as to a family in need of consolation. Then, after
mention of loyal services rendered by him to the imprisoned Apostle at Rome,
comes the prayer for Onesiphorus himself, "The Lord grant unto him to find mercy
of the Lord in that day" (the day of judgment); finally, in the salutation, "the
household of Onesiphorus" is mentioned once more, without mention of the man
himself. The question is, what had become of him? Was he dead, as one would
naturally infer from what St. Paul writes? Or had he for any other cause become
separated permanently from his family, so that prayer for them should take
account of present needs while prayers for him looked forward to the day of
judgment? Or could it be that he was still at Rome when the Apostle wrote, or
gone elsewhere for a prolonged absence from home? The first is by far the
easiest and most natural hypothesis; and if it be admitted, we have here an
instance of prayer by the Apostle for the soul of a deceased benefactor.


ARGUMENTS FROM TRADITION

The traditional evidence in favour of prayers for the dead, which has been
preserved

 * in monumental inscriptions (especially those of the catacombs),
 * in the ancient liturgies, and
 * in Christian literature generally, is so abundant that we cannot do more in
   this article than touch very briefly on a few of the more important
   testimonies.

1. Monumental inscriptions The inscriptions in the Roman Catacombs range in date
from the first century (the earliest dated is from A.D. 71) to the early part of
the fifth; and though the majority are undated, archaeologists have been able to
fix approximately the dates of a great many by comparison with those that are
dated. The greater number of the several thousand extant belong to the
ante-Nicene period — the first three centuries and the early part of the fourth.
Christian sepulchral inscriptions from other parts of the Church are few in
number compared with those in the catacombs, but the witness of such as have
come down to us agrees with that of the catacombs. Many inscriptions are
exceedingly brief and simple (PAX, IN PACE, etc.), and might be taken for
statements rather than prayers, were it not that in other cases they are so
frequently and so naturally amplified into prayers (PAX TIBI, etc.). There are
prayers, called acclamatory, which are considered to be the most ancient, and in
which there is the simple expression of a wish for some benefit to the deceased,
without any formal address to God. The benefits most frequently prayed for are:
peace, the good (i.e. eternal salvation), light, refreshment, life, eternal
life, union with God, with Christ, and with the angels and saints — e.g. PAX
(TIBI, VOBIS, SPIRITUI TUO, IN ÆTERNUM, TIBI CUM ANGELIS, CUM SANCTIS); SPIRITUS
TUUS IN BONO (SIT, VIVAT, QUIESCAT); ÆTERNA LUX TIBI; IN REFREGERIO ESTO;
SPIRITUM IN REFRIGERIUM SUSCIPIAT DOMINUS; DEUS TIBI REFRIGERET; VIVAS, VIVATIS
(IN DEO, IN [Chi-Rho] IN SPIRITO SANCTO, IN PACE, IN ÆTERNO, INTER SANCTOS, CUM
MARTYRIBUS). For detailed references see Kirsch, "Die Acclamationen", pp. 9-29;
Cabrol and Leclercq, "Monumenta Liturgica" (Paris, 1902), I, pp. ci-cvi, cxxxix,
etc. Again there are prayers of a formal character, in which survivors address
their petitions directly to God the Father, or to Christ, or even to the angels,
or to the saints and martyrs collectively, or to some one of them in particular.
The benefits prayed for are those already mentioned, with the addition sometimes
of liberation from sin. Some of these prayers read like excerpts from the
liturgy: e.g. SET PATER OMNIPOTENS, ORO, MISERERE LABORUM TANTORUM, MISERE(re)
ANIMAE NON DIG(na) FERENTIS (De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., II a, p. ix).
Sometimes the writers of the epitaphs request visitors to pray for the deceased:
e.g. QUI LEGIS, ORA PRO EO (Corpus Inscript. Lat., X, n. 3312), and sometimes
again the dead themselves ask for prayers, as in the well-known Greek epitaph of
Abercius (see INSCRIPTION OF ABERCIUS), in two similar Roman epitaphs dating
form the middle of the second century (De Rossi, op. cit., II, a, p. xxx,
Kirsch, op. cit., p. 51), and in many later inscriptions. That pious people
often visited the tombs to pray for the dead, and sometimes even inscribed a
prayer on the monument, is also clear form a variety of indications (see
examples in De Rossi, "Roma Sotteranea", II, p. 15). In a word, so overwhelming
is the witness of the early Christian monuments in favour of prayer for the dead
that no historian any longer denies that the practice and the belief which the
practice implies were universal in the primitive Church. There was no break of
continuity in this respect between Judaism and Christianity.



2. Ancient liturgies

The testimony of the early liturgies is in harmony with that of the monuments.
Without touching the subject of the various liturgies we possess, without even
enumerating and citing them singly, it is enough to say here that all without
exception — Nestorian and Monophysite as well as Catholic, those in Syriac,
Armenian, and Coptic as well as those in Greek and Latin — contain the
commemoration of the faithful departed in the Mass, with a prayer for peace,
light, refreshment and the like, and in many cases expressly for the remission
of sins and the effacement of sinful stains. The following, from the Syriac
Liturgy of St. James, may be quoted as a typical example: "we commemorate all
the faithful dead who have died in the true faith...We ask, we entreat, we pray
Christ our God, who took their souls and spirits to Himself, that by His many
compassions He will make them worthy of the pardon of their faults and the
remission of their sins" (Syr. Lit. S. Jacobi, ed. Hammond, p. 75).

3. Early Christian literature

Turning finally to early literary sources, we find evidence in the apocryphal
"Acta Joannis", composed about A.D. 160-170, that at that time anniversaries of
the dead were commemorated by the application of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
(Lipsius and Bonnet, "Acta Apost. Apocr.", I, 186). The same fact is witnessed
by the "Canons of Hippolytus" (Ed. Achelis, p. 106), by Tertullian (De Cor.
Mil., iii, P.L., II, 79), and by many later writers. Tertullian also testifies
to the regularity of the practice of praying privately for the dead (De
Monogam., x, P.L., II, 942); and of the host of later authorities that may be
cited, both for public and private prayers, we must be content to refer to but a
few. St. Cyprian writes to Cornelius that their mutual prayers and good offices
ought to be continued after either should be called away by death (Ep. lvii,
P.L., III, 830 sq.), and he tells us that before his time (d. 258) the African
bishops had forbidden testators to nominate a priest as executor and guardian in
their wills, and had decreed, as the penalty for violating this law, deprivation
after death of the Holy Sacrifice and the other offices of the Church, which
were regularly celebrated for the repose of each of the faithful; hence, in the
case of one Victor who had broken the law, "no offering might be made for his
repose, or any prayer offered in the Church in his name" (Ep. lxvi, P.L., IV,
399). Arnobius speaks of the Christian churches as "conventicles in
which...peace and pardon is asked for all men...for those still living and for
those already freed from the bondage of the body" (Adv. Gent., IV, xxxvi, P.L.,
V, 1076). In his funeral oration for his brother Satyrus St. Ambrose beseeches
God to accept propitiously his "brotherly service of priestly sacrifice"
(fraternum munus, sacrificium sacerdotis) for the deceased ("De Excessu Satyri
fr.", I, 80, P.L., XVI, 1315); and, addressing Valentinian and Theodosius, he
assures them of happiness if his prayers shall be of any avail; he will let no
day or night go past without remembering them in his prayers and at the altar
("De Obitu Valent.", 78, ibid., 1381). As a further testimony from the Western
Church we may quote one of the many passages in which St. Augustine speaks of
prayers for the dead: "The universal Church observes this law, handed down from
the Fathers, that prayers should be offered for those who have died in the
communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their
proper place at the Sacrifice" (Serm. clxxii, 2, P.L., XXXVIII, 936). As
evidence of the faith of the Eastern Church we may refer to what Eusebius tells
us, that at the tomb of Constantine "a vast crowd of people together with the
priests of God offered their prayers to God for the Emperor's soul with tears
and great lamentation" (Life of Constantine IV.71). Acrius, a priest of Pontus,
who flourished in the third quarter of the fourth century, was branded as a
heretic for denying the legitimacy and efficacy of prayers for the dead. St.
Epiphanius, who records and refutes his views, represent the custom of praying
for the dead as a duty imposed by tradition (Adv. Haer., III, lxxx, P.G., XLII,
504 sq.), and St. Chrysostom does not hesitate to speak of it as a "law laid
down by the Apostles" (Hom., iii, in Philipp., i, 4, P.G., LXII, 203).


OBJECTIONS ALLEGED

No rational difficulty can be urged against the Catholic doctrine of prayers for
the dead; on the contrary, as we have seen, the rational presumption in its
favour is strong enough to induce belief in it on the part of many whose rule of
faith does to allow them to prove with entire certainty that it is a doctrine of
Divine revelation. Old-time Protestant objections, based on certain texts of the
Old Testament and on the parable of Dives and Lazarus in the New, are admitted
by modern commentators to be either irrelevant or devoid of force.

The saying of Ecclesiastes (xi, 3) for instance, "if the tree fall to the south,
or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall, there shall it be", is
probably intended merely to illustrate the general theme with which the writer
is detailing in the context, viz. the inevitableness of natural law in the
present visible world. But even if it be understood of the fate of the soul
after death, it can mean nothing more than what Catholic teaching affirms, that
the final issue — salvation or damnation — is determined irrevocably at death;
which is not incompatible with a temporary state of purgatorial purification for
the saved.

The imagery of the parable of Lazarus is too uncertain to be made the basis of
dogmatic inference, except as regards the general truth of rewards and
punishments after death; but in any case it teaches merely that one individual
may be admitted to happiness immediately after death while another may be cast
into hell, without hinting anything as to the proximate fate of the man who is
neither a Lazarus nor a Dives.


QUESTIONS OF DETAIL

Admitting the general teaching that prayers for the dead are efficacious, we are
naturally led on to inquire more particularly:

 * What prayers are efficacious?
 * For whom and how far are they efficacious?
 * How are we, theoretically, to conceive and explain their efficacy?
 * What disciplinary laws has the Church imposed regarding her public offices
   for the dead?

We shall state briefly what is needful to be said in answer to these questions,
mindful of the admonition of the Council of Trent, to avoid in this matter those
"more difficult and subtle questions that do not make for edification" (Sess.
XXV).


WHAT PRAYERS ARE EFFICACIOUS?

The Sacrifice of the Mass has always occupied the foremost place among prayers
for the dead, as will be seen from the testimonies quoted above; but in addition
to the Mass and to private prayers, we have mention in the earliest times of
almsgiving, especially in connection with funeral agapae, and of fasting for the
dead (Kirsch, Die Lehre von der Gemeinschaft der Heiligen, etc., p. 171; Cabrol,
Dictionnaire d'archeologie, I, 808-830). Believing in the communion of saints in
which the departed faithful shared, Christians saw no reason for excluding them
from any of the offices of piety which the living were in the habit of
performing for one another. The only development to be noted in this connection
is the application of Indulgences for the dead. Indulgences for the living were
a development from the ancient penitential discipline, and were in use for a
considerable time before we have any evidence of their being formally applied
for the dead. The earliest instance comes from the year 1457. Without entering
into the subject here, we would remark that the application of Indulgences for
the dead, when properly understood and explained, introduces no new principle,
but is merely an extension of the general principle underlying the ordinary
practice of prayer and good works for the dead. The church claims no power of
absolving the souls in purgatory from their pains, as on earth she absolves men
from sins. It is only per modum suffragii, i.e. by way of prayer, that
Indulgences avail for the dead, the Church adding her official or corporate
intercession to that of the person who performs and offers the indulgenced work,
and beseeching God to apply, for the relief of those souls whom the offerer
intends, some portion of the superabundant satisfactions of Christ and His
saints, or, in view of those same satisfactions, to remit some portion of their
pains, in what measure may seem good to His own infinite mercy and love.


FOR WHOM AND HOW FAR ARE THEY EFFICACIOUS?

To those who die in wilful, unrepented mortal sin, which implies a deliberate
turning away from God as the last end and ultimate good of man, Catholic
teaching holds out no hope of eventual salvation by a course of probation after
death. Eternal exile from the face of God is, by their own choice, the fate of
such unhappy souls, and prayers are unavailing to reverse that awful doom. This
was the explicit teaching of Christ, the meek and merciful Saviour, and the
Church can but repeat the Master's teaching (see HELL). But the Church does not
presume to judge individuals, even those for whom, on other grounds, she refuses
to offer her Sacrifice and her prayers [see below, (4)], while it may happen, on
the contrary, that some of those for whom her oblations are made are among the
number of the damned. What of such prayers? If they cannot avail to the ultimate
salvation of the damned, may it at least be held that they are not entirely
unavailing to procure some alleviation of their sufferings, some temporary
refrigeria, or moments of mitigation, as a few Fathers and theologians have
suggested? All that can be said in favour of this speculation is, that the
Church has never formally reprobated it. But the great majority of theologians,
following St. Thomas (In Sent. IV, xlv, q. ii, a. 2), consider it rash and
unfounded. If certain words in the Offertory of the Mass for the Dead, "Lord
Jesus Christ, deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of
hell, and the deep abyss", seem originally to have suggested an idea of
deliverance from the hell of the damned, this is to be understood not of rescue,
but of preservation from that calamity. The whole requiem Office is intensely
dramatic, and in this particular prayer the Church suppliant is figured as
accompanying the departed soul into the presence of its Judge, and praying, ere
yet sentence is pronounced, for its deliverance from the sinner's doom. On the
other hand, prayers are needless for the blessed who already enjoy the vision of
God face to face. Hence in the Early Church, as St. Augustine expressly assures
us (Serm. cclxxv, 5, P.L., XXXVIII, 1295), and as is otherwise abundantly clear,
prayers were not offered for martyrs, but to them, to obtain the benefit of
their intercession, martyrdom being considered an act of perfect charity and
winning as such an immediate entrance into glory. And the same is true of saints
whom the Church has canonized: they no longer need the aid of our prayers on
earth. It is only, then, for the souls in purgatory that our prayers are really
beneficial. But we do not and cannot know the exact degree in which benefits
actually accrue to them, collectively or individually. The distribution of the
fruits of the communion of saints among the dead, as among the living, rests
ultimately in the hands of God, and is one of the secrets of His economy. We
cannot doubt that it is His will that we should pray not only for the souls in
purgatory collectively, but individually with whom we have been bound on earth
by special personal ties. Nor can we doubt the general efficacy of our rightly
disposed prayers for our specially chosen ones as well as for those whom we
leave it to Him to choose. This is sufficient to inspire and to guide us in our
offices of charity and piety towards the dead; we may confidently commit the
application of their fruits to the wisdom and justice of God.


HOW ARE WE, THEORETICALLY, TO CONCEIVE AND EXPLAIN THEIR EFFICACY?

For a theoretical statement of the manner in which prayers for the dead are
efficacious we must refer to the articles MERIT and SATISFACTION, in which the
distinction between these terms and their technical meanings will be explained.
Since merit, in the strict sense, and satisfaction, as inseparable from merit,
are confined to this life, it cannot be said in the strict sense that the souls
in purgatory merit or satisfy by their own personal acts. But the purifying and
expiatory value of their discipline of suffering, technically called
satispassio, is often spoken of in a loose sense as satisfaction. Speaking of
satisfaction in the rigorous sense, the living can offer to God, and by
impetration move Him graciously to accept, the satisfactory value of their own
good works on behalf of the souls in purgatory, or in view of it to remit some
part of their discipline; in this sense we may be said to satisfy for the dead.
But in order that the personal works of the living may have any satisfactory
value, the agents must be in the state of grace. The prayers of the just are on
this account more efficacious in assisting the dead than the prayers of those in
sin, though it does not follow that the general impetratory efficacy is
altogether destroyed by sin. God may hear the prayers of a sinner for others as
well as for the supplicant himself. The Sacrifice of the Mass, however, retains
its essential efficacy in spite of the sinfulness of the minister; ad the same
is true in lesser degree, of the other prayers and offices offered by the
Church's ministers in her name.


CHURCH LAWS REGARDING PUBLIC OFFICES FOR THE DEAD

There is no restriction by Divine or ecclesiastical law as to those of the dead
for whom private prayer may be offered — except that they may not be offered
formally either for the blessed in heaven or for the damned. Not only for the
faithful who have died in external communion with the Church, but for deceased
non-Catholics, even the unbaptized, who may have died in the state of grace, one
is free to offer his personal prayers and good works; nor does the Church's
prohibition of her public offices for those who have died out of external
communion with her affect the strictly personal element in her minister's acts.
For all such she prohibits the public offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass (and
of other liturgical offices); but theologians commonly teach that a priest is
not forbidden to offer the Mass in private for the repose of the soul of any one
who, judging by probable evidence, may be presumed to have died in faith and
grace, provided, at least, he does not say the special requiem Mass with the
special prayer in which the deceased is named, since this would give the
offering a public and official character. This prohibition does not extend to
catechumens who have died without being able to receive baptism (see, v.g.,
Lehmkuhl, "Theol. Moralis", II, n. 175 sq.). For other cases in which the Church
refuses her public offices for the dead, the reader is referred to the article
CHRISTIAN BURIAL. (See also MASS; INDULGENCE; PURGATORY.)


PRACTICE IN THE BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES

The belief of our forefathers in the efficacy of prayers for the dead is most
strikingly shown by the liturgy and ritual, in particular by the collects at
Mass and by the burial service. See, for instance, the prayers in the Bobbio
Missal, the Durham Ritual, Leofric's Missal, the Salisbury Rite, the Stowe
Missal, etc. But it should also be noted that this belief was clearly
formulated, and that is was expressed by the people at large in numerous
practices and customs. Thus, Venerable Bede declares that "some who for their
good works have been preordained to the lot of the elect, but whom because of
some bad deeds stained with which they went forth out of the body, are after
death seized upon by the flames of the purgatorial fire, to be severely
chastised, and either are being cleansed until the day of judgment from the
filth of their vices by this long trial, or, being set free from punishment by
the prayers, the alms-deeds, the fasts, the tears of faithful friends, they
enter, undoubtedly before that time, into the rest of the blessed" (Homily xlix,
ed. Martène, Thes. Aneed., p. 326).



The Council of Calcuth (816) ordained that at a bishop's death the bell of every
parish church should call the people together to sing thirty Psalms for the soul
of the departed (Wilkins, Concilia, I, 171.). In the Missal of Leofric (d. 1072)
are found special prayers varying according t the condition and sex of the
departed. Archbishop Theodore (d. 690), in the penitential ascribed to him, and
St. Dunstan (d. 988), in his "Concordia", explain at length the commemoration of
the departed on the third, seventh, and thirtieth day after death. The month's
mind (moneth's mynde) in that age signified constant prayer for the dead person
during the whole month following his decease. In every church was kept a "Book
of Life", or register of those to be prayed for, and it was read at the
Offertory of the Mass. This catalogue was also known as the "bead-roll" and the
prayers as "bidding the beads". The "death-bill" was a list of the dead which
was sent around at stated times from one monastery to another as a reminder of
the agreement to pray for the departed fellow-members. These rolls were
sometimes richly illustrated, and in passing from one religious house to another
they were filled in with verses in honour of the deceased. The laity also were
united in the fellowship or prayer for the dead through the guilds, which were
organized in every parish. These associations enjoined upon their members
various duties in behalf of the departed, such as taking part in the burial
services, offering the Mass-penny, and giving assistance to the alms-folks, who
were summoned at least twice a day to bid their beads at church for the departed
fellows of the guild. Among other good works for the dead may be mentioned: the
"soul-shot", a donation of money to the church at which the funeral service took
place, the "doles", i.e. alms distributed to the poor, the sick, and the aged
for the benefit of a friend's soul; the founding of chantries for the support of
one or more priests who were to offer Mass daily for the founder's soul; and the
"certain", a smaller endowment which secured for the donor's special benefit the
recitation of the prayers usually said by the priest for all the faithful
departed. The universities were often the recipients of benefactions, e.g. to
their libraries, the terms of which included prayers for the donor's soul; and
these obligations are set down in the university statutes. These various forms
of charity were practised not only by the common people but also, and on a very
generous scale, by the nobility and royalty. Besides the bequests they made,
they often provided in their will for granting freedom to a certain number of
bondmen, and left lands to the Church on condition that the anniversary of their
death should be kept by fasting, prayer, and the celebration of Masses. For a
more complete account see Lingard, "History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon
Church", ch. ix; and Rock, "The Church of Our Fathers" (London, 1852), II, III.

Strange as it must seem to any one acquainted with the history of Ireland,
various attempts have been made to prove that in the early Irish Church the
practice of praying for the dead was unknown. Notable among these is Ussher's
"Discourse of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and British" (1631;
Vol. IV of "Complete Works", Dublin, 1864). Cf. Killen, "The Ecclesiastical
History of Ireland" (London, 1875), I; and Cathcart, "The Ancient British and
Irish Churches" (London, 1894). The weakness of Ussher's argument has been shown
by several Catholic writers, e.g. Lanigan, "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland"
(Dublin, 864), appendix. More careful study has convinced competent non-Catholic
writers also that "to pray for the dead was a recognized custom in the ancient
Celtic as in every other portion of the primitive Church" (Warren, The Liturgy
and Ritual of the Celtic Church, Oxford, 1881). This statement is borne out by
various documents. The Synod of St. Patrick ("Synodus alia S. Patricii" in
Wilkins, "Concilia") declares, ch. vii: "Hear the Apostle saying: "there is a
sin unto death; I do not say that for it any one do pray". And the Lord: "Do not
give the holy to dogs". For he who did not deserve to receive the Sacrifice
during life, how can it help him after his death?" The reference to the custom
of offering Mass for the departed is obvious; the synod discriminates between
those who had observed, and those who had neglected, the laws of the Church
concerning the reception of the Eucharist.

Still more explicit is the declaration found in the ancient collection of canons
known as the "Hibernensis" (seventh or eighth century): "Now the Church offers
to the Lord in many ways; firstly, for herself, secondly for the Commemoration
of Jesus Christ who says "Do this for a commemoration of me", and thirdly, for
the souls of the departed" (Bk. II, ch. ix; Wasserschleben, "Die irische
Kononensammlung", 2nd. ed., Leipzig, 1885). In the fifteenth book of the
"Hibernensis", entitled "On Care for the Dead", there is a first chapter "On the
four ways in which the living assist the dead". Quoting from Origen, it is said
that "the souls of the departed are released in four ways: by the oblations of
priests or bishops to God, by the prayers of Saints, by the alms of Christians,
by the fasting of friends". There follow eight chapters entitled: (2) On those
for whom we should offer; (3) On sacrificing for the dead; (4) On prayer for the
dead; (5) On fasting for the dead; (6) On almsgiving for the dead; (7) On the
value of a redeemed soul; (8) On not seeking remission after death when it has
not been sought for in life; (9) On the care of those who have been snatched
away by sudden death (Wasserschleben, op. cit.). Each of these chapters cites
passages from the Fathers — Augustine, Gregory, Jerome — thus showing that the
Irish maintained the belief and practice of the Early Church. that prayers were
to be offered only for those who died in the Faith is evident from certain
prescriptions in St. Cummian's Penitential according to which a bishop or abbot
was not to be obeyed if he commanded a monk to sing Mass for deceased heretics;
likewise, if it befell a priest singing Mass that another, in reciting the names
of the dead, included heretics with the Catholic departed, the priest, on
becoming aware of this was to perform a week's penance. In the Leabhar Breae,
various practices on behalf of the faithful departed are commended. "There is
nothing which one does on behalf of the soul of him who has died that doth not
help it, both prayer on knees, and abstinence and singing requiems and frequent
blessings. Some are bound to do penance for their deceased parents." (Whitley
Stokes, Introd. to "Vita Tripartita"). It is not, then, surprising that the
Irish Culdees of the eighth century has as part of their duty to offer
"intercessions, in the shape of litanies, on behalf of the living and the dead"
(Rule of the Culdees, ed. Reeves, Dublin, 1864, p. 242). The old Irish civil law
(Senchus Mor, A.D. 438-441) provided that the Church should offer requiem for
all tenants of ecclesiastical lands. But no such enactments were needed to stir
up individual piety.

Devotion to the souls departed is a characteristic that one meets continually in
the lives of the Irish saints. In the life of St. Ita, written about the middle
of the seventh century, it is related that the soul of her uncle was released
from purgatory through her earnest prayers and the charity which, at her
instance, his eight sons bestowed (Colgan, Acta SS. Hiberniae, pp. 69-70).

St. Pulcherius (Mochoemog), in the seventh century, prayed for the repose of the
soul of Ronan, a chieftain of Ele, and recommended the faithful to do likewise.
In the life of St. Brendan, quoted, singularly enough, by Ussher, we read, "that
the prayer of the living doth profit much the dead." In the "Acta S. Brendani",
edited by Cardinal Moran, the following prayer is given (p. 39):

> Vouchsafe to the souls of my father and mother, my brothers, sisters, and
> relations, and of my friends, enemies and benefactors, living and dead,
> remission of all their sins, and particularly those persons for whom I have
> undertaken to pray.

At the death of St. Columbanus (615), his disciple, St. Gall, said: After this
night's watch, I understood by a vision that my master and father, Columbanus,
today departed out of the miseries of this life into the joys of paradise. For
his repose, therefore, the sacrifice of salvation ought to be offered; and "at a
signal from the bell [the brethren] entered the oratory, prostrated themselves
in prayer and began to say masses and to offer earnest petitions in
commemoration of the blessed Columbanus" (Walafrid Strabo, Vita B. Galli, I,
Cap. xxvi). Cathcart (op. cit., 332) cites only the words narrating the vision,
and says: "they show conclusively that heaven was the immediate home after death
of all the early Christians of Great Britain and Ireland." But the truth is that
praying for the dead was a traditional part of the religious life. Thus, when
St. Gall himself died, a bishop who was his intimate friend offered the Holy
Sacrifice for him — "pro carissimo salutares hostias immolavit amico" (ibid.,
ch. xxx). The same is recorded of St. Columba when he learned of the death of
Columbanus of Leinster (Adamnan, Vita S. Col., III, 12). These facts are the
more significant because they show that prayers were offered even for those who
had been models of holy living. Other evidences are furnished in donations to
monasteries, ancient inscriptions on gravestones, and the requests for prayers
with which the writers of manuscripts closed their volumes. These and the like
pious practices were after all but other means of expressing what the faithful
heard day by day at the memento for the dead in the Mass, when prayer was
offered for those "who have gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in
the sleep of peace" (Stowe Missal). (See Salmon, "The Ancient Irish Church",
Dublin, 1897; Bellesheim, "Gesch. d. katholischen Kirche in Irland", Mainz,
1890, I, and bibliography there given.)




SOURCES

In addition to works mentioned in the text see, among theologians: BELLARMINE,
De Purgatorio, Bk. II: PERRONE, Praelectiones Theol., De Deo Creatore, n. 683
sq.; JUNGMANN, De Novissimis, n. 104 sq.; CHR. PESCH, Praelectiones Dogmat., IX,
n. 607 sq.; also BERNARD and BOUR, Communion des Saints in Dict. de théologie
cath.; GIBBONS, The Faith of Our Fathers (Baltimore, 1871), xvi. To the
historical authorities mentioned should be added ATZBERGER, Geschichte der
christlichen Eschatologie innerhalb der vornicanischen Zeit (Freiburg im Br.,
1896). Cf. also OXENHAM, Catholic Eschatology (2nd ed., London, 1878), ii; and
among Anglicans, LUCKOCK, After Death (new ed., London, 1898), Part I; and
PLUMPTRE, The Spirits in Prison and other Studies on the Life after Death
(popular ed., London, 1905), ix.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Toner, P. (1908). Prayers for the Dead. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04653a.htm

MLA citation. Toner, Patrick. "Prayers for the Dead." The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04653a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T.
Barrett. Dedicated to the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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