The interment of a deceased
person with ecclesiastical rites in consecrated ground. The Jews and
most of the nations of antiquity buried their dead. Amongst the Greeks
and Romans both cremation and interment were practised indifferently.
That the early Christians from the beginning used only burial seems
certain. This conclusion may be inferred not only from negative
arguments but from the direct testimony of Tertullian, "De Corona"
(P.L., II, 92, 795; cf. Minucius Felix, "Octavius", xi in P.L., III,
266), and from the stress laid upon the analogy between the
resurrection of the body and the Resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians
15:42; cf. Tertullian, "De Animâ", lv; Augustine, "De civitate Dei", I,
13). In the light of this same dogma of the resurrection of the body as
well as of Jewish tradition (cf. Tobit 1:21; 12:12; Sirach 38:16; 2
Maccabees 12:39), it is easy to understand how the interment of the
mortal remains of the Christian dead has always been regarded as an act
of religious import and has been surrounded at all times with some
measure of religious ceremonial. The motives of Christian burial will
be more fully treated in the article CREMATION. As to the latter
practice, it will be sufficient to say here that, while involving no
necessary contradiction of any article of faith, it is opposed alike to
the law of the Church and to the usages of antiquity. In defense of the
Church's recent prohibitions, it may be urged that the revival of
cremation in modern times has in practice been prompted less by
considerations of improved hygiene or psychological sentiment than by
avowed materialism and opposition to Catholic teaching.
THE LAW OF THE CHURCH REGARDING BURIAL
According to the canon law
every man is free to choose for himself the burial ground in which he
wishes to be interred. It is not necessary that this choice should be
formally registered in his will. Any reasonable legal proof is
sufficient as evidence of his wishes in the matter, and it has been
decided that the testimony of one witness, for example his confessor,
may be accepted, if there be no suspicion of interested motives. (S.C.
Concilii, 24 march, 1871, Lex, 189.) Where no wish has been expressed
it will be assumed that the interment is to take place in any vault or
burial place which may have belonged to the deceased or his family, and
failing this the remains should be buried in the cemetery of the parish
in which the deceased had his domicile or quasi-domicile. Certain
exceptions, however, are recognized in the case of cardinals, bishops,
canons, etc. Formerly monastic and other churches claimed and enjoyed
under certain conditions the privilege of interring notable benefactors
within their precincts. It may be said that no such privilege is now
recognized as a matter of right to the detriment of the claim of the
parish. If a man die in a parish which is not his own, the canon law
prescribes that the body should be conveyed to his own parish for
interment if this is reasonably possible, but the parish priest of the
place where he died may claim the right of attending the corpse to the
place of burial. In fine, the principle is recognized that it belongs
to the parish priest to bury his own parishioners. The canon law
recognizes for regular orders the right to be buried in the cemetery of
their own monastery (Sägmäller, 453; l. Wagner in "Archiv f. kath.
Kirchenrecht", 1873, xxxix, 385; Kohn, ibid., xl, 329).
Originally, as burial was a
spiritual function, it was laid down that no fee could be exacted for
this without simony (Decretum Gratiani, xiii, q. ii; c. viii, ix;
Extrav. de sim., V, 3). But the custom of making gifts to the Church,
partly as an acknowledgment of the trouble taken by the clergy, partly
for the benefit of the soul of the departed, gradually became general,
and such offerings were recognized in time as jura stoloe which went to
the personal support of the parish priest or his curates. It was,
however, distinctly insisted upon that the carrying out of the rites of
the Church should not be made conditional upon the payment of the fee
being made beforehand, though the parish priest could recover such fee
afterwards by process of law in case it were withheld. Moreover in the
case of the very poor he is bound to bury them gratuitously. If a
parishioner elected to be buried outside his own parish, a certain
proportion, generally a fourth part, of the fee paid or the gifts that
might be made in behalf of the deceased on occasion of theburial was to
go to the priest of his own parish. Where an old custom existed, the
continuance of the payment of this fourth part under certain conditions
was recognized by the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV, De ref., c. xiii).
Nowadays the principle is still maintained, but generally the payment
to the proprius parochus takes the form of the fourth part of a
definite burial-fee which is determined according to some fixed tariff
(S. C. Ep. et Reg., 19 January, 1866; S.C. Conc., 16 February, 1889),
and which may be exacted by the parish priest for every burial which
takes place in his district. He has, however, no right to any
compensation if a non-parishioner dies and is taken back to his own
parish for burial, nor again when one of his own parishioners dies away
from home and has to be buried in the place of his demise.
Only baptized persons have
a claim to Christian burial and the rites of the Church cannot lawfully
be performed over those who are not baptized. Moreover no strict claim
can be allowed in the case of those persons who have not lived in
communion with the Church according to the maxim which comes down from
the time of Pope Leo the Great (448) "quibus viventibus non
communicavimus mortuis communicare non possumus" (i.e. we cannot hold
communion in death with those who inlife were not in communion with
us). It has further been recognized as a principle that the last rites
of the Church constitute a mark of respect which is not to be shown to
those who in their lives have proved themselves unworthy of it. In this
way various classes of persons are excluded from Christian burial --
pagans, Jews, infidels, heretics, and their adherents (Rit. Rom., VI,
c. ii) schismatics, apostates, and persons who have been excommunicated
by name or placed under an interdict. If an excommunicated person be
buried in a church or in a consecrated cemetery the place is thereby
desecrated, and, wherever possible, the remains must be exhumed and
buried elsewhere. Further, Christian burial is to be refused to
suicides (this prohibition is as old as the fourth century; cf. Cassian
in P.L., XL, 573) except in case that the act was committed when they
were of unsound mind or unless they showed signs of repentance before
death occurred. It is also withheld from those who have been killed in
a duel, even though they should give signs of repentance before death.
Other persons similarly debarred are notorious sinners who die without
repentance, those who have openly held the sacraments in contempt (for
example by staying away from Communion at Easter time to the public
scandal) and who showed no signs of sorrow, monks and nuns who are
found to have died in the possession of money or valuables which they
had kept for their own, and finally those who have directed that their
bodies should be cremated after death. In all such cases, however, the
general practice of the Church at the present day has been to interpret
these prohibitions as mildly as possible. Ordinarily the parish priest
is directed to refer doubtful cases to the bishop, and the bishop, if
any favourable construction can be found, allows the burial to proceed.
Many complications are
caused in the administration of the canon law by the political
conditions under which the Church exists in modern times in most
countries of the world. For instance, the question may often arise
whether a non-Catholic can beburied in a consecrated cemetery
belonging, not to the civil administration, but to the Church, and
perhaps adjoining the sacred building itself; or again in such a case
whether non-Catholic worshippers can perform their own rites at the
interment. As it often happened that a Catholic graveyard was the only
available place of burial in a large district, it has been decided as a
matter of necessity that in such cases it was possible to allow
Protestants to be buried in a consecrated graveyard (S. C. Inquis., 23
July, 1609). In some instances a special portion of ground has been set
aside for the purpose and non-Catholic ritual is permitted to be used
there. In cases of necessity the Catholic parish priest may preside at
such an interment, but he must not use any ritual or prayers that would
be recognized as distinctively Catholic. It hardly needs saying that at
the present day in almost every part of the world the prescriptions of
the canon law regarding burial are in conflict with secular legislation
in more than one particular. In such cases the Church is often
compelled to waive her right, in order to prevent greater evils. On the
other hand, we may notice that the Church's claim to exercise control
over the burial of her members dates back to an age anterior even to
the freedom given to Christianity under Constantine. From the beginning
the principle seems to have been insisted upon that the faithful should
be buried apart from the pagans. Thus St. Cyprian of Carthage makes it
a matter of reproach against a Spanish bishop Martial that he had not
sufficiently attended to this, and that he had tolerated "filios
exterarum gentium more apud profana sepulchra depositos et alienigenis
consepultos" (Cyprian, Ep. lxvii, 6). In the same way St. Hilary, a
century later, considers that Our Saviour warned His disciples against
a similar profanation "Admonuit non admisceri memoriis sanctorum
mortuos infideles" (Hilary, in S. Matt., vii). So also the Donatists
when they gained the upper hand were so deeply imbued with this
principle of exclusive sepulture that they would not allow the
Catholics to be buried in the cemeteries they had seized upon. "Ad hoc
basilicas invadere voluistis ut vobis solis coemeteria vindicetis, non
permittentes sepeliri corpora Catholica" (Optatus, VI, vii). With
regard to the exclusion of suicides from the consecrated burial grounds
it would appear that some similar practice was familiar to the pagans
even before Christianity had spread throughout the empire. Thus there
is a well-known pagan inscription of Lanuvium of the year 133:
"Quisquis ex quâcunque causâ mortem sibi asciverit eius ratio funeris
non habebitur." Probably this was not so much a protest of
outragedmorality as a warning that in the matter of burial no man had a
right to make himself prematurely a charge upon the community. The time
of burial is, generally speaking, between sunrise and sunset; any other
hour requires the permission of the bishop (Ferraris, s.v., 216, 274,
279). For the rest the diocesan statutes, regulations of the local
ecclesiastical authority, and custom are to be considered, also the
civil law and the public sanitary regulations.
THE RITUAL OF BURIAL
Speaking first of the
usages of the Catholic Church at the present day it will probably be
convenient to divide the various religious observances with which the
Church surrounds the mortal remains of her faithful children after
death into three different stages. The prayers and blessings which are
provided by the "Rituale" for use before death will best be considered
under the heading Death, Preparation for, but in the rites observed
after death we may distinguish first what takes place in the house of
the deceased and in bringing the body to the church, secondly the
function in the church and thirdly the ceremony by the grave side. In
practice, it is the exception for the whole of the Church's ritual to
be performed, especially in the case of the burial of the laity in a
large parish; but in religious houses and where the facilities are at
hand the service is generally carried out completely.
With regard to the
observances prescribed before the body is conveyed to the church it may
be noted that according to the rubrics prefixed to the title "De
exsequiis" in the "Rituale Romanum" a proper interval (debitum temporis
intervallum) ought to elapse between the moment of death and the
burial, especially where death has occurred unexpectedly, in order that
no doubt may remain that life is really extinct. In southern climates
it is not unusual to celebrate the funeral the day after the decease or
even upon the day itself, but the practice both in pagan and Christian
times has varied greatly. Among the ancient Romans it would seem that
the bodies of persons of distinction were commonly kept for seven days,
while the poor were interred the day after death. In these matters the
Church has generally been content to adopt the usages which were
already in possession. The washing of the corpse is so frequently
spoken of both in secular and monastic rituals as to wear almost the
aspect of a religious ceremony, but no special prayers are assigned to
it. Minute directions are given as to the clothing of the dead in the
case of all clergy. They are to be attired in ordinary ecclesiastical
costume and over this they are to wear the vestments distinctive of
their order. Thus the priest or bishop must be clad in amice, alb,
girdle, maniple, stole and chasuble. His biretta should be placed upon
his head and the tonsure should be renewed. The deacon similarly wears
his dalmatic and stole, the subdeacon his tunicle, and the cleric his
surplice. In practice it is usual in the case of a priest to place upon
the coffin lid a chalice and paten at one end with the biretta at the
other; but this is not ordered in the rubrics of the "Rituale". For the
laity it is directed that the body should be decently laid out, that a
light should be kept burning, that a small cross should, if possible,
be placed in the hands, failing which the hands are to be arranged in
the form of a cross, and that the body should occasionally be sprinkled
with holy water. The burning of more than one candle beside the body is
not directly enjoined for all, but it is mentioned in the
"Caeremoniale" in the case of a bishop and is of general observance. On
the other hand, it is mentioned that the debita lumina, the candles
which according to ancient custom are carried in the procession, ought
to be provided by the parish gratuitously in the case of the very poor,
and it is very distinctly enjoined that in exacting such fees as custom
prescribes on these occasions the clergy ought sedulously to avoid all
appearance of avarice. It is also laid down that the laity, even in the
case of crowned heads, are never to be carried to the grave by the
hands of the clergy -- a prescription which can be traced back to a
synod of Seville in 1512 and is probably much older. But in the Early
Church this does not seem to have been observed, for we have several
recorded instances in which ladies who died in repute of sanctity, as
for example St. Paula or St. Macrina, were carried to the grave by
bishops.
The first stage in the
obsequies of a deceased person according to the rite now in use is the
conveyance of the body to the church. At an appointed hour the clergy
are directed to assemble in the church, a signal being given by the
tolling of a bell. The parish priest in surplice and black stole, or if
he prefer it wearing a black cope as well, goes to the house of the
deceased with the rest of the company, one cleric carrying the cross
and another a stoup of holy water. Before the coffin is removed from
the house it is sprinkled with holy water, the priest with his
assistants saying beside it the psalm De Profundis with the antiphon Si
iniquitates. Then the procession sets out for the church. The
cross-bearer goes first, religious confraternities, if such there be,
and members of the clergy follow, carrying lighted candles, the priest
walks immediately before the coffin and the friends of the deceased and
others walk behind. As they leave the house the priest intones the
antiphon Exsultabunt Domino, and then the psalm Miserere is recited or
chanted in alternate verses by the cantors and clergy. On reaching the
church the antiphon Exsultabunt is repeated, and as the body is borne
to its place "in the middle of the church" the responsory Subvenite
(Come to his assistance ye Saints of God, come to meet him ye Angels of
the Lord, etc.) is recited. The present rubric directs that if the
corpse be that of a layman the feet are to be turned towards the altar;
if on the other hand the corpse be that of a priest, then the position
is reversed, the head being towards the altar. Whether this exceptional
treatment of priests as regards position is of early date in the West
is open to considerable doubt. No earlier example seems so far to have
been quoted than the reference to it in Burchard's "Diary" noted by
Catalani. Burchard was the master of ceremonies to Innocent VIII and
Alexander VI, and he may himself have introduced the practice, but his
speaking of it as the customary arrangement does not suggest this. On
the other hand, the medieval liturgists apparently know no exception to
their rule that both before the altar and in the grave the feet of all
Christians should be pointed to the East. This custom we find alluded
to by Bishop Hildebert at the beginning of the twelfth century (P.L.,
CLXXI, 896), and its symbolism is discussed by Durandus. "A man ought
so to be buried", he says, "that while his head lies to the West his
feet are turned to the East, for thus he prays as it were by his very
position and suggests that he is ready to hasten from the West to the
East" (Ration. Div. Off., VII, 35). But if Roman medieval practice
seems to offer no foundation for the distinction now made between the
priest and the layman, it is noteworthy that in the Greek Church very
pronounced differences have been recognized from an early date. In the
"Ecclesiastical Hierarchy" of Pseudo-Dionysius, which belong to the
fifth century, we learn that a priest or bishop was placed before the
altar (epiprosthen tou seiou thysiasteriou), while a monk or layman lay
outside the holy gates or in the vestibule. A similar practice is
observed to the present day. The corpse of a layman during the singing
of the "Panychis" (the equivalent of the "Vigiliae Mortuorum" or Vigil
of the Dead) is usually deposited in the narthex, that of a priest or
monk in the middle of the church, while in the case of a bishop he is
laid during a certain portion of the service in different positions
within the sanctuary, the body at one point being placed behind the
altar exactly in front of the bishop's throne and the head towards the
throne (Maltzew, Begrabniss-Ritus, 278) It is possible that some
imitation of this practice in Dalmatia or in Southern Italy may have
indirectly led to the introduction of our present rubric. The idea of
both seems to be that the bishop (or priest) in death should occupy the
same position in the church as during life, i.e. facing his people whom
he taught and blessed in Christ's name.
Supposing the body to have
been brought to the church in the afternoon or evening, the second
portion of the obsequies, that carried out in the church, may begin
with the recital of the Vespers for the Dead. This, however, is not
prescribed in the "Rituale Romanum", which speaks only of Matins and
Lauds, though Vespers are mentioned in the "Caeremoniale Episcoporum"
in the case of a bishop. If the Vespers for the Dead are said they
begin with the antiphon Placebo, and the Office of Matins, if we
exclude the invitatory, begins with the antiphon Dirige. For this
reason the "Placebo and Dirige," of which we so constantly find mention
in medieval English writers, mean simply the Vespers and Matins for the
Dead. It is from the latter of these two words that the English term
dirge is derived. Candles are lighted round the coffin and they should
be allowed to burn at least during the continuance of the Office, Mass,
and Absolutions. Throughout the Office for the Dead each psalm ends
with Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord, and let
perpetual light shine upon them) in the place of the Gloria Patri. It
is interesting perhaps to note here that the liturgist, Mr. Edmund
Bishop, after minute investigation has come to the conclusion that in
this familiar formula, Requiem oeternam dona eis, Domine; et lux
perpetua luceat eis, we have a blending of two distinct liturgical
currents' "the second member of the phrase expresses the aspiration of
the mind and soul of the Roman, the first the aspiration of the mind
and soul of the Goth" (Kuypers, Book of Cerne, 275). It is true that it
has been maintained that the words are borrowed from a passage in IV
Esdras (Apocrypha), ii, 34-35, but we may doubt if the resemblance is
more than accidental.
With regard to the Office
and Mass which form the second portion of the Exsequioe, the Matins
after a preliminary invitatorium: "Regem cui omnia vivunt, venite
adoremus", consist of nine psalms divided as usual into three nocturns
by three sets of lessons and responsories. The first nocturn, as
already noted, begins with the antiphon "Dirige, Domine Deus meus, in
conspectu tuo vitam meam", and is made up of the three psalms, Verba
mea, Ps. v, Domine ne in furore, Ps. vi, and Domine Deus meus, Ps. vii,
each having its own antiphon, which is duplicated. The lessons both in
this and in the following nocturns are all taken from the Book of Job,
chapters vii, x, xiii, xiv, xvii, and xix, in which the sufferer
expresses the misery of man's lot, but above all his unalterable trust
in God. The lessons are read without the usual absolution and blessing,
but each is followed by a responsory, and some of these responsories in
their picturesque conciseness deserve to be reckoned among the most
striking portions of the liturgy. We may quote for example the last
responsory of the third nocturn which occurs again before the
absolution. It is this translated in the Roman Breviary of the late
Marquess of Bute:
Deliver me, O Lord, from
eternal death in that awful day when the heavens and earth shall be
shaken, and Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Verse. Quaking and dread take hold upon me, when I look for the coming of the trial and the wrath to come.
Answer. When the heavens and the earth shall be shaken.
Verse. That day is a day of wrath, of wasteness and desolation, a great day and exceeding bitter.
Answer. When Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Verse. O Lord, grant them eternal rest, and let everlasting light shine upon them.
Answer. Deliver me, O
Lord, from eternal death in that awful day, when the heavens and the
earth shall be shaken and Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
There seems reason to
believe that this responsory is not of Roman origin (Batiffol, Roman
Breviary, 198) but it is of considerable antiquity. At present, if the
whole three nocturns (the second of which consists of Psalms 22, 24,
26; and the third of Psalms 39, 40 and 41) are not said owing to lack
of time or for any other cause, then another responsory, Libera me de
viis inferni, is sung in place of that just quoted. Lauds follow
immediately, in which the psalms Miserere and Te decet hymnus replace
those usually said at the beginning and the Canticle of Ezechias is
sung instead of the Benedicite. The Benedictus is recited with a
special antiphon from John, xi, 25-26. This is familiar to many as
having been retained in the burial service of the Church of England, "I
am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me
shall never die". Finally after certain preces follows the impressive
collect Absolve, which is also said in the Mass, "Absolve, we beseech
Thee, O Lord, the soul of thy servant N. that being dead to this world
he may live to Thee, and whatever sins he may have committed in this
life through human frailty, do Thou of Thy most merciful goodness
forgive; through our Lord Jesus Christ", etc.
The "Rituale" directs that
if all three nocturns of the office cannot be said, it would be
desirable to say at least the first. But it is even more emphatic in
urging that Mass should not be omitted except on certain privileged
festivals of the highest class which exclude a Mass for the dead
proesente cadavere, i.e. even when the body is present. These days
include the feasts of Christmas, the Epiphany, Easter, the Ascension,
Whitsunday, Corpus Christi, The Annunciation, Assumption and Immaculate
Conception, Nativity of St. John Baptist, St. Joseph, Sts. Peter and
Paul, All Saints, the last three days of Holy Week, the Quarant' Ore,
or Forty Hours, and certain patronal feasts. On all other days, roughly
speaking, the Church not only permits but greatly desires that the Holy
Sacrifice should be offered for the deceased as the most solemn part of
the rite of interment. To secure this the severer regulations of
earlier centuries have in many respects been greatly relaxed in recent
times. For example it is not now of obligation that the Mass should be
sung with music. In the case of poor people who cannot defray the
expenses incident to a Mass celebrated with solemnity, a simple low
Mass of Requiem is permitted even on Sundays and other prohibited days,
provided that the parochial Mass of the Sunday be also said at another
hour. Moreover this one Missa in die obitus seu depositionis may still
be offered in such cases, even when on account of contagious disease or
other serious reason the body cannot be brought to the church. As in
the case of the Office, the Mass for the Dead is chiefly distinguished
from ordinary Masses by certain omissions. Some of these, for example
that of the Psalm Judica and of the blessings, may be due to the fact
that the Missa de Requie was formerly regarded as supplementary to the
Mass of the day. In other cases, for instance in the absence of hymns
from the Office for the Dead, we may perhaps suspect that these funeral
rites have preserved the tradition of a more primitive age. On the
other hand, the suppression of the Gloria in excelsis, etc., as of the
Gloria Patri seems to point to a sense of the incongruity of joyful
themes in the presence of God's searching and inscrutable judgments.
Thus a tractate of the eighth or ninth century printed by Muratori
(Lit. Rom. Vet., II, 391) already directs that in the Vigils for the
Dead "Psalms and lessons with the Responsories and Antiphons belonging
to Matins are to be sung without Alleluia. In the Masses also neither
Gloria in exelsis Deo nor Alleluia shall be sung." (Cf. Ceriani, Circa
obligationem Officii Defunctorum, 9.)
In the early Christian
ages, however, it would seem that the Alleluia, especially in the East,
was regarded as specially appropriate to funerals. Another omission
from the ordinary ritual of high Mass is that of the kiss of peace.
This ceremony was always associated in idea with Holy Communion, and as
Communion was not formerly distributed to the faithful at Masses for
the Dead, the kiss of peace was not retained. A conspicuous feature of
the Requiem Mass is the singing of the sequence, or hymn, "Dies irae".
This masterpiece of medieval hymnology is of late introduction, as it
was probably composed by the Franciscan Thomas of Celano in the
thirteenth century. It was not designed for its present liturgical use
but for private devotion -- note the singular number throughout voca me
cum benedictis, quid sum miser tunc dicturus, etc., as also the
awkwardness of the added pie Jesu Domine dona eis requiem, but the hymn
appears printed in the "Missale Romanum" of 1485, though apparently not
in the earlier edition of 1474. However the use of the "Dies irae" in
connection with the exsequioe mortuorum is much more ancient, and Dr.
Ebner has found it, musically noted as at present, in a Franciscan
Missal of the thirteenth century. (Ebner, Quellen und Forschungen zur
Geschichte des Missale Romanum, 120). During the Mass it is customary,
though not a matter of precept, to distribute tapers of unbleached wax
to the congregation or at least to those assisting within the
sanctuary. These are to be lighted during the Gospel, during the latter
part of the Holy Sacrifice from the Elevation to the Communion, and
during the absolution which follows the Mass. As already remarked the
association of lights with Christian obsequies is very ancient, and
liturgists here recognize a symbolical reference to baptism (the
illumination, photismos) whereby Christians are made the children of
Light, as well as a concrete reminder of the oft repeated prayer et lux
perpetua luceat eis. (Cf. Thalhofer, Liturgik, II, 529.)
After Mass follows the
absolution or Absoute, to use the convenient term by which the French
designate these special prayers for pardon over the corpse before it is
laid in the grave. These prayers of the Absoute, like those said by the
grave side, ought never to be omitted. The subdeacon bearing the
processional cross, and accompanied by the acolytes, places himself at
the head of the coffin (i.e. facing the altar in the case of a layman,
but between the coffin and the altar in the case of a priest), while
the celebrant, exchanging his black chasuble for a cope of the same
colour, stands opposite at the foot. The assisting clergy are grouped
around and the celebrant without preamble begins at once to read the
prayer Non intres in judicium cum servo tuo, praying that the deceased
"may deserve to escape the avenging judgment, who, whilst he lived, was
marked with the seal of the holy Trinity". This is followed by the
responsory "Libera me Domine", which, as occurring in the Matins for
the Dead, has already been quoted above. Then after the Kyrie eleison,
Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison the priest says aloud the Pater Noster
and while this is repeated in silence by all, he makes the round of the
coffin, sprinkling it with holy water and bowing profoundly before the
cross when he passes it. After which, taking the thurible, he incenses
the coffin in like manner; where we may note that the use of incense at
funerals is derived from the earliest Christian centuries, though no
doubt our manner of waving the censer towards persons and objects is
relatively modern. Moreover it is possible that the incense was
originally employed on such occasions for sanitary reasons. Finally
after finishing the Pater Noster and repeating one or two short
versicles to which answer is made by the clergy, the celebrant
pronounces the prayer of absolution, most commonly in the following
form:
O God, Whose attribute it
is always to have mercy and to spare, we humbly present our prayers to
Thee for the soul of Thy servant N. which Thou has this day called out
of this world, beseeching Thee not to deliver it into the hands of the
enemy, nor to forget it for ever, but to command Thy holy angels to
receive it, and to bear it into paradise; that as it has believed and
hoped in Thee it may be delivered from the pains of hell and inherit
eternal life through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Although this prayer in its
entirety cannot be surely traced to an earlier date than the ninth
century, it contains several elements that recall the phraseology of
primitive times. It is to be found in most of our existing manuscripts
of the Gregorian Sacramentary. At the burial of bishops, cardinals,
sovereigns, etc., not one but five absolutions are pronounced according
to the forms provided in the "Pontificale Romanum". These are spoken by
five bishops or other "prelates", each absolution being preceded by a
separate responsory. In these solemn functions the prayer just quoted
is not said, but most of the responsories and prayers used are borrowed
from the Office for the Dead or from the Masses in the Roman Missal. It
may be noted that all these absolutions are not in the declaratory but
in the deprecatory form, i.e. they are prayers imploring God's mercy
upon the deceased.
After the absolution the
body is carried to the grave and as the procession moves along the
antiphon "In paradisum" is chanted by the clergy or the choir. It runs
thus: "May the angels escort thee to paradise, may the martyrs receive
thee at thy coming and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem. May the
choir of angels receive thee, and with Lazarus, who once was poor,
mayst thou have eternal rest." According to the rubric "the tomb
(sepulchrum) is then blessed if it has not been blessed previously";
which has been ruled to mean that a grave newly dug in an already
consecrated cemetery is accounted blessed, and requires no further
consecration, but a mausoleum erected above ground or even a brick
chamber beneath the surface is regarded as needing blessing when used
for the first time. This blessing is short and consists only of a
single prayer after which the body is again sprinkled with holy water
and incensed. Apart from this the service at the grave side is very
brief. The priest intones the antiphon: "I am the Resurrection and the
Life", after which the coffin is lowered into the grave and the
Canticle Benedictus is meanwhile recited or sung. Then the antiphon is
repeated entire, the Pater Noster is said secretly, while the coffin is
again sprinkled with holy water, and finally after one or two brief
responses the following ancient prayer is said: "Grant this mercy, O
Lord, we beseech Thee, to Thy servant departed, that he may not receive
in punishment the requital of his deeds who in desire did keep Thywill,
and as the true faith here united him to the company of the faithful,
so may Thy mercy unite him above to the choirs of angels. Through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen."
Then with the final
petition: "May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed
through the mercy of God rest in peace", the little procession of
cross-bearer, surpliced clerics, and priest return to the sacristy
reciting the De Profundis as they go. In some places the custom
prevails that the officiating priest before retiring should offer the
holy-water sprinkler to the relatives of the deceased who are present,
in order that they may cast holy water upon the coffin in the grave. In
others it is usual for the priest himself and for all present to throw
down upon the coffin a handful of earth. This custom symbolical no
doubt of "dust to dust" is certainly ancient and even in the "Rituale
Romanum" a rubric is to be found prescribing that "in obsequies which
have of necessity to be performed only in private and at the house of
the deceased, blessed earth is put into the coffin while the Canticle
Benedictus is being said". This no doubt is to be regarded as the
nearest available equivalent to interment in a consecrated grave. In
other localities, more particularly in Germany, it i[s] customary for
the priest to deliver a short discourse (Leichenrede) before leaving
the cemetery. This is the more appropriate because nearly everywhere in
Germany the civil law forbids the corpse to be taken to the church
except in the case of bishops and other exalted personages. The result
is that Mass and Office are performed with a catafalque only, and seem
even in those rare cases in which they are retained to have nothing to
do with the burial, instead of forming, as they should do, its most
essential feature. On the other hand the service at the grave side is
apt to appear strangely brief and perfunctory unless impressiveness be
given to it by the discourse of the officiating priest. It may be noted
that many local customs are still allowed to continue without
interference in the ritual observed by the grave side. Before the
Reformation there was an extraordinary variety of prayers and
responsories commonly recited over the grave especially in Germany. The
extreme simplicity of the "Rituale Romanum" represents no doubt a
reaction against what threatened to become an abuse. Of the peculiar
rites which so long survived locally, the Ritual of Brixen may be taken
as an illustration. In this when the priest blesses the corpse with
holy water, he is directed to say: "Rore coelesti perfundat et
perficiat animam tuam Deus". As the body is lowered into the ground he
says: "Sume terrâ quod tuum est, sumat Deus quod suum est, corpus de
terrâ formatum, spiritus de coelo inspiratus est". Then the priest
scatters earth upon the body with a shovel three times, saying,
"Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris". After this the
Magnificat is recited and the psalm Lauda anima mea Dominum, with
various prayers, and then with a wooden cross the priest signs the
grave in three places, at the head, in the middle, and at the feet,
with the words; "Signum Salvatoris Domini nostri Jesu Christi super te,
qui in hac imagine redemit te, nec permittat introire, [and here he
plants the wooden cross at the head of the grave] angelum percutientem
in aeternum". It is interesting to note that after once more blessing
the grave with holy water he recites a prayer over the people in the
vernacular. The clergy and all others present also sprinkle holy water
on the grave before they depart.
THE BURIAL OF LITTLE CHILDREN
The "Rituale Romanum"
provides a separate form of burial for infants and children who have
died before they have reached years of discretion. It directs that a
special portion of the cemetery should be set aside for them and that
either the bells should not be tolled or that they should be rung in a
joyous peal. Further, custom prescribes that white and not black should
be used in token of mourning. The priest is bidden to wear a white
stole over his surplice and a crown of flowers or sweet foliage is to
be laid upon the child's brow. The processional cross is carried, but
without its staff. The body may be borne to and deposited temporarily
in the church, but this is not prescribed as the normal arrangement and
in any case no provision is made for either Office or Mass. One or two
psalms of joyous import, e.g. the Laudate pueri Dominum (Ps. cxii), are
appointed to be said while the body is borne to the church or to the
cemetery, and holy water and incense are used to bless the remains
before they are laid in the ground. Two special prayers are included in
the ritual, one for use in the church, the other by the grave side. The
former, which is certainly ancient, runs as follows: "Almighty and most
compassionate God, Who upon all little children that have been born
again in the fountain of Baptism, when they leave this world without
any merits of their own, straightway bestowest everlasting life, as we
believe that Thou has this day done to the soul of this little one,
grant we beseech Thee, O Lord, by the intercession of Blessed Mary ever
Virgin and of all Thy saints, that we also may serve Thee with pure
hearts here below and may consort eternally with these blessed little
ones in paradise, Through Christ our Lord, Amen." On the way back to
the church the Canticle Benedicite is recited, and the prayer "Deus qui
miro ordine angelorum ministeria hominumque dispensas", which is the
collect used in the Mass of St. Michael's day, is said at the foot of
the altar. The cross without the handle which is carried in the
procession is considered to be symbolical of an incomplete life. Many
other peculiarities are prevalent locally. Thus in Rome in the
eighteenth century, as we learn from Catalani, the dead child was
generally clothed in the habit known as St. Philip Neri's. This is
black in colour but sprinkled all over with gold and silver stars. A
tiny biretta is placed upon the child's head and a little cross of
white wax in its hands. Miniature habits of the different religious
orders are also commonly used for the same purpose.
HISTORY OF OUR PRESENT RITUAL
With regard to the burial
of the dead in the early Christian centuries we know very little. No
doubt the first Christians followed the national customs of those
peoples amongst whom they lived, in so far as they were not directly
idolatrous. The final kiss of farewell, the use of crowns of flowers,
the intervals appointed for recurring funeral celebrations, the manner
of laying out the body and bearing it to the grave, etc., show nothing
that is distinctive of the Christian Faith, even though later ages
found a pious symbolism in many of these things. Moreover the use of
holy water and incense (the latter originally as a sort of
disinfectant) was also no doubt suggested by similar customs among the
pagans around them. Perhaps we should add that the funeral banquets of
the pagans were in some sense imitated by the agapoe or love-feasts of
the Christians which it seems to have been usual to celebrate in early
times (see Marucchi, Eléments d'archéologie chrétienne, I, 129), also
that the anniversary Masses and "months minds" of the Church
undoubtedly replaced a corresponding pagan usage of sacrifices. (See
Dublin Review, July, 1907, p. 118.) But of the existence of some
distinctively religious service we have good evidence at an early date.
Tertullian refers incidentally to the corpse of a woman after death
being laid out cum oratione presbyteri. St. Jerome in his account of
the death of St. Paul the Hermit speaks of the singing of hymns and
psalms while the body is carried to the grave as an observance
belonging to ancient Christian tradition. Again St. Gregory of Nyssa in
his detailed description of the funeral of St. Macrina, St. Augustine
in his references to his mother St. Monica, and many other documents
like the Apostolical Constitutions (Bk. VII) and the "Celestial
Hierarchy" of Pseudo-Dionysius make it abundantly clear that in the
fourth and fifth centuries the offering of the Holy Sacrifice was the
most essential feature in the last solemn rites, as it remains to this
day. Probably the earliest detailed account of funeral ceremonial which
has been preserved to us is to be found in the Spanish Ordinals lately
published by Dom Ferotin. It seems to be satisfactorily established
that the ritual here described represents in substance the Spanish
practice of the latter part of the seventh century. We may accordingly
quote in some detail from "the Order of what the clerics of any city
ought to do when their bishop falls into a mortal sickness". After a
reference to Canon iii of the seventh Council of Toledo (646) enjoining
that a neighbouring bishop should if possible be summoned, the
directions proceed:
At what hour soever the
bishop shall die whether by day or night the bell (Signum) shall at
once be rung publicly in the cathedral (ecclesia seniore) and at the
same time the bell shall ring in every church within a distance of two
miles.
Then while some of the
clergy in turn recite or chant the psalms earnestly and devoutly, the
body of the bishop deceased is stripped by priests or deacons. After
washing the body . . . it is clothed with his usual vestments according
to custom, i.e. his tunic, his breeches, and his stockings, and after
this with cap (capello) and face-cloth (sudario). Thereupon is put upon
him an alb, and also a stole (orarium) about his neck and before his
breast as when a priest is wont to say Mass. Also a cruet is placed in
his hand. Then the thumbs of his hands are tied with bands, that is
with strips of linen or bandages. His feet are also fastened in the
same way. After all this he is robed in a white chasuble (casulla).
Then after spreading beneath a very clean white sheet, the body is laid
upon the bier and all the while the priests, deacons and all the clergy
keep continually reciting or chanting and incense is always burned. And
in this wise he is laid in the choir of the church over which he ruled,
lights going before and following behind and then a complete text of
the gospels is laid upon his breast without anything to cover it, but
the gospel itself rests upon a cloth of lambswool (super pallium
agnavum -- this can hardly be the archiepiscopal pallium in its
technical sense) which is placed over his heart. And so it must be that
whether he die by night or day the recitation of prayers or chanting of
psalms shall be kept up continuously beside him until at the fitting
hour of the day Sacrifice may be offered to God at the principal altar
for his repose. Then the body is lifted up by deacons, with the gospel
book still lying on his breast, and he is carried to the grave, lights
going before and following after, while all who are of the clergy sing
the antiphons and responsories which are consecrated to the dead (quoe
solent de mortuis decantare).
After this when Mass has
again been celebrated in that church in which he is to be buried, salt
which has been exorcised is scattered in the tomb by deacons, while all
other religious persons present sing the antiphon, In sinu Abrahae
amici tui conloca eum Domine. And then when incense has a second time
been offered over his body, the bishop who has come to bury him
advances and opening the dead man's mouth he puts chrism into it,
addressing him thus: 'Hoc pietatis sacramentum sit tibi in
participatione omnium beatorum'. And then by the same bishop is intoned
the antiphon: In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam. And this one
verse is said, "Expectans, expectavi Dominum et respexit me'; and the
chanting is so arranged that the verses are said one by one while the
first is repeated after each. When Gloria has been said the antiphon is
repeated but not a second time.
Two impressive collects are
then said and another prayer which is headed "Benedictio". After which
"the tomb is closed according to custom and it is fastened with a seal".
Probably this rather
elaborate ceremony was a type of the funerals celebrated throughout
Spain at this epoch even in the case of the lower clergy and the laity.
Of the final prayer we are expressly told that in may also be used for
the obsequies of a priest. Further it is mentioned that when the priest
is laid out he should be clothed just as he was wont to celebrate Mass,
in tunic, shoes, breeches, alb, and chasuble.
The rite of putting chrism
into the bishop's mouth, as mentioned above, does not seem to be known
else-where, but on the other hand, the anointing the breast of a dead
person with chrism was formerly general in the Greek Church, and it
seems to have been adopted at Rome at an early date. Thus in certain
directions for burial and for Masses for the dead contained in the
Penitential of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury (c. 680) we meet the
following: "(1) According to the Church of Rome, it is the custom, in
the case of monks or religious men, to carry them after their death to
the church, to anoint their breasts with chrism, and there to celebrate
Masses for them; then to bear them to the grave with chanting, and when
they have been laid in the tomb, prayer is offered for them; afterwards
they are covered in with earth or with a slab. (2) On the first, the
third, the ninth, and also the thirtieth day, let Mass be celebrated
for them, and furthermore, let this be observed after a year has
passed, if it be wished."
It seems natural to
conjecture that the Spanish custom of putting the chrism into the mouth
of the dead may have been meant to replace the practice which certainly
prevailed for a while in Rome of administering the Blessed Eucharist
either at the very moment of death or of leaving it with the corpse
even when life was extinct. A clear example of this is forthcoming in
the "Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great" (II, xxiv,) and see the
Appendix on the subject in Cardinal Rampolla's "Santa Melania Giuniore"
(p. 254). There is some reason to believe that the inscription Christus
hic est (Christ is here), or its equivalent, occasionally found on
tomb-stones (see Leblant, Nouveau Recueil, 3) bears reference to the
Blessed Eucharist placed on the tongue of the deceased. But this
practice was soon forbidden.
The custom of watching by
the dead (the wake) is apparently very ancient. In its origin it was
either a Christian observance which was attended with the chanting of
psalms, or if in a measure adopted from paganism the singing of psalms
was introduced to Christianize it. In the Middle Ages among the
monastic orders the custom no doubt was pious and salutary. By
appointing relays of monks to succeed one another orderly provision was
made that the corpse should never be left without prayer. But among
secular persons these nocturnal meetings were always and everywhere an
occasion of grave abuses, especially in the matter of eating and
drinking. Thus to take a single example we read among the Anglo-Saxon
canons of Ælfric, addressed to the clergy: "Ye shall not rejoice on
account of men deceased nor attend on the corpse unless ye be thereto
invited. When ye are thereto invited then forbid ye the heathen songs
(haethenan sangas) of the laymen and their loud cachinnations; nor eat
ye nor drink where the corpse lieth therein, lest ye be imitators of
the heathenism which they there commit" (Thorpe, Ancient Laws and
Institutes of England, 448). We may reasonably suppose that the Office
for the Dead, which consists only of Vespers, Matins, and Lauds,
without Day-hours, originally developed out of the practice of passing
the night in psalmody beside the corpse. In the tenth OrdoRomanus which
supplies a description of the obsequies of the Roman clergy in the
twelfth century we find the Office said early in the morning, but there
is no mention of praying beside the corpse all night. In its general
features this Roman Ordo agrees with the ritual now practised, but
there are a good many minor divergences. For example the Mass is said
while the Office is being chanted; the Absoute at the close is an
elaborate function in which four prelates officiate, recalling what is
now observed in the obsequies of a bishop, and the service by the grave
side is much more lengthy than that which now prevails. In the earliest
Ambrosian ritual (eighth or ninth century) which Magistretti (Manuale
Ambrosianum, Milan, 1905, I, 67 sqq.) pronounces to be certainly
derived from Rome we have the same breaking up of the obsequies into
stages, i.e. at the house of the deceased, on the way to the church, at
the church, from the church to the grave, and at the grave side, with
which we are still familiar. But it is also clear that there was
originally something of the nature of a wake (vigilioe) consisting in
the chanting of the whole Psalter beside the dead man at his home
(Magistretti, ib., I, 70).
A curious development of
the Absoute, with its reiterated prayers for pardon, is to be found in
the practice (which seems to have become very general in the second
half of the eleventh century) of laying aform of absolution upon the
breast of the deceased. This is clearly enjoined in the monastic
constitutions of Archbishop Lanfranc and we have sundry historical
examples of it. (Cf. Thurston, Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln, 219.)
Sometimes a rude leaden cross with a few words scratched thereupon was
used for the purpose and many such have been recovered in opening tombs
belonging to this period. In one remarkable example, that of Bishop
Godfrey of Chichester (1088), the whole formula of absolution may be
found in the same indicative form which meets us again in the so-called
"Pontifical of Egbert". It is noteworthy that in the Greek Church to
this day a long paper of absolution, now usually a printed form, is
first read over the deceased and then put into his hand and left with
him in the grave.
The only other point among
the many peculiar features of medieval ritual which seems to claim
special notice here is the elaborate development given to the offertory
in the funeral of illustrious personages. Not only on such occasions
were very generous offerings made in money and in kind, with a view, it
would seem, of benefiting the soul of the deceased by exceptional
generosity, but it was usual to lead his war-horse up the church fully
accoutred and to present it to the priest at the altar rails, no doubt
to be afterwards redeemed by a money payment. The accounts of solemn
obsequies in early times are full of such details and in particular of
the vast numbers of candles burned upon the hearse; this word hearse in
fact came into use precisely from the resemblance which the elaborate
framework erected over the bier and bristling with candles bore to a
harrow (hirpex, hirpicem). Of the varying and protracted services by
the grave side, which at the close of the Middle Ages were common in
many parts of Germany and which in some cases lasted on until a much
later period, something has already been said.
RITUAL OF THE GREEK CHURCH
The full burial service of
the Greek Church is very long and it will be sufficient here briefly to
call attention to one or two points in which it bears a close
resemblance to the Latin Rite. With the Greeks as with the Latins we
find a general use of lighted candles held by all present in their
hands, as also holy water, incense and the tolling of bells. With the
Greeks as in the Western Communion, after a relatively short service at
the house of the deceased, the corpse is borne in procession to the
church, and deposited there while the Pannychis, a mournful service of
psalmody, is recited or sung. In the burial of a bishop the Holy
Sacrifice or divine liturgy is offered up, and there is in any case a
solemn absolution pronounced over the body before it is borne to the
grave. Black vestments are usually worn by the clergy, and again, as
with us, the dead man, if an ecclesiastic, is robed as he would have
been robed in life in assisting at the altar. There are, however, a
good many features peculiar to the Eastern Church. A crown, in practice
a paper band which represents it, is placed upon the dead layman's
head. The priest is anointed with oil and his face is covered with the
aer, the veil with which the sacred species are covered during the Holy
Sacrifice. Also the open Gospel is laid upon his breast as in the early
Spanish ordinal. The Alleluia is sung as part of the service and a
symbolical farewell is taken of the deceased by a last kiss. Upon the
altar stands a dish with a cake made of wheat and honey, emblematic of
the grain which falling to the ground dies and bringeth forth much
fruit. Moreover many difference are made in the service according as
the dead person is layman, monk, priest, or bishop, and also according
to the ecclesiastical season, for during paschal time white vestments
are worn and another set of prayers are said. The burial rite of the
Greeks may be seen in Goar, "Euchologium Graecorum" (Paris, 1647), 423
sqq.; also in the new Russian edition by Al. Dmitrieoski (Kiev,
1895-1901). For the law of the Church of England concerning burial, see
Blunt-Phillimore "The Book of Church Law" (London, 1899), 177-87, and
512-17, text of Burial Laws Amendment Act of 1880.
BURIAL CONFRATERNITIES
It would take us too far to
go into this subject at length. Even from the period of the catacombs
such associations seem to have existed among the Christians and they no
doubt imitated to some extent in their organization the pagan collegia
for the same purpose. Through-out the Middle Ages it may be said that
the guilds to a very large extent were primarily burial
confraternities; at any rate the seemly carrying out of the funeral
rites at the death of any of their members together with a provision of
Masses for his soul form an almost invariable feature in the
constitutions of such guilds. But still more directly to the purpose we
find certain organizations formed to carry out the burial of the dead
and friendless as a work of charity. The most celebrated of these was
the "Misericordia" of Florence, believed to have been instituted in
1244 by Pier Bossi, and surviving to the present day. It is an
organization which associates in this work of mercy the members of all
ranks of society. Their self-imposed task is not limited to escorting
the dead to their last resting-place, but they discharge the functions
of an ambulance corps, dealing with accidents as they occur and
carrying the sick to the hospitals. When on duty the members wear a
dress which completely envelops and disguises them Even the face is
hidden by a covering in which only two holes are left for eyes.
SeeCEMETERY; CREMATION; REQUIEM.
Publication information
Written by Herbert Thurston. Transcribed by Larry Trippett.
The Catholic Encyclopedia,
Volume III. Published 1908. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil
Obstat, November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur.
+John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Bibliography
Catalani, Commentarius in
Rituale Romanum (1756); Thalhofer, Liturgik, II, Pt. II; Idem, in
Kirchenlex., s.v.; Binterim, Denkwurdigkeiten (Mainz, 1838), VI, Pt.
III, 362-514; Martene, De antiquis Ecclesioe ritibus, II and IV;
Ruland, Geschichte der kirchlichen Leichenfeier (Ratisbon, 1902);
Alberti, De sepultura ecclesiastica (1901); Proces, La sepulture dans
l'eglise catholique, in Precis historiques (Brussels, 1882); Murcier,
La sepulture chretienne en France (Paris, 1855); Probst, Die Exsequien
(Mainz, 1856); Marucchi, Elements d' archeologie chret, (Rome, 1899),
I, 129-131; Petrides, in Dict. d' arch. et lit. s.v. Absoute. On the
Canon Law of burial, see especially Lex, Das kirchliche Begrabnissrecht
(Ratisbon, 1904); also Sagmuller, Kirchenrecht (Freiburg, 1904), Pt.
III; Ferraris, Bibliotheca, s.v. sepultura; Von Scherer, Kirchenrecht,
II, 601. On Burial in the Greek Church: Maltzew, Begrabniss-Ritus
(Berlin, 1896). On Absolution Crosses: Chevreux, in Bulletin archeol.
(Paris, 1904), 391-408; Cochet, La Normandie souterraine; Idem,
Sepultures gauloises (Paris, 1855 and 1857), 71 sqq.; Kraus, Kunst und
Alterthum in Lothringen (Strasburg, 1889), 604-612. See also the
bibliography of the article Cemetery.
