Prayer for the Dead
Asking God's mercy for those who have died — a practice the traditions weigh differently
Prayer for the dead is the practice of asking God to show mercy to the departed. Its roots are traced to passages such as 2 Maccabees 12, to early liturgies, to writers like Tertullian, and to ancient grave inscriptions. The traditions differ on it: Catholic and Orthodox communions actively pray for the dead, while Protestant traditions generally reject or omit the practice, often on questions of scriptural warrant.
How it traveled
- On the Decease of His Brother SatyrusMilan · c. 397 CEapplies
- The Homilies of St. John ChrysostomConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 407 CEapplies
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and ThessaloniansConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 407 CEexplains
- On Care to Be Had for the DeadHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- City of GodHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- A Treatise on the Soul and its OriginHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- The ConfessionsHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from ItGeneva · c. 1564 CEchallenges
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
Received custom too was a kind of torch, by which the minds of many were inflamed. We know that among all the Gentiles, and in all ages, certain rites were paid to the dead, and that every year lustra
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On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
22. Which things being so, let us not think that to the dead for whom we have a care, any thing reaches save what by sacrifices either of the altar, or of prayers, or of alms, we solemnly supplicate:
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The Enchiridion · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 110.—The Benefit to the Souls of the Dead from the Sacraments and Alms of Their Living Friends. Nor can it be denied that the souls of the dead are benefited by the piety of their living frie
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
To the passage which they produce from the history of the Maccabees (1 Macc. 12:43), I will not deign to reply, lest I should seem to include that work among the canonical books. But AugustineLuke 24:
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Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood · John Chrysostom
Book VI. 1. Our condition here, indeed, is such as thou hast heard. But our condition hereafter how shall we endure, when we are compelled to give our account for each of those who have been entruste
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Book VI · Constitutions of the Holy Apostles
XXX. Do not therefore keep any such observances about legal and natural purgations, as thinking you are defiled by them. Neither do you seek after Jewish separations, or perpetual washings, or purific
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 24.—Against Those Who Fancy that in the Judgment of God All the Accused Will Be Spared in Virtue of the Prayers of the Saints. And this reasoning is equally conclusive against those who, in t
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Homilies on First Corinthians · John Chrysostom
i.e. Why does the worst principle come first? Why is the natural principle wholly developed not only in Adam, the first-fruits, but in us and all mankind? And why is the spiritual principal which is t
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On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
3. Possibly thy inquiry is satisfied by this my brief reply. But what other considerations move me, to which I think meet to answer, do thou for a short space attend. In the books of the Maccabees we
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On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
7. When therefore the faithful mother of a faithful son departed desired to have his body deposited in the basilica of a Martyr, forasmuch as she believed that his soul would be aided by the merits of
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The Confessions · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter XI.—His Mother, Attacked by Fever, Dies at Ostia. 27. What reply I made unto her to these things I do not well remember. However, scarcely five days after, or not much more, she was prostrate
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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians · John Chrysostom
See Hom. vi. on the Statues, Tr. p. 387, note 6; also on 1 Cor. xv. 46. Hom. xli. [8]. On Stat. xxi. 15 Tr. p. 487. St. Chrys. makes Flavian speak to Theodosius of the prayers for him after death, tha
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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom · John Chrysostom
And what more couldest thou have done, if thou wert a foe and an enemy of the dead? Why, if there must be mourning, it is the devil that ought to mourn. He may beat himself, he may wail, at our journe
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The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas. · Ethical
Chapter II.—Argument. Perpetua, When Besieged by Her Father, Comforts Him. When Led with Others to the Tribunal, She Avows Herself a Christian, and is Condemned with the Rest to the Wild Beasts. She P
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A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 15 [XI.]—Victor “Decides” That Oblations Should Be Offered Up for Those Who Die Unbaptized. Still he chafes with indecision, and is well-nigh suffocated in the terrible straits of his theory;
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A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles · John Chrysostom
How then if one be poor? say you. Again I say, the greatness of the alms is not estimated by the quantity given, but by the purpose. Only give not less than thine ability, and thou hast paid all. How
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On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
20. Howbeit it is a question which surpasses the strength of my understanding, after what manner the Martyrs aid them who by them, it is certain, are helped; whether themselves by themselves be presen
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The Epistles of Cyprian. · Cyprian
Epistle LXV. To the Clergy and People Abiding at Furni, About Victor, Who Had Made the Presbyter Faustinus a Guardian. Argument.—Since, Against the Decision of a Council of Bishops, Geminius Victor
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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians · John Chrysostom
“And what I shall choose I know not.” Marvelous! How great was his philosophy! How hath he both cast out the desire of the present life, and yet thrown no reproach upon it! For in that he saith, “to d
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The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
The military officers, too, of the highest rank, the counts, and the whole order of magistrates, who had been accustomed to do obeisance to their emperor before, continued to fulfill this duty without
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