# requiem aeternam...



## Scholiast

Greetings, all.

Sorry for what may be a naive question, to which I ought to know the answer. Can anyone please identify for me the origins of the Roman Catholic _Requiem_ rite? It appears not to be biblical, but of course if this is presumptious on my part I would be glad to know.


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## relativamente

I have no special knowledge about catholic matters, but the "requiem mass" is just a mass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem
The mass has several rites that are common to all masses but some parts of it change with the occassion. I searched in internet some epitaphs in the catacombs and did not find any reference to the phamous prase "requiescat in pace"I suppose this phrase was popularised later.


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## Kevin Beach

The Mass is the liturgy surrounding the Rite of Holy Communion (also known as the Blessed Eucharist), whose biblical roots are in the words of Jesus at the last supper, on the evening before he was crucified.

The Requiem Mass is a special liturgy, to be celebrated before a funeral or generally as a liturgy for the salvation or in honour of the dead. Like every other Mass, it has the Eucharist at its centre. The name Requiem comes from the words of the opening prayer: _Requiem Aeternam dona eis Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis_, meaning "Eternal rest grant to them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them".

Liturgies as such are not necessarily biblical, although they can contain biblical elements. For the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, the Bible is not the foundation of the faith. Indeed, it could not be, because the faith and the Church existed before the Bible in the form we know it came into being. Many liturgies are based on the practices of the early Church; others were devised by the Church in later centuries to meet new or changed requirements. From apocryphal references, it seems that the earliest known practice of the celebration of  the Eucharist for the dead dates back to the late 2nd century.


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## Scholiast

saluete omnes!

Thanks Kevin, but I do know my Latin, and I know therefore how to understand / translate the thing.

You write:



> the Eucharist for the dead dates back to the late 2nd century.



I would be very grateful for a specific reference, if you can supply it - or indeed to any other Foreaster.

Good wishes all round,

L


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## Kevin Beach

Scholiast said:


> saluete omnes!
> 
> Thanks Kevin, but I do know my Latin, and I know therefore how to understand / translate the thing.
> 
> You write:
> 
> 
> 
> I would be very grateful for a specific reference, if you can supply it - or indeed to any other Foreaster.
> 
> Good wishes all round,
> 
> L



Here's the general reference to the Requiem Mass in the online edition of the Catholic Encyclopaedia: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12776d.htm. It begins with a passage on the origins.

Other sources refer to mentions of the practice of liturgies for the dead in the *Martyrdom of Polycarp* and the *Actae Ioannis*, both documents of the 2nd century.


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## Scholiast

_gratias ago maximas_, Kevin.

The online Catholic Encyclopaedia was known to me, but I did not realise there were these further references in the _Martyrdom of Polycarp_ or the _Actae ioannis_. I must of course now chase these up.

(And sorry to all for the typo in my original post - I meant, of course, "presumptuous").


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