# Domine pec miserere super peccatrice



## Maricelamore

Hello! I just want to know the English translation of my phrase "Domine pec miserere super peccatrice", I once read in a novel(The Sands of Time) 4 years ago. I understood a little. In my own English it means "Lord have mercy on her soul", but I'm not really sure. Thank you.


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## Scholiast

salvete lucubrantes!



> "Domine pec miserere super peccatrice"


 is not quite Latin - I wonder whether Maricelamore has mis-remembered or mistyped it?

_Domine_, "Lord", is fine, as is _miserere. _But _pec_ does not exist. Could it possibly have been contracted from _precamur_, "We pray"? And in classical Latin the verb _miserere_ would normally be followed with the genitive _peccatricis_, the [female] sinner, rather than the prepositional phrase _super_ & ablative as here, though of course in late/vulgar or ecclesiastical Latin I dare say this is possible.

Is this any help?

Σ


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## Maricelamore

That's what I wrote on a paper while reading. The author used many languages and I thought it was Latin because of the word Domine. Anyway thank you for the great explanation.


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## Scholiast

salvete iterum!

Perhaps if Maricelamore could supply the whole context from the novel some of us here might be able to try to track down the proper explanation for this mysterious utterance?

Since (we are told) 





> The author used many languages


 there may be some authorial confusion - it would not be the first time in these pages that an author has been found guilty of mis-quoting or mis-remembering his Latin.

Σ


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## Maricelamore

The author is Sydney Sheldon of New York Times. In his novel titled "The Sands of Time", he used Italian, Spanish, French & German phrases. Honestly I'm familiar to these four languages because I am learning at the moment. And eventhough I haven't read or met any Latin book or dictionary before, I was already aware because I heard it spoken sometimes during sunday mass. And as I remembered, the phrase "Domine pec miserere super peccatrice" was uttered in the story during the prayer vigil in front of a nun's dead body. The story was about the 4 nuns in Spain that came from Italy, France, USA & Spain.


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## Maricelamore

Hi, I'm sorry I got the wrong spelling on author's name. It was Sidney Sheldon - american writer/novelist. I couldn't edit my post, I'm just using phone. By the way, if you remembered my first thread "In nomine Pater", it was also came from the novel I mentioned.


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## wandle

Is this the book you mean? It contains the following passage:


> As the last service they performed for their sister, two nuns started to drop soil softly onto her still body before they all returned to the church to say the psalms of penance. Three times they begged that God have mercy on her soul:
> 
> Domine miserere super peccatrice.


The earlier context shows that this burial was performed at a Cistercian convent.

This page of maunscripts, under the heading _ff. 42-48, In officio defunctorum_ ('In the office of the dead' - i.e. the prayers for the dead), includes the prayer *domine miserere super peccatrice*.

It adds the comment:


> Texts for the burial service; note the presence of the antiphon, “Clementissime” (characteristic of Cistercian, Dominican, and Augustinian Use), and the presence of feminine forms (peccatrice, for “sinner”) on f. 48.


This leads us to the conclusion that the words *Domine miserere super peccatrice* are part of the Roman Catholic burial service for the dead, in the form used at Cistercian convents.


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## Maricelamore

Hi wandle!
My apology, I am not as smart as you in terms of reasoning/understanding. I'm just a simple woman with little knowledge and, I don't know much about the old or new Latin. All I know is read and understand, or find some answers when in doubt. Your explanation about the prayer match exactly in the story. It was once uttered inside the Cistercian Convent of the Strict Observance just outside Àvila, Spain. It's me who thought it was prayer vigil because the author of the story didn't mention about burial, only the dead. And "God have mercy on her soul" was my first translation, just changed when I posted because of confusion on the real meaning of "Domine".  And only Roman Catholic uses Latin that's why I was too sure the prayer is written in Latin.
Gratias multas!


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