Memento Mori: Meaning, Origin and the Four Last Things

Cardinal Baronius had two words engraved in his ring: Memento mori. So St Alphonsus Liguori relates in his “Preparation for Death”. The meaning of memento mori is quickly translated, yet the thought stretches from the Roman triumph through the Rule of St Benedict to the ashes of Ash Wednesday. This guide explains where the saying comes from, how the Church prays it and why it does not make us sad but calls us to conversion.

What does memento mori mean?

Memento mori literally means “remember to die”, in the sense of “remember that you will die”. The Latin saying reminds us that every life comes to an end and that man must give account before God. In the Catholic faith it is a call to conversion, not an expression of despair.

Memento is the imperative of meminisse, to remember or be mindful; mori means to die. The Church uses the same imperative in her liturgy: the Ash Wednesday formula begins with Memento, homo, “Remember, man”. Its second part comes from God’s sentence on Adam after the Fall. The Vulgate reads there: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Gen 3:19, Douay-Rheims).

Death, then, is no mere fact of nature. In the blessing of the ashes the priest prays in the name of all that we shall return to dust “because of the guilt of our wickedness”. Whoever says memento mori therefore always thinks of sin as well, and of the forgiveness that God has promised to the penitent.

Where does the phrase memento mori come from?

The thought behind memento mori goes back to Roman antiquity. The Church writer Tertullian reports around 197 that a voice behind the triumphing general in his chariot called out to him to remember that he was a man. As a two-word phrase, memento mori appears, for example, on the ring of Cardinal Baronius.

Tertullian mentions the custom in his defence of the Christians, the Apologeticum, chapter 33. There we read: “Look behind you; remember that you are a man!” In Latin the second part reads Hominem te memento. Tertullian uses the scene as proof: even the emperor at the height of his glory is reminded that he is a man and not a god.

The philosopher Seneca knew the thought too. In his 26th letter to Lucilius he quotes the advice of Epicurus, meditare mortem, “practise the thought of death”, and concludes: Qui mori didicit, servire dedidicit, “He who has learnt to die has unlearnt how to be a slave” (Ep. 26, 8–10). The saying only becomes Christian through the question of what comes after death.

What has Ash Wednesday to do with memento mori?

Ash Wednesday is the day on which the Church herself pronounces the memento mori. According to the 1962 Roman Missal, the priest places blessed ashes on the head of each of the faithful and says: “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.”

Before Holy Mass the priest, vested in a violet cope, blesses the ashes. According to the rubric they are made from branches of olive or other trees blessed the year before; the Church blesses such branches on Palm Sunday. After four prayers of blessing the priest sprinkles the ashes three times with holy water and incenses them. Then first the clergy and afterwards the people receive the ashes, kneeling before the altar, each one individually.

Ash Wednesday begins Quadragesima, the forty-day fast of Lent in preparation for the holy feast of Easter. Under the 1962 rubrics Lent runs from Ash Wednesday to the Mass of the Easter Vigil. If you would like to accompany the season of penance at home, you will find objects for meditation during Lent in our shop.

Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.

Emendemus in melius, quae ignoranter peccavimus: ne subito praeoccupati die mortis, quaeramus spatium paenitentiae, et invenire non possimus.

Let us amend for the better in those things in which we have sinned through ignorance, lest, suddenly overtaken by the day of death, we seek space for penance and be not able to find it.

Missale Romanum 1962, Feria IV Cinerum: formula for the imposition of ashes (Gen 3:19) and responsory during the distribution

What are the four last things?

The four last things are death, judgement, heaven and hell. Theology treats them under the Latin title De Novissimis, on the last things. Memento mori points to all four: whoever thinks of death thinks of the judgement that follows it, and of eternity.

The term novissima is found, for instance, in the Book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach): In omnibus operibus tuis memorare novissima tua, et in aeternum non peccabis, “In all thy works remember thy last things, and thou shalt never sin” (Ecclus 7:40 in the Vulgate, our translation). The Roman Catechism quotes this verse under the seventh article of the Creed and charges pastors to set the judgement very often before the eyes of the faithful, because this truth restrains the perverse inclinations of the heart and draws souls away from sin. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1909 calls the division into exactly four things a popular summary, not a strictly scientific one.

St Benedict sets all four side by side in his Rule, in chapter 4, “The instruments of good works”:

How did religious live memento mori?

Religious made memento mori a daily exercise. The Rule of St Benedict requires one to keep death daily before one’s eyes. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 and 1912, Carthusians and Trappists regularly prayed the Office of the Dead, that is, the Divine Office for the departed.

The Trappists, united since 1892 as the Order of Reformed Cistercians, live according to the Rule of St Benedict. Under their constitutions of 1894 the Office of the Dead follows Vespers and Lauds on all ferial days. The Carthusians pray three offices: the Office of the day, that of the Blessed Virgin and, except on feasts and their vigils, the Office of the Dead.

It is often said that Trappists greeted one another with “Memento mori” and dug a little of their own grave every day. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 expressly denies both: the monks greet one another with a bow of the head, and a grave is dug only when a brother has died.

“Blessed is he who always has the hour of his death before his eyes and daily prepares himself to die.”

Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, ch. 23 (De meditatione mortis), no. 2

Why does the skull stand for memento mori?

The skull stands for memento mori because it shows what remains of the body. Saints therefore placed it where they could see it: according to Alphonsus Liguori, St Charles Borromeo kept a skull on his table so as always to have it before his eyes. The hourglass adds the image of time running out.

Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787, canonised 1839) gathers such examples in his “Preparation for Death”, in the fourth consideration, on the certainty of death. Cardinal Baronius had Memento mori engraved in his ring. Juvenal Ancina, Bishop of Saluzzo, kept a skull before him with the inscription: “What thou art, I was; and what I am, thou shalt be.” A holy hermit, asked why he was so cheerful in dying, replied: “I have always kept death before my eyes; therefore, now that it has come, I see nothing new.”

In the Memento Mori collection you will find these signs for your home altar and prayer corner: a life-size, hand-painted skull of resin, a solid wood hourglass with a running time of about 60 minutes, rosaries with Our Father beads in the shape of skulls, and a wall print with Latin lettering.

Is memento mori a sad thought?

In the Catholic understanding memento mori is not a sad thought but a wholesome one. The Church reminds us of death so that man may do penance and die with confidence. In the blessing of the ashes the priest prays to God, who desires “not the death but the repentance of sinners”.

Thomas à Kempis puts it soberly: “If you had a good conscience, you would not greatly fear death.” And further: “Learn now to die to the world, that you may then begin to live with Christ” (Imitation of Christ I, 23, 1 and 6). The aim of the thought, then, is not fear but a life ordered towards eternity.

A skull on the home altar is neither an amulet nor an ornament, but an aid to meditation. The blessed rosary is different: it is one of the sacramentals through which, according to the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the Church obtains effects above all of a spiritual kind by virtue of her intercession (can. 1144). How to pray it is shown in our guide to the Rosary with all its prayers.

Mentioned in this article Memento Mori Paracord Rosary Hand-knotted from 550 paracord, with skull beads, Miraculous Medal and crucifix. View the rosary

Frequently asked questions about memento mori