Prayers for the Dead: Catholic Prayers with Text and Source

When someone dies, those left behind are often lost for words. The Church has kept those words safe for centuries: a prayer for the dead can be a single sentence or a whole psalm, said at the deathbed, at the graveside or at home in the evening. This guide gathers the traditional Catholic prayers for the dead in Latin and English, each with its source. It explains why the Church prays for her dead, when such prayer has its place and how it benefits the departed.

Why does the Catholic Church pray for the dead?

The Catholic Church prays for the dead because she believes that souls who die in the grace of God, but still have temporal punishment to undergo for their sins, are purified in purgatory. The living can help them by prayer, good works, indulgences and above all by the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Scripture relates that after a battle Judas Machabeus sent money to Jerusalem so that a sacrifice for sin might be offered for the fallen. The passage closes with the sentence the Church has cited ever since as its foundation: “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins” (2 Macc 12:46, Douay-Rheims). In the Vulgate: Sancta ergo et salubris est cogitatio pro defunctis exorare, ut a peccatis solvantur.

On 3 December 1563 the Council of Trent affirmed that there is a purgatory and that the souls detained there are helped by the suffrages of the faithful. In his Confessions St Augustine records the last request that his mother, St Monica, made of him and his brother.

“Bury this body wherever you will; do not trouble yourselves about it. This only I ask of you: remember me at the altar of God, wherever you may be.”

Augustine, Confessions IX, 11, in the German translation by Alfred Hofmann, Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, 1914 (translated from the German)

What is the Requiem aeternam prayer in English?

In English the Requiem aeternam runs: “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.” It is one of the shortest prayers for the dead and, as the Introit or entrance chant, opens the Church’s Masses for the dead.

V. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
R. Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
V. Requiescant in pace. R. Amen.

V. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
R. And let perpetual light shine upon them.
V. May they rest in peace. R. Amen.

Latin from Preces et pia opera, 1952, no. 582; English in the traditional form. The German original follows Anselm Schott, Das Messbuch der heiligen Kirche, 1894, p. [119], and the Sammlung von Gebeten translated by Michael Haringer, Regensburg 1865

For a single person the pronouns are changed: “Eternal rest grant unto him (her), O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him (her). May he (she) rest in peace. Amen.” This is how Schott gives it in the versicles of the Absolution after the Mass for the dead (p. [117]).

The prayer is ancient: the Introit of the Mass for the dead is taken from the fourth book of Esdras (2:34 and 35), as the Missale Romanum of 1962 notes. For the short prayer with the Requiescant in pace the Church granted an indulgence of 300 days, which can be applied only to the dead (Preces et pia opera, no. 582). You can add it to grace at meals, to each decade (ten Hail Marys) of the Rosary or to your night prayers.

Which prayer is said for one person who has died?

For one person who has died, a fitting prayer is the one Schott’s missal (1894) gives for the Absolution at the bier after the Mass for the dead: “Absolve, O Lord, the soul of thy servant N.” In place of N. you say the name of the departed; for a woman, “thy handmaid”.

Oremus. Absolve, quaesumus, Domine, animam famuli tui (famulae tuae) N., ut, defunctus (defuncta) saeculo, tibi vivat; et peccata, quae per fragilitatem carnis humana conversatione commisit, tu venia misericordissimae pietatis absterge. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Let us pray. Absolve, we beseech thee, O Lord, the soul of thy servant (thy handmaid) N., that, being dead to the world, he (she) may live unto thee; and whatever sins he (she) has committed in this life through the frailty of the flesh, do thou wipe away by the pardon of thy most merciful loving-kindness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Anselm Schott, Das Messbuch der heiligen Kirche, 1894, Masses for the dead, p. [117]; English: our translation from the Latin

Then follow the versicles “Eternal rest grant unto him (her)” in the singular. The prayer can be said at the deathbed, at the open grave or at home before a picture of the departed. Anyone who prays it daily, for instance during the thirty days after death, takes up a practice known as early as the Middle Ages: the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 mentions the commemoration on the third, seventh and thirtieth day and continual prayer during the first month after death.

What is the De profundis?

De profundis is the name for Psalm 129 in the Vulgate numbering, “Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord”. The Church prays it as a penitential psalm for the living and the dead, and when praying for the departed she closes it with the Requiem aeternam.

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine; Domine, exaudi vocem meam. Fiant aures tuae intendentes in vocem deprecationis meae. Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit? Quia apud te propitiatio est; et propter legem tuam sustinui te, Domine. Sustinuit anima mea in verbo ejus; speravit anima mea in Domino. A custodia matutina usque ad noctem, speret Israel in Domino; quia apud Dominum misericordia, et copiosa apud eum redemptio. Et ipse redimet Israel ex omnibus iniquitatibus ejus.
V. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. R. Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it?

For with thee there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee, O Lord. My soul hath relied on his word: my soul hath hoped in the Lord. From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord. Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
V. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. R. And let perpetual light shine upon them.

Ps 129: Vulgate; English: Douay-Rheims (Challoner). The German original follows Joseph Franz Allioli, Die Heilige Schrift, vol. 3, Landshut 1839, p. 264, with modernised spelling; closing verse after the Raccolta of 1910, no. 404

Allioli explains that the Church prays this psalm “as a penitential prayer of the living and of those departed” (translated from the German) who died in holy charity but are not yet wholly purified. The Raccolta of 1910 describes the old custom of praying the De profundis on one’s knees when the bell is rung in the evening. According to Preces et pia opera (no. 585), whoever prays the psalm for the dead can gain an indulgence of three years, and of five years on any day in November. Both collections treat an Our Father and a Hail Mary with the Requiem aeternam as equivalent.

What prayer can I say for deceased parents and relatives?

For deceased parents the Church’s missal has its own collect, a prayer said by the priest at Mass, which appeals to the Fourth Commandment. For relatives, friends and benefactors the Church prays “Deus, veniae largitor”, the prayer to God, the giver of pardon.

Deus, qui nos patrem et matrem honorare praecepisti: miserere clementer animabus patris et matris meae (parentum nostrorum), eorumque peccata dimitte; meque (nosque) eos in aeternae claritatis gaudio fac videre. Per Dominum.

O God, who hast commanded us to honour our father and our mother: in thy mercy have pity on the souls of my father and my mother (of our parents) and forgive them their sins; and grant that I (we) may see them in the joy of eternal brightness. Through our Lord.

Missale Romanum 1962, Orations for the dead, no. 10, For father and mother; English: our translation from the Latin

Deus, veniae largitor et humanae salutis amator: quaesumus clementiam tuam, ut nostrae congregationis fratres, propinquos et benefactores, qui ex hoc saeculo transierunt, beata Maria semper Virgine intercedente cum omnibus Sanctis tuis, ad perpetuae beatitudinis consortium pervenire concedas. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum.

O God, the giver of pardon and lover of the salvation of mankind, we beseech thy clemency that thou wouldst grant to the brethren, kinsfolk and benefactors of our community who have passed out of this world, through the intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin and of all thy Saints, to come to the fellowship of everlasting bliss. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Anselm Schott, Das Messbuch der heiligen Kirche, 1894, p. [120], For deceased brethren, friends and benefactors; English: our translation from the Latin

For all the departed together, on All Souls’ Day the Church prays the collect Fidelium Deus omnium conditor: “O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of thy servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that through devout supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired” (Schott 1894, p. [120]; our translation from the Latin).

When do Catholics pray for the dead?

Catholics pray for the dead every day. Special days are the day of death and the funeral, the third, seventh and thirtieth day after death, the anniversary, and the month of November with All Souls’ Day on 2 November, which in 2026 falls on a Monday.

For the anniversary the missal has a prayer of its own: “O God, Lord of mercies, grant to the souls of thy servants and handmaids, the anniversary of whose burial we are keeping, a place of refreshment, the bliss of repose and the brightness of light” (Schott 1894, p. [117]; translated from the German).

The third, seventh and thirtieth days are already named in the penitential ascribed to Archbishop Theodore (died 690) and by St Dunstan (died 988). In the 1962 calendar All Souls’ Day is a day of the first class and is kept on 3 November when the 2nd falls on a Sunday.

Whoever prays daily for the dead in November can gain an indulgence of three years once a day, and after a whole month a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions (Preces et pia opera, no. 589). According to the teaching of Trent, the dead are helped above all by Holy Mass; under the 1917 Code of Canon Law it may be offered for the dead (can. 809).

Does prayer help if the departed is already in heaven?

Only God knows whether a departed soul still needs our prayer. If the soul is already in heaven, it needs no further help. Even so, the prayer is never lost: according to St Thomas Aquinas, intercession made out of charity also benefits the one who offers it.

The Supplement to the Summa theologiae says that the saints in heaven are “free from all need” and are therefore not the recipients of suffrages (q. 71, a. 8). At the same time the work of intercession, because it springs from charity, merits eternal life for the one who prays, and indeed “even more” than for the one for whom it is done (q. 71, a. 4).

From early times the Church also prayed for people who had lived holy lives. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 recalls that a bishop who was his friend offered the Sacrifice of the Mass for St Gall after his death. At the same time the Council of Trent warns against curiosity and superstition in these matters. Prayer for the dead is not a means that works by itself, but a petition to the mercy of God.

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Frequently asked questions about prayers for the dead