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Dies IraeProbably the composition of Thomas of Celano (?)1200?–1255? – a native of Abruzzi, Dies irae, dies illa, solvet saeclum in favilla, teste David cum Sybilla. Quantus tremor est futurus, quando judex est venturus, cuncta stricte discussurus. Day of wrath! On that day Heaven and earth shall melt away David and the Sibyl say Fright men’s hearts rudely rends, when from heaven the Judge descends on whose sentence each depends. Tuba mirim spargens sonum, per sepulchra regionum, coget omnes ante thronum. Mors stubebit et natura, cum resurget creatura, judicanti reponsura. Wondrous sound the trumpet flings, Through earth’s sepulchres it rings, All before the throne it brings. Death and nature hesitating, All creation resurrecting, To its Judge an answer making. Liber scriptus proferetur, in quo totum continetur, unde mundus judicetur. Judex ergo cum sedebit, quidquid latet apparebit, nil ilnultum remanebit. Before Him the Book, exactly worded wherein each deed is recorded whence the world is rewarded. When the Judge His seat shall gain, all that’s hidden shall be plain, nothing unavenged remain. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, quem patronum rogaturus, cum vix justus sit securus? Wretched man, what can I plead, whom to ask to intercede, when the just much mercy need? Rex tremendae majestatis, qui salvandos salvas gratis, salva me, fons pietatis, Majestic King tremendous Who free salvation grants us, Font of mercy, save us. Recordare Jesu pie, quod sum causa tuae viae, ne me perdas illa die. Quaerens me sedisti lassus, redemisti crucem passus, tantus labor non sit causus. Juste judex ultinonis, donum fac remissionis ante diem rationis. Jesus, holy in recollection Caused by wondrous incarnation; On that day save me from destruction. Faint and weary You sought me, On the cross of suffering redeemed me; Shall such grace be vainly brought me? Righteous Judge avenging Grant thy gift all-forgiving, Before the day of reckoning. Ingemisco tanquam reus, culpa rubet vultus meus; supplicanti parce, Deus. Qui Mariam absolvisti et latronem exaudisti, mihi quoque spem dedisti; Guilty now I pour my moaning, All my shame with anguish owning; Spare, O God, thy suppliant groaning! By whom Mariam was forgiven; and the thief’s appeal did listen; And to me a hope now given. Preces meae non sunt dignae, sed tu, bonus, fac benigne, ne perenni cremer igne. Inter oves locum praesta et ab haedis me sequestra statuens in parte dextra; Worthless are my prayers and sighing, Yet, good Lord, in grace complying, Rescue me from fires undying. With thy favoured sheep O place me, Nor among the goats abase me; But to thy right hand upraise me! Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis, voca me cum benedictis. Oro supplex et acclinis, cor contritum quasi cinis, gere curam mei finis. While the wicked are confounded, Doomed to flames of woe unbounded, Call me, with thy saints surrounded. Low I kneel, with heart-submission; See, like ashes, my contrition; Help me in my last condition. Lacrimosa dies illa, qua resurget ex favilla judicandus homo reus— huic ergo parce, Deus, Pie Jesu domine, dona eis requiem. Ah, that day of tears and mourning! From the dust of earth returning, Man for judgment must prepare him; Spare, O God, in mercy spare him Lord, all-pitying, Jesu blest, Grant us thine eternal rest! Dies Irae [Day of Wrath] Latin Grammar Aid and Wordlist A COLLECTION OF HYMNS, FOR THE USE OF THE PEOPLE CALLED METHODISTS. BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY SONNET ON HEARING THE DIES IRAE SUNG IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL Oscar Wilde – 1881Dies Irae This name by which the sequence in requiem Masses is commonly known. They are the opening words of the first verse: Dies ir , dies illa. The rubrics af the Roman Missal prescribe the recitation of the sequence by the celebrant on the following occasions: (1) in the Mass of All Souls’ Day (In commemoratione Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum); (2) in funeral Masses (In die obitus seu depositionis defuncti);and (3) whensoever in requiem Masses, only one oratio, or collect, is to be said, namely in the anniversary Mass, and when Mass is solemnly celebrated on the third, the seventh, or the thirtieth (month’s mind) day after death or burial. Its recitation in other requiem Masses (In Missis quotidianis defunctorum) is optional with the celebrant. It should be noted here that the decree of the Congregation of Sacred Rites (12 August, 1854) permitting the choir to omit such stanzas as do not contain a prayer is not included in the new edition of the “Decreta Authentica S. R. C” (Rome, 1898-1900). From this fact may be inferred that the more ancient rule is now in force and that the whole sequence must either be sung by the choir or be “recited” in a high and clear voice with organ accompaniment (cf. American Ecclesiastical Review, August, 1907, p. 201). As found in the Roman Missal, the Dies Ir is a Latin poem of fifty-seven lines in accentual (non-quantitative), rhymed, trochaic metre. It comprises nineteen stanza, of which the first seventeen follow the type of the first stanza: 1. Dies ir , dies illa, Solvet s clum in favilla: Teste David cum Sibyll . The remaining stanzas discard the scheme of triple rhymes in favour of rhymed couplets, while the last two lines use assonance instead of rhyme and are, moreover, catalectic: 18. Lacrimosa dies illa, Qu resurget ex favillft, Judicandus homo reus. 19. Huic ergo parce Deus: Pie Jesu Domine, Dona eis requiem. Amen. Thus the last two stanzas are printed in the typical 1900) edition of the Missal, and in the Ratisbon edition of the plain-chant setting. The Vatican edition (1907) of the plain-chant melody however, apparently takes account of the fact that the last six lines did not, in all probability, originally belong to

the sequence, and divides them into three couplets. This Missal text of the sequence is found, with light verbal variations, in a thirteenth-century manuscript in the Biblioteca. Nazionale at Naples (cf. Haberl, Magister Choralis, Ratisbon, 1900, pp. 237-238). Father Eusebius Clop, O.F.M., in the “Revue du chant Gr gorien” (November-December, 1907, p. 49) argues a date between 1253-1255 for the MS.–a. Franciscan Missal whose calendar does not contain the name of St. Clare, who was canonized in 1255, and whose name would have been inserted if the MS. were later date. The same writer would assign (pp. 48, 49) a still earlier date (1250) to a copy of the Dies Ir inserted at the end of a so-called “Breviary of St. Clare” dating about 1228. Into his arguments it is not necessary to enter here; but it is important to notice that these dates are much anterior to the dates of the MSS. which, until recently, hymnologists had cognizance of when they attempted to fix the probable authorship of the sequence. Thus Mone found none anterior to the fifteenth century; Chevalier mentions only a Magdeburg Missal of 1480 and a MS. Franciscan Misssal of 1477; the first edition of Julian’s “Dictionary of Hymnology” (1892) declared the “oldest form known to the present time” to be found in a Dominican Missal “written at the end of the fourteenth century and apparently for use at Pisa”; Warren, in his “Dies Irae” (London, 1902, p. 5), knows no earlier MS. The second edition of Julian (1907) mentions the Naples MS. in its supplement (p. 1629), but not the “Breviary of St. Clare”. Father Clop describes also a third contemporary MS. (p. 49), Italian, like the others: “Toutes trois enfin appartenant galement la liturgie des Fr res Mineurs”. All this renders very probable the conjecture generally entertained by hym nologists, that the Dies Ir was composed by a Franciscan in the thirteenth century. Its authorship has been most generally ascribed to Thomas of Celano, the friend, fellow-friar, and biographer of St. Francis. Reasons for this particularity of ascription are given by Keyser (Beitr ge zur Geschichte und Erkl rung der alten Kirchenhymnen, Paderborn und M nster, 1886, II, 194-196 and 230-235); also by Duffield (Latin Hymn Writers and Their Hymns, New York, 1889, 245-247), an ardent champion of the ascription to Thomas; also in “The Dolphin” (Nov., 1904, 514-516) which corrects a fundamental error in one of Duffield’s main arguments. Ten other names have been suggested by various writers as the probable author of the Dies Ir : (1) St. Gregory the Great (d. 604); (2) St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153); (3) St. Bonaventure (d. 1274); (4) Cardinal Matthew d’Acquasparta (d. 1302); (5) Innocent III (d. 1216) (6) Thurstan, Archbishop of York (d. 1140); (7) Cardinal Latino Orsini, or Frangipani, a Dominican (d. 1296); (8) Humbert, a general of the Dominicans (d. 1277); (9) Agostino Biella, an Augustinian (d. 1491); (10) Felix Haemmerlein, a priest of Zurich (d. 1457). The ascription to Haemmerlein was due to the discovery, after his death, of a variant text of the sequence among his papers. Its eighteenth and nineteenth stanzas are: 18. Latcrimosa dies illa, Cum resurget ex favill Tamquam ignis ex scintill , 19. Judicandus homo reus: Huic ergo parce, Deus; Esto semper adjutor meus. To these are added five stanzas of the same form. This Haemmerlein text is given by Keyser (op. cit., 211), Warren (op. cit., 11), and by others. Still another text, known as tho “Mantuan Marble” text (first printed in 1594), prefaces the Dies Ir with four similar stanzas, and replaces stanzas 17-19 with the single stanza: Ut consors beatitatis Vivam cum justificatis In vum ternitatis. Daniel gives both texts in his “Thesaurus Hymnologicus” (II, 103-106), except the two concluding stanzas of the Haemmerlein text. Coles (Dies Irae in Thirteen Original Versions, New York, 1868) gives (xv-xxi) both texts together with versified English translation. All of these additional stanzas rather detract from the vigorous beauty of the original hymn, whose oldest known form is, with slight verbal changes, that which is found in the Roman Missal. It appears most likely that this text originally ended with the seventeenth stanza, the first four of the concluding six lines having been found among a series of verses on the responsory “Libera me, Domine” in a MS. of the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century (cf. Mone, Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters, Freiburg im Br., 1863, I, 406). It is quite probable that the sequence was first intended for private devotion and that subsequently the six lines were added to it in order to adapt it to liturgical use. The composer found his Biblical text in Soph. (i. 15, 16): “Dies ir dies illa. … dies tub et clangoris”; and it may be that he obtained a suggestion for his wonderful rhythm (cf. Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, 3rd ed., London, 1874, p, 302, foot-note) from a tenth-century judgment hymn (given in two forms by Dreves, Analecta Hymnica, Leipzig, 1896, XXIII, pp. 53, 54) containing this rhythmized text of Sophonias: Dies ir , dies illa, Dies nebul et turbinis, Dies tub et clangoris, Dies nebulosa, valde, Quando tenebrarum pondus Cadet super peccatores. The sequence has been translated many times in various tongues, the largest recorded number (234) being English renderings. Among the names of those who have given complete or fragmentary translations are those of Crashaw (1646); Dryden (1696); Scott (1805); Macaulay (1819); Father Caswall (1849). Amongst American translators we find Dr. Abraham Coles, a physician of Newark, credited with eighteen versions; W. W. Nevin, with nine; and Rev. Dr. Samuel W. Duffield, with six. Space will not permit here an analysis of the Dies Ir or any quotation of the wealth of eulogy passed upon it by hymnologists of every shade of religious conviction, save fragment from the appreciations of Daniel: “Sacr poeseos summum decus et Ecclesi Latin keimelion est pretiosissimum” (It is the chief glory of sacred poety and the most precious treasure of the Latin Church) ; of Orby Shipley, in the “Dublin Review” of Jan., 1883, who, after enumerating some hymns “which are only not inspired, or which, more truly, are in their degree inspired”, says: “But beyond them all, and before them all, and above them all may, perhaps be placed Dies irae, by Thomas of Celano”; of Coles: “Among gems it is the diamond. It is solitary in its excellence “; of Dr. Schaff: “This marvellous hymn is the acknowledged masterpiece of Latin poetry and the most sublime of all uninspired hymns”; of Dr. Neale: “. . . the Dies ir in its unapproached glory”. JULIAN, Dictionary of Hymnology (Revised ed., London, 1907), 295-301, 1551, 1629, gives very serviceable references, but strangely omits WARREN, Dies Ir (London. 1902), who devotes 170 pages to his theme, prefacing it with references under the heading of Literature of the Dies Ir . To their lists should be added: SHIPLEY, Annus Sanctus (London, 1884); ANON., The Seven Great Hymns of the Medi val Church (New York, 1868); HENRY in The Amer. Ecclesiastical Review (April, 1890), 247-261; IDEM in The Dolphin (November, 1904, to May 1905), an extensive series of articles (144 pages) on the history, literary uses, and translations of the Dies ir : CLOP in Revue du Chant Gr gorien (Nov.-Dec., 1907), 48-53, who discusses the authorship and the plain-song melody of the sequence; JOHNER, A New School of Gregorian Chant (New York, 1906), 116. H.T. HENRY Transcribed by Wm Stuart French, Jr. In Memoriam Wm Stuart French, Sr. From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright 1913 by the Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright 1996 by New Advent, Inc., P.O. Box 281096, Denver, Colorado, USA, 80228. ([email protected]) Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent). This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight, editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e- mail at ([email protected]). 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