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Dies irae

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For other uses, see Dies irae (disambiguation).
The Day of Judgement from the centre panel of the Memling Triptych in Gdańsk.

Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath") is a famous thirteenth century Latin hymn thought to be written by Thomas of Celano. It is often judged to be the best medieval Latin poem, differing from classical Latin by its accentual (non-quantitative) stress and its rhymed lines. The meter is trochaic. The poem describes the day of judgment, the last trumpet summoning souls before the throne of God, where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved cast into eternal flames. The hymn was used as a sequence in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass until the 1970 revision of the Roman Missal.

Use in the Catholic liturgy

Those familiar with musical settings of the Requiem Mass—such as those by Mozart or Verdi—will be aware of the important place of the Dies Iræ in the liturgy. Nevertheless it fell foul of the preferences of the "Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy"—the Vatican body charged with implementing (and indeed drafting) the reforms to the Catholic Liturgy ordered by the Second Vatican Council. The architect of these reforms, Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, explains the mind of the members of the Consilium:

They got rid of texts that smacked of a negative spirituality inherited from the Middle Ages. Thus they removed such familiar and even beloved texts as the Libera me, Domine, the Dies Iræ, and others that overemphasized judgment, fear, and despair. These they replaced with texts urging Christian hope and giving more effective expression to faith in the resurrection.[1]

It remained as the sequence for the Requiem Mass in the Roman Missal of 1962 (the last edition before the Second Vatican Council) and so is still heard in churches where the Tridentine Latin liturgy is celebrated.

The "Dies Irae" is still suggested in the Liturgy of the Hours as the opening hymn for the Office of the Dead (divided into three parts).[2]

The Poem

The text as it is printed in the Order of Mass for the Dead in the 1962 Roman Missal, is as follows. The English translation attempts to preserve the trochaic meter of the Latin for the first four stanzas, in a style appropriate for the program for a performance. Later stanzas are translated more literally.[3]

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1
Dies iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla!

2
Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando judex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus!

3
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulchra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.

4
Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
judicanti responsura.

5
Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus judicetur.

6
Judex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit:
nil inultum remanebit.

7
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus,
cum vix justus sit securus?

8
Rex tremendæ majestatis,
qui salvandos salvas gratis,
salva me, fons pietatis.

9
Recordare, Jesu pie,
quod sum causa tuæ viæ:
ne me perdas illa die.

10
Quærens me, sedisti lassus:
redemisti Crucem passus:
tantus labor non sit cassus.

11
Juste judex ultionis,
donum fac remissionis
ante diem rationis.

12
Ingemisco, tamquam reus:
culpa rubet vultus meus:
supplicanti parce, Deus.

13
Qui Mariam absolvisti,
et latronem exaudisti,
mihi quoque spem dedisti.

14
Preces meæ non sunt dignæ:
sed tu bonus fac benigne,
ne perenni cremer igne.

15
Inter oves locum præsta,
et ab hædis me sequestra,
statuens in parte dextra.

16
Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis:
voca me cum benedictis.

17
Oro supplex et acclinis,
cor contritum quasi cinis:
gere curam mei finis.


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1
Day of wrath and terror looming!
Heaven and earth to ash consuming,
David's word and Sibyl's truth foredooming!
    
2
What horror must invade the mind,
when the approaching judge shall find,
and sift the deeds of all mankind.

3
The trumpet casts a wondrous sound,
through the tombs of all around,
making them the throne surround.

4
Death is struck and nature quaking,
all creation is awaking,
to its judge an answer making.

5
The written book shall be brought forth,
in which is contained all
from which the world is to be judged.

6
So when the Judge shall sit,
whatever is hidden shall be seen,
nothing shall remain unpunished.

7
What am I, wretched one, to say,
What protector implore,
when (even) a just person will scarcely be confident?

8
King of tremendous majesty,
you who save gratuitously those to be saved,
save me, fount of pity.

9
Remember, gracious Jesus,
that I am the cause of your journey;
do not let me be lost on that day.

10
Seeking me, you sat exhausted;
you redeemed me by undergoing the Cross;
let so much toil not be in vain.

11
Just judge of vengeance,
grant the gift of forgiveness,
before the day of reckoning'.

12
I groan, as one guilty;
my face is red with shame;
spare, O God, a supplicant.

13
You who forgave Mary [Magdalen],
and heard the plea of the thief [Dismas]
have given hope to me also.

14
My prayers are unworthy;
but you, the Good, show me favour,
that I may not be consumed by eternal fire.

15
Grant me a place among the sheep,
and separate me from the goats,
placing me at your right hand.

16
When the wicked are confounded,
doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
call me with Thy Saints surrounded.

17
Low I kneel, with heart submission!
See, like ashes my contrition!
Help me in my last condition!

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The poem appears complete as it stands at this point. Some scholars question whether the remainder is an addition made in order to suit the great poem for liturgical use, for the last stanzas discard the consistent scheme of triple rhymes in favor of rhymed couplets, while the last two lines abandon rhyme for assonance and are, moreover, catalectic:

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18
Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:

19
Pie Jesu Domine,
dona eis requiem. Amen.


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18
Tearful that day,
on which will rise from ashes
guilty man for judgement.
So have mercy, O God, on this man.

19
Compassionate Lord Jesus,
grant them rest. Amen.

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In 1970 the Dies Iræ was removed from the Missal and since 1971 it is proposed ad libitum as a hymn for the Liturgy of the Hours at the Office of Readings, Lauds and Vespers. For this purpose stanza 19 was deleted and the poem divided into three sections: 1-6 (for the Office of Readings), 7-12 (for Lauds) and 13-18 (for Vespers. In addition "Qui Mariam" in stanza 13 was replaced by "Peccatricem" so that that line would now mean "You who forgave the sinful woman". This is due to modern hesitation to identify Mary Magdalen with the Woman Caught in Adultery (John 7:53-8:11) or the woman who anointed Jesus' feet at Bethany as recorded by Matthew (26:6) and Mark (14:3) - even though in the parallel passage in the Gospel of John (12:2-3) she is named Mary. In addition a doxology is given after stanzas 6,12 and 18[4]:

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18
O tu, Deus majestatis,
alme candor Trinitatis
nos coniunge cum beatis. Amen.


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18
O God of majesty
nourishing light of the Trinity
join us with the blessed. Amen.

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Inspiration and other translations

A major inspiration of the hymn seems to have come from the Vulgate translation of Zephaniah 1:15–16:

Dies iræ, dies illa, dies tribulationis et angustiæ, dies calamitatis et miseriæ, dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nebulæ et turbinis, dies tubæ et clangoris super civitates munitas et super angulos excelsos.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high bulwarks. (Douai Bible)

Other images come from Revelation 20:11–15 (the book from which the world will be judged), Matthew 25:31–46 (sheep and goats, right hand, contrast between the blessed and the accursed doomed to flames), 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (trumpet), 2 Peter 3:7 (heaven and earth burnt by fire), Luke 21:26–27 ("men fainting with fear ... they will see the Son of Man coming"), etc.

From the Jewish liturgy, the prayer Unetanneh Tokef also appears to have been a source: "We shall ascribe holiness to this day, For it is awesome and terrible"; "the great trumpet is sounded", etc.

A number of English translations of the poem have been written and proposed for liturgical use. A Franciscan version can be read here. A very loose Protestant version was made by John Newton; it opens:

Day of judgment! Day of wonders!
Hark! the trumpet's awful sound,
Louder than a thousand thunders,
Shakes the vast creation round!
How the summons wilt the sinner's heart confound!

Another translation from 1848, entitled Day of Wrath, O Day of Mourning by William Irons, appears in many hymnals; the first two verses are:

Day of wrath, O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophet’s warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning.
Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth
When from heav'n the Judge descendeth
On whose sentence all dependeth!

Jan Kasprowicz, a Polish poet, wrote a hymn entitled Dies irae which describes the Judgement day. The first six lines (two stanzas) follow the original hymn's meter and rhyme structure, and the first stanza translates to "The trumpet will cast a wondrous sound".

Manuscript sources

The oldest text of the sequence is found, with slight verbal variations, in a 13th century manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples. It is a Franciscan calendar missal that must date between 1253–1255 for it does not contain the name of Clare of Assisi, who was canonized in 1255, and whose name would have been inserted if the manuscript were of later date.

Musical settings

The hymn music, with the words of the first stanza, is provided here:

The Dies Irae appears as this melody in musical notation.
The Dies Irae appears as this melody in musical notation.

The words have often been set to music as part of the Requiem service, originally as a sombre plainchant. It also formed part of the traditional Catholic liturgy of All Souls Day. Music for the Requiem mass is composed by many composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi and Hector Berlioz.

The traditional Gregorian melody has also been quoted in a number of other classical compositions, among them:

Literary references

  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe used the first, the sixth and the seventh stanza of the hymn in the scene "Cathedral" in the first part of his drama Faust.
  • Italian poet Giuseppe Giusti composed in 1835 the satirical poem Il "Dies iræ" on the occasion of the death of Francis II, Emperor of Austria.
  • Oscar Wilde composed a Sonnet on Hearing the Dies Irae Sung in the Sistine Chapel, contrasting the "terrors of red flame and thundering" depicted in the hymn with images of "life and love".
  • Ambrose Bierce wrote a poem titled A day of wrath which, while following the structure of the hymn, gives a very free interpretation of it.[6]
  • T.S. Eliot uses Dies Irae in the final part of Murder in the Cathedral just before the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket. It is to be sung in Latin by a distant choir.
  • Kurt Vonnegut wrote Stones, Time, & Elements - A Humanist Requiem in opposition to the classical Requiem and in particular to the "Dies Irae", which he found "vengeful and sadistic" (and mistakenly reputed a "piece of poetry by committee from the Council of Trent"). His Requiem was set to music by Edgar David Grana.
  • Jonathon Larson used the first four words of Dies Irae in the song "La Vie Boheme," from the musical RENT, spoken by philosophy scholar Tom Collins.
  • Anne Rice used the first stanza and first line of the second stanza in her novel, The Vampire Armand, with a slightly different translation than given above.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Annibale Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy : 1948–1975, (The Liturgical Press, 1990), Chap.46.II.1, p.773.
  2. ^ Liturgia Horarum IV, (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000), p.489.
  3. ^ There are many alternative English translations on the Internet, such as this one, and on the full Requiem page.
  4. ^ Liturgia Horarum IV, (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000), p.489.
  5. ^ Zadan, Craig (1989). Sondheim & Co. 2nd edition. Perennial Library. pp. p.248. ISBN 0-06-091400-9. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ The text of Bierce's A day of wrath
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