MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Prayer — Liturgical & Canticle

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Dies Irae

Day of Wrath

Mid-13th century; traditionally attributed to Thomas of Celano (c. 1200–c. 1265)

The 13th-century sequence of the Last Judgment — for centuries sung at every Requiem Mass — attributed to the Franciscan Thomas of Celano.

The Prayer · Multiple Versions
Latin · Original
Dies irae, dies illa,
solvet saeclum in favilla,
teste David cum Sibylla.

Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando iudex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus.

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

Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
iudicanti responsura.

Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus iudicetur.

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

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

Rex tremendae maiestatis,
qui salvandos salvas gratis,
salva me, fons pietatis.

Recordare, Iesu pie,
quod sum causa tuae viae:
ne me perdas illa die.

[…continued in 19 strophes, ending:]

Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
iudicandus homo reus:
huic ergo parce, Deus.

Pie Iesu Domine,
dona eis requiem.
Amen.
English
Day of wrath, that day of mourning,
earth in flaming ashes burning:
seer's and Sibyl's voice forewarning!

What dread terror's expectation,
when the Judge comes for sensation:
strictly searching every nation!

Wondrous trumpet, sounding splendid,
through the tombs by earth distended,
summons all before His throne to be amended.

Death shall stand, all stupefacted;
Nature gaze where graves are vacated,
rising for what they enacted.

From the book the word is taken,
in which all things stand unshaken;
from which judgment shall awaken.

Then the Judge shall sit revealing
every hidden thing, requesting
recompense for sin uneasing.

What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Whom for intercessor needing,
when the just my prayer is heeding?

King of awful majesty,
who dost grant the saved redemption:
save me, fount of all compassion!

Think, dear Jesus, of my deserving:
for my sake thy way preserving;
cast me not on that day deserving.

[…continuing in 19 strophes, ending:]

Full of tears that day distressing,
when, from ashes upward pressing,
guilty man shall stand confessing:
then, O God, vouchsafe a blessing.

Gracious Lord Jesus,
grant them rest. Amen.
When the Prayer is Said

In the traditional Roman Rite at every Requiem Mass; in the post-Vatican-II Liturgy of the Hours, an optional sequence in the 34th week of Ordinary Time (the final week before Advent). Used in concert performance in major Romantic and modern Requiem settings.

History & Background

The Dies Irae is traditionally attributed to the Franciscan friar Thomas of Celano (c. 1200–c. 1265) — the first biographer of St. Francis of Assisi.

The text — a 19-strophe meditation on the Last Judgment, drawing on the imagery of Joel 2, Zephaniah 1, the Apocalypse, and the synoptic Gospels — entered the Roman Missal as the obligatory sequence of the Requiem Mass (the Mass for the Dead) and remained there from the 14th century until the 1969 Vatican II revisions, which moved it from the Requiem to an optional position in the Liturgy of the Hours in the final week before Advent.

It is one of the most-set Latin texts in the history of music: Mozart's Requiem (1791), Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts (1837), Verdi's Requiem (1874), Britten's War Requiem (1962), and dozens of other major settings preserve the medieval text. The opening Gregorian chant melody is instantly recognized in numerous Romantic-era orchestral works (most famously Liszt's Totentanz).

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