Acatafalque is a raisedbier, box, or similar platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket,coffin, or body of a dead person during aChristian funeral or memorial service.[1] Following aRoman CatholicRequiem Mass, a catafalque may be used to stand in place of the body at theabsolution of the dead or used during Masses of the Dead andAll Souls' Day.[2]
According toPeter Stanford the term originates from theItaliancatafalco, which meansscaffolding.[3] However, theOxford English Dictionary says the word is "[o]f unknown derivation; even the original form is uncertain; French pointing to-fald- or-falt-, Italian to-falc-, Spanish to-fals." The most notable Italian catafalque was the one designed forMichelangelo by his fellow artists in 1564.[4] An elaborate and highly decorated roofed surround for a catafalque,[5] common for grand funerals of theBaroque era, may be called acastrum doloris.
Large processions have followed the catafalques ofpopes. The households of the cardinals carried the catafalque ofPope Sixtus V in 1590. The bier, decorated with gold cloth, was followed by "confraternities,religious orders, students of seminaries and colleges, orphans andmendicants".[6] In 1963, a million people filed past the catafalque ofPope John XXIII, which had been carried in procession toSt. Peter's Basilica in Rome.[7]In Catholic Liturgy, the catafalque is either an empty casket or a wooden form made to look like a casket that is covered by the black pall and surrounded by six unbleached (orange) candles (when they are available); it is a symbolic representation of the deceased or a monument erected to represent the faithful departed. When it is present, the priest sings the absolution for the deceased as if the body was present.
Other than religious leaders such as popes, famous people have lain in state or been carried in procession to their burial place on a catafalque.
Thirteen years after his death, the remains ofVoltaire were transferred on a catafalque to thePanthéon in Paris, a building dedicated to the great men of the French nation. It bore the inscription: "Poet, philosopher, historian, he made a great step forward in the human spirit. He prepared us to become free."[8]
TheLincoln catafalque,[9] first used for United States PresidentAbraham Lincoln's funeral in 1865, has been used for all those who havelain in state in theCapitol Rotunda since Lincoln's death, the most recent of which were Capitol Police OfficerBilly Evans on April 13, 2021, and U.S. SenatorBob Dole on December 9, 2021. It has recently been used at the state funeral forJimmy Carter in the Capitol rotunda in January 2025. It was later moved to the portico of the Court for public viewing. When not in use, the catafalque is kept on display in the Exhibition Hall at theUnited States Capitol Visitor Center. Commentators noted that the structure of the original pine timbers and boards has been reinforced, albeit being left "original".[10]
