"Dies irae" (Ecclesiastical Latin:[ˈdi.esˈi.re]; "the Day of Wrath") is a Latinsequence attributed to eitherThomas of Celano of theFranciscans (1200–1265)[1] or toLatino Malabranca Orsini (d. 1294), lector at theDominicanstudium atSanta Sabina, the forerunner of thePontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (theAngelicum) in Rome.[2] The sequence dates from the 13th century at the latest, though it is possible that it is much older, with some sources ascribing its origin toSt. Gregory the Great (d. 604),Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), orBonaventure (1221–1274).[1]
It is amedieval Latin poem characterized by itsaccentual stress and rhymed lines. Themetre istrochaic. The poem describes theLast Judgment, thetrumpet summoning souls before the throne ofGod, where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved cast into eternal flames.
It is best known from its use in theRoman RiteCatholicRequiem Mass (Mass for the Dead or Funeral Mass). An English version is found in variousAnglican Communion service books.
The first melody set to these words, aGregorian chant, is one of the most quoted in musical literature, appearing in the works of many composers. The final couplet,Pie Jesu, has been often reused as an independent song.
The "Dies irae" has been used in theRoman Riteliturgy as the sequence for the Requiem Mass for centuries, as made evident by the important place it holds in musical settings such as those byMozart andVerdi. It appears in theRoman Missal of 1962, the last edition before the implementation of the revisions that occurred after theSecond Vatican Council. As such, it is still heard in churches where theTridentine Latin liturgy is celebrated. It also formed part of the pre-conciliar liturgy ofAll Souls' Day.
In the reforms to theCatholic Church'sLatin liturgical rites ordered by the Second Vatican Council, the "Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy", the Vatican body charged with drafting and implementing the reforms (1969–70), eliminated the sequence as such from funerals and other Masses for the Dead. A leading figure in the post-conciliar liturgical reforms,ArchbishopAnnibale Bugnini, explained the rationale of the Consilium:
They got rid of texts that smacked of a negative spirituality inherited from theMiddle Ages. Thus they removed such familiar and even beloved texts as"Libera me, Domine", "Dies irae", and others that overemphasized judgment, fear, and despair. These they replaced with texts urging Christian hope and arguably giving more effective expression to faith in theresurrection.[3]
"Dies irae", slightly edited, remains in usead libitum as a hymn in theLiturgy of the Hours onAll Souls' Day and during the last week beforeAdvent, for which it is divided into three parts for theOffice of Readings,Lauds andVespers, with the insertion of adoxology after each part.[4]
In theRoman Catholic Church there was formerly anindulgence of three years for each recitation and a plenary indulgence for reciting the prayer daily for a month.[5] This indulgence was not renewed in the Manual of Indulgences.[6]
The Latin text below is taken from the Requiem Mass in the 1962Roman Missal.[7] The first English version below, translated byWilliam Josiah Irons in 1849,[8] albeit from a slightly different Latin text, replicates the rhyme and metre of the original.[9] This translation, edited for more conformance to the official Latin, is approved by the Catholic Church for use as the funeral Mass sequence in the liturgy of theCatholic ordinariates for former Anglicans.[10] The second English version is a moredynamic equivalence translation.
| Original | Approved adaptation | Dynamic equivalence | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Dies iræ, dies illa, | Day of wrath and doom impending! | |
| II | Quantus tremor est futurus, | Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth, | How great will be the quaking, |
| III | Tuba, mirum spargens sonum | Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth; | |
| IV | Mors stupebit, et natura, | Death is struck, and nature quaking, | Death and nature will marvel, |
| V | Liber scriptus proferetur, | Lo, the book, exactly worded, | The writtenbook will be brought forth, |
| VI | Iudex ergo cum sedebit, | When the Judge his seat attaineth, | When therefore the Judge will sit, |
| VII | Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? | What shall I, frail man, be pleading? | What then shall I, poor wretch [that I am], say? |
| VIII | Rex tremendæ maiestatis, | King of Majesty tremendous, | King of fearsome majesty, |
| IX | Recordare, Iesu pie, | Think, kind Jesu! — my salvation | Remember, merciful Jesus, |
| X | Quærens me, sedisti lassus: | Faint and weary, Thou hast sought me, | Seeking me, You rested, tired: |
| XI | Iuste Iudex ultionis, | Righteous Judge, for sin's pollution | Just Judge of vengeance, |
| XII | Ingemisco, tamquam reus: | Guilty, now I pour my moaning, | I sigh, like the guilty one: |
| XIII | Qui Mariam absolvisti, | Through the sinful woman shriven, | You Who absolvedMary, |
| XIV | Preces meæ non sunt dignæ: | Worthless are my prayers and sighing, | My prayers are not worthy: |
| XV | Inter oves locum præsta, | With Thy sheep a place provide me, | Grant me a place among the sheep, |
| XVI | Confutatis maledictis, | When the wicked are confounded, | Once the cursed have been silenced, |
| XVII | Oro supplex et acclinis, | Low I kneel, with heart's submission, | [Humbly] kneeling and bowed I pray, |
| XVIII | Lacrimosa dies illa, | Ah! that day of tears and mourning, | Tearful [will be] that day, |
| XIX | Pie Iesu Domine, | Lord, all-pitying, Jesus blest, | Merciful Lord Jesus, |
Because the last two stanzas differ markedly in structure from the preceding stanzas, some scholars consider them to be an addition made in order to suit the great poem for liturgical use. The penultimate stanza,Lacrimosa, discards the consistent scheme of rhyming triplets in favour of a pair of rhyming couplets. The last stanza,Pie Iesu, abandons rhyme forassonance, and, moreover, its lines arecatalectic.
In the liturgical reforms of 1969–71, stanza 19 was deleted and the poem divided into three sections: 1–6 (forOffice of Readings), 7–12 (forLauds) and 13–18 (forVespers). In addition,"Qui Mariam absolvisti" in stanza 13 was replaced by"Peccatricem qui solvisti" so that that line would now mean, "You who absolved the sinful woman". This was because modern scholarship denies the common mediæval identification of thewoman taken in adultery with Mary Magdalene, so Mary could no longer be named in this verse. In addition, adoxology is given after stanzas 6, 12 and 18:[4]
| Original | Approved adaptation | Dynamic equivalence |
|---|---|---|
O tu, Deus majestatis, | O God of majesty |
The text of the sequence is found, with slight verbal variations, in a 13th-century manuscript in theBiblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III at Naples. It is aFranciscan calendar missal that must date between 1253 and 1255 for it does not contain the name ofClare of Assisi, who was canonized in 1255, and whose name would have been inserted if the manuscript were of later date.
A major inspiration of the hymn seems to have come from theVulgate translation ofZephaniah 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. (Douay–Rheims Bible) |
Other images come from theBook of Revelation, such asRevelation 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), andLuke 21:26 ("men fainting with fear... they will see the Son of Man coming").
From theJewish liturgy, the prayerUnetanneh Tokef appears to be related: "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 very looseProtestant version was made byJohn 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 will the sinner's heart confound!
Jan Kasprowicz, a Polish poet, wrote a hymn entitled"Dies iræ" which describes theJudgment day. The first six lines (two stanzas) follow the original hymn's metre and rhyme structure, and the first stanza translates to "The trumpet will cast a wondrous sound".
The American writerAmbrose Bierce published a satiric version of the poem in his 1903 bookShapes of Clay, preserving the original metre but using humorous and sardonic language; for example, the second verse is rendered:
Ah! what terror shall be shaping
When the Judge the truth's undraping –
Cats from every bag escaping!
The Rev. Bernard Callan (1750–1804), an Irish priest and poet, translated it into Gaelic around 1800. His version is included in a Gaelic prayer book,The Spiritual Rose.[11]
The words of "Dies iræ" have often been set to music as part of theRequiem service. In some settings, it is broken up into several movements; in such cases, "Dies iræ" refers only to the first of these movements, the others being titled according to their respectiveincipits.
The earliest surviving polyphonic setting of the Requiem byJohannes Ockeghem does not include "Dies iræ". The first polyphonic settings to include the "Dies iræ" are byEngarandus Juvenis (1490) andAntoine Brumel (1516) to be followed by many composers of the renaissance. Later, many notable choral and orchestral settings of the Requiem including the sequence were made by composers such asCharpentier,Delalande,Mozart,Berlioz,Verdi,Britten andStravinsky.Giovanni Battista Martini ended his set of (mostly humorous) 303 canons with a set of 20 on extracts of the sequence poem.[13][14]
The original Gregorian setting, dating back to the 13th century, was a sombreplainchant (orGregorian chant).
It is in theDorian mode.[15] In four-lineneumatic notation, it begins:
In 5-linestaff notation:
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The traditional Gregorian melody gained widespread recognition through its use inBerlioz'sSymphonie fantastique. Since then, it has become associated with themes of death and terror, especially during the 19th century.[16] After Berlioz, it was used as atheme ormusical quotation in many classical compositions, including:
It has also been used in many film scores and popular works, such as:
The full text ofDies Irae (Irons, 1912) at Wikisource
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Di -- es i -- ræ di -- es il -- la,
Sol -- vet sae -- clum in fa -- vil -- la:
Tes -- te Da -- vid cum Si -- byl -- la
}
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