The Eternal Rest Prayer for the Dead in Full, Line by Line

Where the words come from. They are older than any prayer book. They come from a book called 2 Esdras (in the Latin Bible, 4 Esdras), where a prophet tells the nations: “look for your Shepherd, he shall give you everlasting rest … for the everlasting light shall shine upon you for evermore” (2 Esdras 2:34–35, King James Apocrypha). In Latin the two phrases are requiem aeternitatis and lux perpetua.

2 Esdras is not one of the books of the Catholic Bible; it was kept in an appendix to the Latin Vulgate so that it would not be lost. The Church did not take these words as Scripture. She took them as the right words to pray, and set them at the opening of the Mass for the dead, which is still called the Requiem after its first Latin word. The Roman Missal of 1970 kept them as the first entrance antiphon of the Masses for the dead.

“May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed…” This closing verse is an old Latin versicle, Fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace, (“May the souls of the faithful, through the mercy of God, rest in peace”); its fuller form, “his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed”, closes the old Requiem prayers at the coffin. It widens the prayer from the people you love to everyone who has died in faith, including those no one remembers. At a Catholic burial today the minister still closes the prayers at the grave with both: the Eternal Rest as versicle and response, then this verse (Order of Christian Funerals, Rite of Committal).

For one person, eis (“them”) becomes ei (“him” or “her”) and Requiescant becomes Requiescat. “Aeternam” is often printed “æternam”; it is the same word.

The traditional English keeps the older “unto” and “upon”, the way Catholics have said it for generations. Some newer books put it in plainer modern English. It is the same prayer.

So the Eternal Rest is not a prayer of fear. It is a prayer of hope, said in the hope that God is bringing them home. From the beginning, the Catechism says, the Church “has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them” (CCC 1032), above all by offering the Mass. That is why Catholics ask a priest to offer a Mass for someone who has died: it is the greatest prayer the Church has.

We do not pray because we know where a person stands before God; no one knows that but God. We pray because love does not end at a grave, and because the dead remain part of one family with us in the communion of saints. The Catechism adds something consoling: our prayer for them is “capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective” (CCC 958). For a longer prayer for the souls in purgatory, there is the St. Gertrude prayer.

The usual conditions apply: sacramental confession, Holy Communion and a prayer for the Pope’s intentions, with no attachment to any sin, even venial (norm 20 §1). A plenary indulgence can be gained once a day (norm 18 §1). One confession is enough for several; Communion and the prayer for the Pope go with each one. If you cannot meet every condition, the same visit and prayer still carry a partial indulgence for them (norm 20 §4). Do not stay away for fear of getting it wrong. In 2020 and 2021, because of the pandemic, the cemetery indulgence was allowed on any day of November; that was a decree for those years, not the standing rule.

On any day of the year, praying the Eternal Rest devoutly carries a partial indulgence, again for the souls in purgatory only. So does visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead. An indulgence is not a payment. It is the Church’s prayer joined to yours, and all it asks of you is a heart turned to God. What “plenary” does and does not mean is on plenary indulgences explained.

At a grave. Stand or kneel, make the Sign of the Cross, and say it slowly, once. Many people say it three times, or add an Our Father and a Hail Mary. If you have brought a candle or flowers, they say the same thing in another way. From November 1 to 8, this same visit can be offered for them as the plenary indulgence above.

At a funeral or a wake. The Eternal Rest is the one prayer nearly everyone in the room knows. If you are asked to lead a short prayer at a wake, at the end of a Rosary, or beside the coffin, it is enough on its own. You do not need to find words of your own when there are none.

On hearing of a death. Many Catholics say it the moment they hear the news, under their breath, even about a stranger in the paper. It takes ten seconds.

At night. An old habit is to end night prayers with the Eternal Rest for “all the faithful departed”, and then for the people you have lost by name. Every year from November 2 to 8, the AngelGuard app opens seven nights for those you have lost: one candle each night, and a narrated prayer with the words beside you, so that you can pray along.

When it is your own grief. If the death is recent, you may find you cannot get through even these four lines. Then say the name, and “eternal rest”, and stop. That is a whole prayer, and God hears it. When you need prayers for yourself, not only for them, there is a prayer for grief. And the psalm the Church has prayed longest for the dead is Psalm 130, the De profundis. A printable set of prayers for a graveside or a funeral, with room for the names of your dead, is on Catholic prayers for the dead.

The best known are concert works. Mozart was writing his Requiem when he died in December 1791, and it was finished by his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Verdi wrote his in 1874 in memory of the novelist Alessandro Manzoni. Gabriel Fauré’s gentle Requiem leaves out the fearful Dies irae and ends with In paradisum, “May the angels lead you into paradise”. Maurice Duruflé built his of 1947 on the old chant melodies. Brahms’s German Requiem is the exception: it sets German Bible verses, not the Latin Mass.

The Latin settings open with the words on this page. When you pray the Eternal Rest, you are saying the same thing these choirs sing.