DEAD
G.W
DEAD
ably the familiar spectacle of Catholic nuns lias .leous-
tomed the people to the idea of a conimiinity life for
women.
Permaneder and Hundhauskn in Kirchcjitrx., Ill, lfi75- 1692: Kraus, R. Eiicyc d. Christ. Allcrlhum.. s. v. Diakonis- sen, I, 358-361: and Vidim, II, 947-951: Hefele-Leclerc. Candles (Paris, 1907), I, 615 sq., and especially II, 447-452, where the subject is treated very fully, but not without inac- curacies; Onslow in Did. Christ. Aniiq., s. v. Deaconess; WoBnswoHTH. The Mini-ilry of Grace (London, 1901), 264-282; Robinson, The Ministn/ of Dracomss,:-: (London. 1898); ScHAFER, Die Weib. Diakonie (Hamburg. 1.SS7-1S94): Zschar- NACK, Dien-tl der Fratt in d. erst. Christ. Jahrh. (Gottingen, 1902); GoLTZ, Dienst der Fran in d. Christ. Kirche (Leipzig, 1905); AcHEUsin R. E. f. Prot. Theol.. IV, 616-620; Reville.Lc Role des Veuves etc. Bibliotheque dcs Hautcs Etudes et Sciences Religieuses. V, 231-251; Church Quarlcrhj Review (1899).
Herbert Thurston. Dead, Baptlsm for the. See B.\ptism.
Dead, Prayers for the. — This subject will be treated under the following three heads: I. General Statement and Proof of Catholic Doctrine ; II. Ques- tions of Detail; III. Practice in the British and Irish Churches.
I. General St.\tement and Proof. — Catholic teaching regarding prayers for the dead is bound up insiparably with the doctrine of purgatory (q. v.) and thi' more general doctrine of the communion of saints iq- v.), which is an article of the Apostles' Creed. The lirlinition of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV), "that iMii^atorj' exists, and that the souls detained therein aiv helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but espec- iilly by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar", is merely a I'Ntatement in brief of the traditional teaching \vliirli hiiil already been embodied in more than one MUiliiiritative fiirnmla — as in the creed prescribed for r(iii\erted Waklen.ses by Innocent III in 1210 (Den- /iiiiier, Enchiridion, n. 373) and more fully in the I I' ifi'ssion of faith accepted for the Greeks by Michael I'ala-ologus at the Second fficumenieal Council of Lm.iis in 1274 (ibid., n. 387). The words of this pi'ife.ssion are reproduced in the decree of union sub- -' rilii'd by the Greeks and Latins at the Council of I Inrcnce in 1439: "[We define] likewise, that if the t rii!y penitent die in the love of God, before they have iiimIi- satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for ilieir sins of commission and omission, their souls are purified by purgatorial pains after death; and that f " relief from those pains they are benefited by the r iges of the faithful in this life, that is, by Masses, •rs and almsgiving, and by the other offices of , ;,• usually performed by the faithful for one another ai'ording to the practice [institula] of the Church" 1 1 lid., n. 588). Hence, under "suffrages" for the (i- I.I, which are defined to be legitimate and effica- -. are included not only formal supplications, but i- kind of pious work that may be offered for the . 1 .iitual benefit of others, and it is in this comprehen- sive sense that we speak of prayers in the present arti- cle. As is clear from this general statement, the ( 'hurcli does not recognize the limitation upon which even modern Protestants often insist, that prayers for the dead, while legitimate and commendable as a private practice, are to be excluded from her public offices. The most efficacious of all prayers, in Catholic teach- ing, is the essentially public office, the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Coming to the proof of this doctrine, we find, in the first place, that it is an integral part of the great gen- eral truth which we name the communion of saints. Tliis truth is the counterpart in the supernatural order of the natural law of human solidarity. Men are not isolated units in the life of grace, any more than in domestic and civil life. As children in Christ's King- dom they are as one family under the loving I'ather- hood of God; as members of Christ's my.stic;d body they are incorporated not only with Him, their com- mon Head, but with one another, and this not merely by visible social bonds and external co-operation, but
by the invisible bonds of mutual love and sympathy,
and by effective co-operation in the inner life of grace.
Each is in some degree the beneficiary of the spiritual
activities of the others, of their prayers and good
works, their merits and satisfactions; nor is this de-
gree to be wholly measured by those indirect ways in
which the law of solidarity works out in other cases,
nor by the conscious and explicit altruistic intentions of
individual agents. It is wider than this, and extends
to the bounds of the mysterious. Now, as between
the living, no Christian can deny the reality of this
far-reaching spiritual communion; and since death,
for those who die in faith and grace, does not sever
the bonds of this communion, why should it interrupt
its efficacy in the case of the dead, and shut them
out from benefits of which they are capable and may
be in need? Of very few can it be hoped that they
have attained perfect holiness at death; and none but
the perfectly holy are admitted to the vision of God.
Of few, on the other hand, will they at least who love
them admit the despairing thought that they are be-
yond the pale of grace and mercy, and condemned to
eternal separation from God and from all w'ho hope to
be with God. On this ground alone it has been truly
said that purgatory is a postulate of the Christian
reason; and, granting the existence of the purgatorial
state, it is equally a postulate of the Christian reason
that the souls in purgatory should continue to share
in the communion of saints, or, in other words, be
helped by the prayers of their brethren on earth and in
heaven. Christ is King in purgatory as well as in
heaven and on earth, and He cannot be deaf to our
prayers for our loved ones in that part of His Kingdom,
whom He also loves while He chastises them. For
our own consolation as well as for theirs we ivant to
believe in this living intercourse of charity with our
dead. We would believe it without explicit warrant
of Revelation, on the strength of what is otherwise re-
vealed and in obedience to the promptings of reason
and natural affection. Indeed, it is largely for this
re;ison that Protestants in growing numbers are giving
up to-day the joy-killing doctrine of the Reformers,
and reviving Catholic teaching and practice. As we
shall presently see, there is no clear and explicit war-
rant for prayers for the dead in the Scriptures recog-
nized by Protestants as canonical, while they do not
admit the Divine authority of extra-Scriptural tradi-
tion. Catholics are in a better position.
Arguments from Scripture. — Omitting some pas- sages in the Old Testament which are sometimes in- voked, but which are too vague and uncertain in their reference to be urged in proof (v. g. Tobias, iv, 18; Ecclus., vii, 37; etc.), it is enough to notice here the classical passage in II Machabees, xii, 40-46. When Judas and his men came to take away for burial the bodies of their brethren who had fallen in the battle against Gorgias, "they found imder the coats of the slain some of the donaries of the idols of Jainnia, which the law forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all plainly saw-, that for this cause they were slain. Then they all bles.sed the just judgment of the Lord, who had discovered the things that were hidden. And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten . . . And making a gathering, he [Judas] sent twelve [al. two] thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the .sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection (for if he had not hoped" that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfiuous and vain to pniy for the dead), and because he considered that they who had fallen asleep in godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and w'holcsome thought to pr.ay for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." For Catholics who accept this book as canonical, this pas- sage leaves nothing to be desired. The inspired au-
