Eternal Rest, a prayer for the dead (Baltimore Manual 1889)
The Catholic prayer asking rest and light for those who have died, known by its Latin opening, Requiem aeternam. It closes the psalms of the Office of the Dead, it is said in the funeral rite itself, and it is prayed on its own for the dead, above all in November, the month that begins with All Souls' Day on 2 November.
English · A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, 1889Checked against a second scanned copy
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
The Catholic Publication Society Co., New York, and Burns and Oates, London, 1889. Published 1889, before 1929, US public domain; its copyright, of 1888, has expired. Retrieved and verified 2026-10-15. Source
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Printed as it stands on page 543 of the 1889 Manual, where it closes Psalm 94, the psalm that opens the Office of the Dead, in the plural. The burial rite in the same book prints it in the singular, "unto him", and there it is the priest's versicle over the body, which is why that form is not the one printed here. The 1910 Raccolta gives an older rendering, "Eternal rest give unto them", as a versicle the faithful may say on their own, three times a day, for the dead.