"Dies Irae". The Sequence In A Requiem Mass.

"Dies Irae".

The Sequence in a Requiem Mass

(Mass for the Dead).

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/Dlr90NLDp-0.

"Dies Irae" (Day of Wrath) is a Latin Hymn, attributed to either Thomas of Celano, of the Franciscan Order (1200 – circa 1265), or to Latino Malabranca Orsini († 1294), Lector at the Dominican Studium, at Santa Sabina, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, The Angelicum, in Rome.

The Hymn dates from at least the 13th-Century, though it is possible that it is much older, with some sources ascribing its origin to Saint Gregory the Great († 604 A.D.), Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153), or Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274).

It is a Mediaeval Latin Poem, characterised by its accentual stress and its rhymed lines. The metre is trochaic. The Poem describes the Day of Judgment, the Last Trumpet summoning Souls before the Throne of God, where the Saved will be delivered and the Damned cast into Eternal Flames.

The Hymn is best known from its use as a Sequence in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass (Mass for the Dead, or Funeral Mass). It also continues to form part of the Traditional Liturgy for All Souls' Day (Feast Day 2 November). An English version is found in various Anglican Communion Service Books.